Kessler, who faced criticism for left-wing bias, left the Washington Post last week
Former Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler admitted on Tuesday that the paper relies heavily on a liberal readership, warning that owner Jeff Bezos’s efforts to shift its editorial stance in a more bipartisan direction could alienate its core audience.
“The Post‘s liberal columnists generated huge traffic—that’s because of the liberal slant of the readership—and now they’ve all quit,” Kessler wrote on Substack, just days after he left the paper. “Every day, I checked the daily traffic numbers and, year over year, it was like being on a waterslide—with no bottom.”
“While it would be great to get a more balanced mix of liberal and conservative readers,” Kessler went on, “I didn’t understand how one could attract conservative readers (who have their choice of many right-wing news sites besides Fox) without alienating existing readers.”
Bezos in February announced plans for the paper’s opinion section to defend “personal liberties and free markets,” resulting in the loss of 75,000 subscribers and the resignations of opinion editor David Shipley and liberal columnist Jonathan Capehart.
Kessler, who ran the Post‘s Fact Checker column for 14 years, has long faced scrutiny over partisan bias, especially in his “Pinocchio” rating system. While billed as a neutral arbiter of truth, the system often hammered Republican figures while downplaying or defending inaccurate claims by Democrats.
Last June, for example, Kessler dismissed videos of then-president Joe Biden appearing confused as “misleading,” saying the clips used “deceptive framing.” Some of Biden’s own advisers have now admitted that the former president was confused during his term, with former chief of staff Ron Klain telling author Chris Whipple that Biden was “fatigued, befuddled, and disengaged” during debate prep sessions. During President Donald Trump’s first administration, Kessler repeatedly promoted the “Russiagate” hoax that falsely accused Trump of collusion with Russia.
The Post, meanwhile, was reeling from financial struggles and an exodus of top talent even before Bezos’s February announcement.
More than 250,000 Post readers canceled their subscriptions after Bezos in October blocked the editorial board’s endorsement of then-Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, and several high-profile journalists left the paper.
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