Former Washington Post colleagues Glenn Kessler and Jen Rubin reunited on August 4 on Rubin’s The Contrarian podcast to discuss Kessler’s departure from the Post’s Fact Checker page. During their conversation, Kessler would unleash three headscratchers: that he fact-checked Republicans more because they are in power, a historically incorrect warning about going back to the 19th century media model, and the claim that Democrats are the party disadvantaged by the current media landscape.
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Later in the show, Rubin wondered, “What’s the solution to the, you know, imbalance in truth-telling? Does the press just have to report it as it is and let the chips fall where they may? Do we need a different model of reporting, maybe going back to the 19th century when there used to be very opinionated papers? This notion of objectivity, you know, didn't really arise until the 20th century, people would be surprised to know. What's your solution to this conundrum?”
After a digression about AI, Kessler reached back 127 years and recalled, “It’s not like the news coverage was all that great in the 19th century. I mean, the US went to war against [Spain], you know, and seized Cuba—Cuba and the Philippines based on, you know, ginned-up fake news. You know, what's the, I don't know if this is made up in a movie or not… “You deliver the prose, I’ll deliver the war.’”
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. Nick Kangadis
. steve malzberg
