Glenn Kessler Rightly Gets Kicked All Over Twitter – By AOC and Others – For ‘Fact-Check’ of 10-Year-Old Rape Victim Story

Tommy ChristopherJul 14th, 2022, 11:01 am
 

Glenn Kessler Rightly Gets Kicked All Over Twitter - By AOC and Others - For 'Fact-Check' of 10-Yr-Old Rape Victim Story

Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler got kicked all over Twitter by the likes of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over his “fact check” of the now-confirmed story of a 10-year-old girl who sought abortion care after being raped. He didn’t get kicked hard enough, in my view.

Two weeks ago, Dr. Caitlin Bernard told Shari Rudavsky and Rachel Fradette of The Indianapolis Star that a pregnant 10-year-old girl — referred to her by a child abuse doctor — was one of a crush of patients seeking abortions from states that have banned the procedure following the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which effectively overturned Roe v. Wade.

Much has been made over the fact that Fox News personalities and other conservatives either outright called the story “fake” or otherwise cast doubt on it — a din that reached a fever pitch after President Joe Biden referenced Dr. Bernard’s story in a speech, and said “Does anyone believe that it’s the highest majority view that that should not be able to be dealt with, or in any other state in the nation? A 10-year-old girl should be forced to give birth to a rapist’s child? I can tell you what: I don’t. I can’t think of anything as much more extreme.”

Now that news has broken that a man has confessed to the rape in question, those outlets and personalities have failed to apologize, instead devoting themselves to finding creative ways to double down.

And then there’s Kessler, who published a “Fact-Checker” column that unfairly cast doubt on the story. Without getting into a thorough fisking of the column, the mere premise of it was fatally flawed.

Headlined “A one-source story about a 10-year-old and an abortion goes viral,” the article repeatedly and forcefully creates the impression that the journalism in the original story was lacking, without providing responsible contextual analysis. This wasn’t a single anonymous unattributed source, it was a doctor who went on the record and — most crucially, and never pointed out by Kessler — had literally given all of the information federal law would allow.

Absent actual evidence of deception, the story was as solid as it could possibly have been. Given the fraught nature of interrogating women and girls who have been sexually assaulted, Kessler’s editors probably should have insisted he meet some burden of proof that the story could be false before even publishing a piece that wound up building the case for doubting it. Instead, it became the basis for a campaign to discredit the story.

Since the news of the rapist’s confession broke, Kessler has been defending himself on Twitter — while also telling Twitter users he totally doesn’t care what they say.

“The last line of this fact check was: ‘If a rapist is ever charged, the fact finally would have more solid grounding.’ Now, a rapist has been charged and the story has been updated. Getting lots of angry emails but journalism is an accumulation of facts,” Kessler wrote, then added, “And fyi, for more than a year I have had a policy of not reading notifications. It’s made life on this toxic platform much easier. So if you are screaming at @GlennKesslerWP I’m not hearing it. I do respond to thoughtful or provocative emails, though.”

AOC was among the many blue-checks — myself included — who weren’t buying what Kessler was selling. You can consider this an endorsement of these sentiments:

As a journalist, Kessler has a duty to the truth that includes avoiding the harm caused by subjecting the truth to unreasonable tests — and casting unreasonable doubt on it in the process.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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