GLENN KESSLER CAN GO TO HELL

As of yesterday, Gershon Fuentes has been charged with raping (twice!) And impregnating a 10-year-old Ohio girl, whose travel to Indiana to seek an abortion led to international attention following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade and activation of Ohio's abortion law. He confessed to raping the child on at least two occasions. He's since been charged with rape, a felony of the first degree in Ohio and is now being held on a $2 million bond.

Columbus police reported that they were made aware of the girl's pregnancy through a referral by Franklin County Children Services that was made by her mother on June 22 and that on June 30, the girl underwent a medical abortion in Indianapolis, Detective Jeffrey Huhn testified Wednesday morning at Fuentes' arraignment.

On July 8, the Indianapolis Star reported that a 10-year-old rape victim had been forced to travel from Ohio to Indiana to receive an abortion. The trip was necessary because of the Supreme Court's decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion. Shortly after the Supreme Court's ruling, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) issued an executive order putting into force a 2019 law that banned nearly all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. The 10-year-old was reportedly six weeks and three days pregnant.

There was never any reason to doubt the accuracy of this story. The lead reporter was Shari Rudavsky, who has been the Health and Medical Reporter at the Indianapolis Star for 18 years. Rudavsky's source for the story was Dr. Caitlin Bernard, the Indianapolis obstetrician- gynecologist who performed the procedure. Bernard told Rudavsky she received the referral from "a child abuse doctor in Ohio."

It was a harrowing example of the implications of the Supreme Court decision, which imposed additional trauma on a young girl who had been assaulted. But instead of grappling with the impacts of Ohio's law, right-wing media and political figures attacked Bernard's credibility and Rudavsky's reporting methods.

A right wing smear campaign against Bernard and Rudavsky originated with a viral Twitter thread by Megan Fox, who works for the far-right website PJ Media. Fox's thread was retweeted by right-wing personalities like Benny Johnson and Adam Baldwin.

But it was mainstreamed by Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post's "fact checker."

Megan Fox publicly accused Kessler of stealing her work without credit.

Kessler derided Rudavsky's report as being based merely on an "anecdote" from one source and e chastised her for not responding to "a query asking whether additional sourcing was obtained." The Indianapolis Star did respond to Kessler on Rudavsky's behalf, correctly asserting that the sourcing for the story was clear.

Kessler did not acknowledge that many papers, including the Washington Post, publish stories based on anonymous sources, which are inherently less unreliable.

Kessler stated that anyone who knew about the rape of a 10-year-old would have to report it to child welfare authorities in Ohio, but Bernard would not provide details about the location of the incident. So he took matters into his own hands. "As a spot check, we contacted child services agencies in some of Ohio’s most populous cities, including Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo. None of the officials we reached were aware of such a case in their areas."

Kessler's report was quickly absorbed into the Fox News echo system as further proof that the story was a lie.

The incident was, in fact, reported to Franklin County Children Services on June 22. After Fuentes was arrested, Kessler updated his story, noting that he also contacted Franklin County Children Services but did not hear back.

Kessler’s alleged “job” is to identify errors by others. He did not acknowledge his own mistake in questioning a story that was completely true. Instead, after news of the arrest and confession came out, Kessler said that whether the Indiannaplis Star should have gotten a second source was "beyond the purview of the Fact Checker."

This is not the first time this literal-minded self-righteous moron has done this. And not the first time he’s refused to own his own shit.

Following Kessler’s “confirmation” that the report was “unfactual,” the right wing slime machine went into overdrive.

An editorial published in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday evening (of the same day Kessler’s “acdcusation” appeared in the Washington Post) called Rudavsky's report a "fanciful tale" that was "too good to confirm." Ignoring Bernard's first-hand account, the editorial claimed there is "no evidence the girl exists." The WSJ editorialists (who are specifically hired by the Murdoch-owned paper for being the Faux Snoozy morons they are) suggested Bernard perpetrated a hoax because she has "a long history of abortion activism in the media."

On Fox News, Tucker Carlson, Fox News' top host, flatly asserted that the story of the 10-year-old girl who had to travel to Indiana to get an abortion was "not true."

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost appeared on Jesse Watters Primetime (for those not keeping score, Watters is the offensive scumbag who used to do “ambush” interviews for victims of Bill O’Lielly) to attack the Indianapolis Star report. "We have regular contact with prosecutors and local police and sheriffs — not a whisper anywhere," Yost said. In a subsequent interview with USA Today, Yost said that there was "not a damn scintilla of evidence" to support the story, which he described as a likely "fabrication." Watters himself concluded that the story "fits a pretty dangerous pattern of politically timed disinformation."

The New York Post, which, like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, is owned by Rupert Murdoch, published a piece by law “professor” Jonathan Turley under the headline "Activist tale of 10-year-old rape victim’s abortion looks like a lie."

Following Fuentes' arrest, Yost released a statement that did not acknowledge his error or apologize for smearing Bernard and Rudavsky on national television.

Jim Jordan, who never reported any of the information given him by the athletes at Ohio State he was charged with protection regarding the sexual crimes of his boss, originally slimed this report to his twitter followers, joining the pack of far right jackals. After Fuentes was arrested, Jordan simply deleted his tweet, offering no apology or acknowledgment of his error.

It’s not surprising that so many people on the right were eager to push the idea that Bernard's story was a lie. If they acknowledged the story was true they would have to answer this question: Do you believe that a 10-year-old rape victim should be forced to give birth?

Last night, Tucker Carlson was quick to point out reports that Fuentes is an undocumented immigrant. (UPDATE: Fauz Snooze is now pushing the “fact” that the victim is an “illegal alien” who has lived here seven years - so it’s just “all them illegals”. At this point, I just want to take a baseball bat to all of them.)

Isn’t it nice to have serious publications like the Washington Post and the New York Times to go out and show us how the right wing is a collection of liars and criminal grifters?

How many pinocchios does Kessler deserve?

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