Glenn Kessler was kind enough to reply to my email about his own financial situation, which I asked about earlier. He does not have a trust fund. I am reprinting his email (with his permission):
Well, my background probably sounds more wealthy than it is. Certainly not in the Romney realm!
I would always disclose any potential conflict. If I ever wrote about an issue concerning Royal Dutch Shell, for instance, I would note I own shares in that company and have a family history with the company.
Re your question, I do not benefit from a trust fund, let alone one that benefits from tax loopholes.
I don’t agree with a lot of what Kessler writes as a fact checker, but I applaud his responsiveness here.
jwb
So being a blogger for BJ gives you sufficient standing to get an answer out of Glenn Kesslerāgood to file that tidbit away.
kdaug
Good on ya, Glenn.
Now get back to work.
Elizabelle
Problem is, who knows what “the Romney realm” is? We are all just guessing. Including Glenn Kessler.
But good on Kessler for answering you directly.
MattF
Well, good for Glenn. Do you think a polite request to ‘use your brain’ would be effective?
DougJ
@jwb:
I doubt he knows who I am, I just him an email linking to my earlier post, not saying I wrote it.
Yutsano
That’s nice Glenn. Now stop polishing Willard’s knob. You’re embarrassing yourself.
AA+ Bonds
I think it would be more surprising if he had a trust fund and decided to be a whore anyway, no
Davebo
I don’t think we could call this writing Doug. Was the email any better?
AA+ Bonds
Pfffft hahaha a Man of The People I see!
Roger Moore
I’m sorry, but I’m going to rate his reply as four Pinocchios on Fire, because SHUT UP, that’s why.
patroclus
I’d have to give Kessler multiple pinocchios – he hasn’t seen Romney’s tax returns so there is no way he would know how his income/wealth compares with Romney’s.
AA+ Bonds
In Kessler’s defense Harry Reid has presented no evidence but I understand yall gotta run the game in this terrible bullshit season so sure whatever
trollhattan
@MattF:
Bam! Thread won.
eldorado
i have no doubt he sees a lot of what is posted here and around the web about himself, and it doesn’t make him at all happy.
AA+ Bonds
I mean the way I see it Romney could pay 25% in taxes or whatever and we would still have to seize his property and redistribute it
and Kessler’s association with the facts remains theoretical, realized only as they occasionally intersect with the conservative-vs.-liberal set he understands to be the barriers of Polite Discourse
trollhattan
@AA+ Bonds:
“Royal Dutch Shell”–sounds like they make snooty gasoline for the Uberclass. Don’t you go puttin’ none in your Tempo, you hear?
kindness
Great news!
Now can you leverage your Insider Status and ask Glenn if he ever took and passed a Logic class in college?
trollhattan
Forgot to add, “I find your lack of trust fund, disturbing.”
AA+ Bonds
Replace capitalism etc.
Steve
I’d hate to have a job where I felt compelled to respond to any random bozo who asked whether I have a trust fund.
AA+ Bonds
@trollhattan:
Nah I will just ask my family connections at Royal Dutch Shell if it will be good for all the shares I own
Like any American would
Elizabelle
@patroclus: Precisely. No one who has seen the returns is talking, so how does any of us know?
@kindness: LOL re the logic class.
AA+ Bonds
That’s one problem with rich ass liberals: they will never pass up a chance to tell you how privileged they aren’t through bragging about how privileged they are
AA+ Bonds
@Steve:
Yeah I bet you’d just hate to work for the Washington Post, I’m sure Kessler just loathes his position
Violet
Funny, he hasn’t disclosed anything about his inability to determine what a fact is. Isn’t that in conflict with his job as fact checker?
Ben Franklin
I emailed the cop who cited me for speeding, and politely repeated that I was not guilty.
Didn’t work.
Legalize
Wow, we’re now applauding a fella for kinda, sorta doing his job. Only not really, because he’s still carrying Wimpy Willard’s water in the most obtuse way possible.
Ruckus
So he as a “reporter” is willing to at least answer your basic questions. But not ask the same of the moron he’s promoting for pres?
So we, as mittens possible future employers are not allowed to ask basic questions about his finances while when I apply for any kind of corporate job I have to allow a credit check, a criminal background check, my driving record, a drug test and give my educational and job history, all before I will ever be possibly interviewed.
AA+ Bonds
Ahhh the hardscrabble life of the Washington press!
I do want to state that Kessler, etc. are probably painfully aware of the vast gap in material wealth between them and their social betters
They are also responsible for how they respond to that gap – a proper press would respond with hypercritical misanthropy – but our crop have chosen to become a brothel instead
AA+ Bonds
Just up from the dust, aren’t we Mr. Kessler!
I admit, it is a hard fall from Romney-esque grandparents to merely lending a sympathetic ear (and keyboard) to the wealthy
Still, it must be nice to cuddle all those shares in Grand-daddy’s company at night, eh
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
Because he was required to declare his personal wealth as part of his campaign disclosures. That’s where the commonly mentioned $250M net worth figure comes from.
Steve
@AA+ Bonds: I wouldn’t want to work for the Washington Post, no. What makes you think I would?
wrb
Wouldn’t great-grandpa be ashamed that little Glenn turned out to be such a lickspittle and toady for the richer guy.
Bet great-grandpa wasn’t like that.
PaulW
With this one email, Kessler’s got a transparent enough record that qualifies him more for the presidency than Romney…
TK-421
Well, his response doesn’t really address the larger point you raised (i.e. ‘do wealthy journalists go easy on their coverage of wealthy people’s tax shenanigans?’), but maybe I’m just being cranky.
Back when I used to wander around Swampland, I noticed that the media figures there would ALWAYS squirm and have a Pavlovian and overly defensive response whenever someone raised the issue of their own personal wealth. And so it is with Kessler, so whatever.
I say keep pushing the ‘are you one of us or are you a richie rich jerk like Mitt?’ button, but again maybe I’m just cranky.
Nicole
Seems to me he didn’t actually say he doesn’t have a trust fund; he said he “doesn’t benefit from one.” So he could have one, but just not be drawing any money from it right now, therefore he’s not “benefitting” from it. So I will continue to assume he’s protecting his fellow Richie Riches.
AA+ Bonds
In honor of Misters Kessler and Romney I recommend again The Mayfair Set, available to watch for free both at the previous Google Video link and here at the Internet Archive
If you want some non-conspiracy-theory insight into the mundane ways the wealthy shape the world, here it is
I mean, Romney visited Mayfair and made some big gaffe there or something, if that makes you interested
AA+ Bonds
@Steve:
The money
Ben Franklin
@Nicole:
Could be a generation-skipping Trust.
AA+ Bonds
@TK-421:
Yes, notice Kessler’s practiced and prepared squirm away from the vast wealth of his family through Royal Dutch Shell (my ‘family connections’ and a few shares here and there, tut tut nothing to worry about)
AA+ Bonds
I wonder about Mr. Kessler’s defensiveness about rich people revealing personal information – how exactly did he pay for Brown and then Columbia
I doubt he thinks too much about it, bless his soul; they never do when most of their friends end up at top schools too (we all just worked THAT HARD!)
Joel
It means he’s reading. Keep pressing on the issues, and keep everything else above water.
srv
Doug, you used to come off as all elitist, I mean the J and all being a pretty frou frou name. Do you have a trust fund? Young and look like Patrick Kennedy and all? Maybe you are Patrick Kennedy.
And with all this talent here, could someone tell me how to set up oneof these trust funds?
Brachiator
@TK-421:
Back in the days when newspapers were in the pocket of the power structure (much like today), if you were a reporter who didn’t shut up, do what you were told, and did not kiss up to those in charge, you simply did not have a job.
And there were plenty of poor slobs who saw an angle, a chance to get a leg up, who had no problem in selling out their own mothers if it would guarantee them a more comfortable life.
On the other side, one of the main sozhulist journals in early 20th century Los Angeles, The Challenge, was subsidized by a rich diletante and edited by another rich diletante.
Roger Moore
@srv:
I think the first step is to have a whole bunch of money. If you haven’t mastered that part, there’s no point in any of the rest of it.
srv
People are melting down with Mitt relurving Romneycare
Kane
I don’t like the food that is served at McDonald’s, but I applaud their fast service.
rikyrah
that you believe him…I find astonishing
some guy
as Althusser pointed out, there is no outside of ideology.
Kessler is a shill. end of story.
arguingwithsignposts
Might be of interest: (scroll down to comment #2)
The other fact-checking unicorn also responds.
rikyrah
@srv:
I thought it was from The Onion.
I didn’t believe it.
pragmatism
@Kane: for the MF’in win. Well done.
jl
I see in various news outlets that Romney is resorting to Lil’ Newtie, and custom made Newton Leroy Gingrich conspiracy theories about Obama to back up patent GOP campaign lies about administration welfare waivers.
I like that kind of move.
Some commenters have proposed theory that Rmoney campaign is already entering desperation phase. I take the emergency of Lil’ Newtie as a campaign tool evidence in favor of that idea.
Fivethirtyeight blog election forecast steady at 72 percent chance of Obama win, expected electoral vote count up to 301.5. Looking good.
Nice gauge of how much slack the rightwing loons will cut for Mitt, when the come down like a house of bricks when poor Mitt tries to replay is Romney/Obama care finesse he tried out earlier.
The Mittastrophic GOP campaign is running very well, IMHO.
Edit: I will leave in typo of ’emergency’ since somehow it makes more sense that way.
scav
Well, he certainly hasn’t amassed a fund of trust to draw upon or benefit from here. But it’s not as though the presence/absence of a Trust Fund is the single characteristic that distinguishes the crowds scrounging under their chair cushions for lunch money and the RomneyRealm(tm) with their “groceries” and “hardware” trips.
Another Halocene Human
DougJ, the no trust fund thing doesn’t necessarily speak to his class consciousness, however. There are plenty of people with trust funds who are good liberals. However, I know this guy who totally identifies with the 1% and does have wealthy parents but other than having his education fully paid for does not get any support or allowance. In fact, he and his wife took out huge student loans and went on food stamps when he was finishing up law school. (‘Welfare for me but not for thee’ is his attitude.) It really pissed off a low-information-Republican mutual friend who knew that at the same time they were on food stamps they somehow acquired iPhones and were paying for the service contract (student loan money, no doubt). The wife works (and very hard) and is not a little shit, but even though she is good at hustling her wages have been low and she gets laid off a lot. (It’s Floriduh.) I feel so bad for her… a lot of her friends barely see her now because her husband pissed them off at one time or another and she’s lonely.
Lots of people who came from wealth, identify with it, and benefited enormously from the connections, education, financial support in early years, etcet like to spin a fable about how they’re really broke and they had to work for it all, blah blah. Sometimes this comes from parents who let the kid know they’re getting cut off because financial support breeds dependency. And they’re right, but… of course that parent has usually given the kid every advantage in other ways (sometimes leads to anxiety or depression in kids if they then don’t outshine all the other hyper-prepared kids at the super-selective college) and it’s very disingenuous to spin that regular Joe crap when regular Joe’s parents couldn’t set regular Joe up the same way.
eemom
Who the fuck cares if he has a trust fund, or answers e-mails about whether he has a trust fund? The point is that he’s a fucktard emmessemm hack, choirboy of false equivalence.
“Applaud his responsiveness”, wtf?? You’ve seriously lost sight of the ball here, DougJ.
Redshift
@eldorado:
Why not? As long as both sides are complaining, he’s probably comfortable that he’s right, especially since it’s unlikely he bothers with the content of the complaints. Remember, the first time DougJ (or maybe JC) accused him of being a shill for Romney over the initial Bain ads, his response was that he wasn’t partisan because he had also recently criticized some no-name Republican outfit.
Dork
I give his response Four AOLs for responding via email instead of Twitter.
Redshift
@jl: Newt is probably one of the few public figures who provokes more instant visceral dislike from non-Republicans than Romney himself. Bravo!
Another Halocene Human
@srv: Sounds like Eric Ourobouros just needs an excuse to drop Romney like a syphilitic potato. He’s laying the groundwork to blame Romney (and moderate Republicanism) for his loss in November.
The vultures are circling.
Alex S.
@srv:
I thought that, in some way, Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich might be safer choices than Mitt Romney. With Santorum or Gingrich, the GOP is always going to get its 40-something percent. Not much more than 40, but ok, the 27%, i.e. the base, plus a few confused souls will always be voting for them. But with Mitt, there’s the potential that the whole GOP ticket collapses. Here’s a technocratic mormon Massachusetts investment guy, who can’t run on his Massachusetts experience (because of Romneycare), nor his investment experience (after the Bain attacks), nor his technocratic mentality (because the base wants blood).
Roger Moore
@srv:
I can only say that Romney must be such a big swinging dick that it drags on the floor, because that’s the only explanation for how he can step on it so often.
JWL
I haven’t read any of this thread, but assume that someone within the first five comments demanded that Kessler release his tax returns.
Triassic Sands
A suggestion.
Perhaps, Mr. Kessler would also respond to a request to divulge his approximate net worth.
If a wealthy person is writing about other wealthy people, especially concerning the management of wealth, it seems reasonable that the writer disclose his own bias…in dollars and cents.
Approximate is satisfactory — to the nearest million or even five million would be satisfactory.
(Note: Kessler may have responded quickly, but was he forthcoming about the extent of his wealth — not having a trust fund is hardly proof of middle-class status.)
patroclus
Trust funds are, in my view, in and of themselves, tax loopholes. That is, they are commonly created to take advantage of tax law provisions so as to reduce the amount of taxes paid. And, trust administrators are often mandated to maximize revenues and minimize taxes.
Kessler seems to differentiate between “trust funds that benefit from tax loopholes” and those that do not. I suppose it depends on the efficacy of the administrators (perhaps trust funds that Kessler is aware of have poor administrators/accountants), but, as a general matter, I don’t think there really is the difference that he suggests. I highly doubt whether Royal Dutch Shell-related trust funds are more altruisticly patriotic towards the U.S. IRS than, say, the Romney-Bain-related trust funds.
So why does Kessler go there? I suspect it is because he is attempting to minimize his own wealth. But if I were asked the same question, I would say “No, I’ve never had a trust fund! Are you kidding?” I would not say “I do not currently benefit from a trust fund” and “certainly not one that benefits from tax loopholes.”
Another Halocene Human
@patroclus: Oh, bingo. Although sometimes middle class (NOT bottom 2/5’s, they don’t really have “assets”, yaknow) also create trusts to ensure that family members are taken care of when they’re gone for example a child with severe disabilities. And this is also to avoid taxes in a sense because Medicaid. Will. Drain. You. and then that person is completely at the mercy of the System but also because that person may not be competent entirely to make decisions such as financial decisions so there is a trustee even when the parent has passed away.
Some rich people create trusts to control their descendents from beyond the grave. (Generation skipping, trusts that pay out on certain terms, etc.) So taxes aren’t the only reason.
DougJ
@eemom:
Playing the long game here.
First they call you a basement dwelling loser, then they answer your emails, then you fight them, then you win.
Another Halocene Human
@patroclus: Wasn’t there a special setup called an Alaskan trust that let the trust fund babbies from the Gilded Age keep their hoards?
rb
The most amazing thing about all this is, to me, that Kessler is a a grown person and yet is unashamed to write and speak in defense of his assigning, for a living, “four pinocchios” or “pants on fire” to statements by politicians.
Not actually doing it, though that’s bad enough. But then entering into prose defense of it. Like this: “well, you may think I’m just a Romney shill, but you must have missed the time I gave him four pinocchios for claiming he is a man of woman born. You must have missed the time I gave him ‘pants on fire with a cherry on top’ for saying he had sweat glands.”
How a grown man can go about saying and writing such things and not collapse into an embarrassment singularity is beyond me. I can barely stand to read it without having to go into sensory deprivation in order to flush the secondhand embarrassment.
rb
@Alex S.: Luckily, he’s totally suave and really has the common touch.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@DougJ: I can only hope it’s the one with GOP Patriot in the email address. Though the direct response is a stand up way to go, for which I’ll give him props.
Mrs. D. Ranged in AZ (formerly IrishGrrrl)
@Redshift: Kessler was on NPR’s Political Junky show making exactly that argument and whining about how everyone hates him. He actually said that the President’s campaign lied in an ad that claimed Bain/Romney closed down a business, that caused a man to lose health insurance and then someone close to the man died. Kessler’s reason? Because Romney wasn’t REALLY involved in Bain at the time, but was instead busy with the SLC Olympics. WHAT? I’m pretty damn sure he was very involved in Bain at the time. Then Kessler went on to say the President’s campaign also lied in their response to Mitten’s latest welfare ad. The campaign said Romney signed a letter requesting that the President do exactly what the ad is criticizing him for…and I’ve SEEN the letter with Romney’s signature online. Kessler says “Nope, not true!” At that point I had to turn the radio off….couldn’t stand to hear someone so righteously sure of himself spewing lies about how “both sides do it”.
anon
I think he is lying. The response is a non-denial denial.