Former Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler acknowledged Thursday that he was “completely wrong” to label the COVID-19 lab leak theory “doubtful” in a 2020 headline.

In an interview with theeditors.com founder Ira Stoll, Kessler addressed eroding trust in fact-checkers from conservatives, pointing to the 2020 Washington Post fact check titled “Was the new coronavirus accidentally released from a Wuhan lab? It’s doubtful.”

Kessler said the work on the piece by his Fact Checker video team was sound but admitted he made a mistake in how he framed the headline.

“One of the reporters on the piece came up to me the next day and said, ‘I think you made a real mistake by putting ‘it’s doubtful’ here. Because I’m uncertain where it stands, and you framed it in a way that made it seem more

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