Swann created a news segment called Reality Check in association with Fox 19 in Cincinnati and CBS46 in Atlanta, in which he covered "issues other media is not looking at" and uncritically presented alt-right conspiracy theories.

He garnered praise for a 2012 in-person interview with President Barack Obama about the so-called "kill list" which is used to direct drone strikes against American citizens, like Anwar al-Awlaki.

[3] After working in Portland, Oregon, as an assistant pastor, Swann returned to the Fox station KFOX in El Paso as a sports producer.

[2][7] During this period, Swann was an investigative journalist for the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN News) covering the trade in illegal drugs at the southern border.

[2] He left El Paso in December 2010 to become an evening TV news presenter at Cincinnati, Ohio's Fox affiliate WXIX-TV, co-anchoring with Tricia Macke.

[1][2] He produced a thrice-weekly news segment series entitled Reality Check shortly after joining the station which he described as investigating "issues other media is not looking at".

In it, Swann was able to obtain a 7-minute one-on-one interview with President Barack Obama while on an election campaign stop in Ohio - a rare opportunity for a local news reporter.

Answering Swann's questions, Obama responded by saying news reports about the list have never been confirmed by him and that drone strikes in Yemen would help bring U.S. soldiers stationed in Afghanistan home sooner.

[19] While working at WXIX-TV, Swann started a Facebook page called "Full Disclosure" where, according to Adweek, he asked "questions about controversial subjects he says are ignored by the national media".

[19] On October 23, 2012, Swann served as a panel member on a third-party presidential candidates debate hosted by Larry King in Chicago, Illinois, and broadcast on C-SPAN, Al Jazeera America, and online through the sponsorship of the Free & Equal Elections Foundation.

In June 2015, he was hired by CBS-46 affiliate WGCL-TV in Atlanta, Georgia where he revived his fact-checking segment under the title Reality Check With Ben Swann and was made part of the station's new investigative unit.

[26][27] He was suspended in January 2017 for running a story attempting to revive the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, in which Swann called for an "investigation" into the months-old false claims that a Washington, D.C. pizza restaurant was hiding a child sex trafficking ring in its non-existent basement, citing anonymous Internet users as his sources; The Atlanta Journal-Constitution noted that it appeared Swann had done no independent reporting on the topic.

In FARA filings disclosed in August 2022, Swann was paid $6.8 million by the Russian government in order to produce propaganda TV content for the South America, Indian, and Chinese markets.

[23] Ben Collins of The Daily Beast said this "mirrors a narrative within several stories written by Kremlin state media outfit RT in the past several weeks".

[40][additional citation(s) needed] In an appearance on RT America in 2015, Swann said that "any credible evidence does not seem to exist" that Russia shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.