Author Archives: Brooks Jackson

Wind Spin

Posted on February 9, 2012

The wind-power lobby is spinning the facts in a $1.4-million TV ad campaign aimed at extending a lucrative tax break worth billions to the industry. Its ads claim that Congress is “threatening new taxes” targeting wind power, which isn’t true. No “new taxes” are envisioned. Instead, Congress is …
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Dueling Debt Deceptions

Posted on February 2, 2012

Q: How much has the federal debt gone up under Obama? A: During his first three years in office, it rose $4.7 trillion, an increase of 45 percent. Partisan graphics circulating via email and Facebook are both incorrect.

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The Gingrich Counterattack in Florida

Posted on January 27, 2012 , Updated on January 29, 2011

Now comes the counterattack. After weeks of taking it on the chin in Florida without throwing a punch, the Gingrich side has  finally begun to fight back with TV attack ads of its own. Among the new ads is one from a pro-Gingrich super PAC that takes the personal attacks …
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More Florida Fouls

Posted on January 27, 2012 , Corrected on January 30, 2012

Newt Gingrich falsely claimed he never favored a federal mandate requiring individuals to have health insurance. Romney repeated a false accusation that President Obama failed to denounce Hamas rocket attacks in a speech to the United Nations. And Santorum insisted that Muslim terrorists are seeking missile bases in Cuba — …
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Florida Ad War: Mitt Pounds Newt

Posted on January 26, 2012 , Corrected on February 1, 2012

The air wars in a pivotal Florida Republican primary race have so far been a decidedly one-sided affair, with Mitt Romney and a pro-Romney super PAC saturating the airwaves for weeks with a slew of attack ads aimed chiefly at Newt Gingrich. …
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The State of Obama’s Facts

Posted on January 25, 2012 , Corrected on January 26, 2012

Summary The president’s State of the Union address got the facts right — mostly. Obama said “the Taliban’s momentum has been broken” in Afghanistan. But targeted assassinations continue, and at least one independent foreign policy expert says the enemy may just be waiting until the U.S. leaves. The president said …
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Factual Flubs in Florida

Posted on January 24, 2012

The four remaining candidates debated once again, this time in Tampa, Florida — where facts took a beating. Mitt Romney falsely claimed the Navy is smaller now than at any time since the start of World War I. (It had fewer ships as recently as four years ago.) And Newt …
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South Carolina Smackdown

Posted on January 20, 2012

Facts were sometimes used as blunt instruments as the four remaining GOP presidential candidates hammered away at each other in the last debate before Saturday’s South Carolina primary. Santorum and Romney tangled …
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Newt’s Faulty Food-Stamp Claim

Posted on January 18, 2012 , Updated on February 5, 2012

Newt Gingrich claims that “more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history.” He’s wrong. More were added under Bush than under Obama, according to the most recent figures. The former speaker made that claim Jan. 16 in a Republican debate in …
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And Then There Were Five …

Posted on January 17, 2012

In a spirited debate, Republican candidates variously strained the facts on President Obama’s record on trade, tangled with each other over a misleading ad about allowing felons to vote, and erred on the history of the federal income tax. Otherwise, the five remaining GOP presidential candidates pretty much stuck to …
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