The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is running a false ad claiming that "52 percent of all lawsuits" target small businesses. The claim is contradicted by the very study the Chamber cites as its source, and it’s not even close to the truth. The study shows the true figure is somewhere between 5 percent and 8 percent. A spokesman for the Chamber, Mark Szymanski, told us the ad began airing "nationally" in late December and will continue to air until the end of January. But... Click to read more
Would you believe that one in six Americans is "going hungry"? You shouldn’t, because it’s not true. Nevertheless, the liberal group MoveOn.org claimed something close to that in an end-of-the-year appeal for donations to Feeding America, the national anti-hunger charity. MoveOn’s message said: "This winter, a record 49 million Americans are going hungry because of the economy." (To read the whole fundraising appeal, click the link below.) ⬐ Click to... Click to read more
Summary Although 2009 was not an election year, it kept us exceptionally busy, and led to millions of visits to our site. In this year-end summary, we offer some of the worst examples of the falsehoods we encountered during the first year of the Obama administration. The list of howlers includes the false claim that the stimulus bill would dictate to doctors what procedures they can and can’t perform, and assertions that health care legislation would require seniors to get advice on how to... Click to read more
Summary We’re always alert for signs that the president (any president) is overselling his programs. Here’s what we heard in President Obama’s speech on Tuesday announcing new efforts to create jobs: He highlighted a Congressional Budget Office estimate that "up to" 1.6 million jobs resulted from stimulus spending, but was silent about CBO’s estimate that the total could be as small as 600,000. He said stimulus spending was "only a very small part" of... Click to read more
Summary A widely viewed video seems to show President Obama stating that he is a Muslim. It is false, and the product of dishonest editing. Although it is titled "Obama Admits He Is A Muslim," the president in fact has admitted no such thing. The video edits and twists his actual words, sometimes turning what were denials into false confessions. For example, it edits out the words "I’m a Christian" from one quote and "my Christian faith" from another. It shows... Click to read more
Q: Did Obama grant federal workers a pay raise for next year when Social Security recipients are getting no increase? A: The president acted to hold down the federal pay raise to 2 percent next year. Click to read more Read More →
Q: Did CNN’s Lou Dobbs denounce an immigration bill "going through Congress right now"? A: The three-and-a-half-minute video being circulated in chain e-mails is from 2007. Dobbs was criticizing a bipartisan Senate bill, which was supported by Bush and McCain, and which died soon after. Click to read more Read More →
Q: Are the Obamas doing away with the White House "Christmas" tree and banning ornaments with religious themes? A: The traditional Christmas tree will remain, and an e-mail claim about ornaments is unsubstantiated. Click to read more Read More →
Summary In 2004 we accused President Bush of using "dubious statistics" to support his claim that limiting malpractice awards to injured patients could save the economy between $60 billion and $108 billion per year. Ever since, we’ve said most independent research indicated little if any savings from limiting malpractice liability, and just a few weeks ago we quoted the Congressional Budget Office as saying that only negligible savings could be expected. Now CBO has revised its opinion,... Click to read more
Summary The Republican National Committee claims in a new Web ad that Democratic health care plans propose taxes on "charities and small businesses. A doctor’s tax. Taxes on your health insurance. Even a tax on medical supplies." It’s perfectly true, as the ad says, that "hundreds of billions" in taxes are being proposed – spread over 10 years. But the ad exaggerates and misleads in a number of ways: It makes a downright false claim that ordinary wheelchairs... Click to read more
