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Viral Spiral
FactCheck Mailbag
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of May 7-13.
See letters from previous weeks“ Why is that worth noting? Does it change the facts? ” -
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2012 Players Guide
Author Archives: Brooks Jackson
The Final Iowa Debate
The final Republican presidential debate in advance of the Jan. 3 first-in-the-nation Iowa party caucuses produced a few claims we found worthy of quibbling over. Gingrich challenged Bachmann’s factual accuracy regarding the former speaker’s record on abortion — but we found Bachmann was mostly correct. On the other hand, Bachmann …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged campaign 2012, Jon Huntsman, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul
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More Baloney at ABC/Yahoo! Debate
False and misleading claims were flying again at the latest Republican presidential candidates’ debate in Iowa. Romney falsely claimed that no president before Obama had cut Medicare, and that Obama favored pre-1967 borders for Israel. Gingrich said he opposed cap-and-trade, even though …
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Posted in Articles
Tagged Election 2010, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry
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Gingrich On Climate Change
Newt Gingrich went too far when he claimed that “I’ve never favored cap-and-trade.” It’s true he’s never favored the approach taken by Democrats, but he said in 2007 that he would “strongly support” cap-and-trade if combined with “a tax-incentive program for investing in the solutions.” Furthermore, Gingrich said in House …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
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Pre-Thanksgiving Leftovers
The latest GOP debate was thin on memorable moments or major factual bloopers, but we do have some leftover claims to dispute before we shut down for the Thanksgiving holiday. We wouldn’t want anybody’s turkey dinner to be spoiled by worries that terrorists have come over the border with Mexico, …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Herman Cain, illegal immigrants (26), Iran, Keystone Pipeline, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Republican debate
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Romney’s Ad ‘Deceitful & Dishonest’?
The Obama campaign is in a lather over Mitt Romney’s first TV spot, calling it “a deceitful and dishonest attack” because of an edited quote from 2008. That’s a matter of opinion. We find a far more consequential issue is the ad’s exaggerated claim that the new health care law …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
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‘Government-Run’ Nonsense
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce puts a new twist on a tired old falsehood about “government-run health care” in one of its new ads attacking Democratic lawmakers. We noted other dubious claims as well. An ad against Sen. Jon Tester in Montana accuses him of favoring “government-run health care” — …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged energy (38), health insurance (74), medicare, taxes (91), U.S. Chamber of Commerce
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Junkie Math
All sides agree that the federal government borrows too much, so why exaggerate? In the latest example, a national TV ad shows an actor portraying a drug addict and claiming that the U.S. is borrowing 41 cents of every dollar spent, which isn’t true. As shown in this chart, which …
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South Carolina Debate
We found several exaggerations and misstatements in the latest Republican presidential candidates’ debate. Romney issued a hollow threat to take China’s currency manipulation to a world body that doesn’t actually deal with overvalued money, and he claimed federal spending consumes more of the nation’s economic output than it really does. …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, presidential debate, Republican National Committee
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CNBC Debate: Slim Pickings for FactCheckers
The latest debate among Republican candidates for president was a tame affair that produced few factual claims needing correction. Candidates stuck mostly to promises and expressions of their conservative faith in free markets, and their disdain for government. The debate was held Nov. 9 at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich., …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged GOP debate, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich
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Perry’s Dubious Tax Promise
In his speech unveiling his proposed “flat tax” overhaul of the tax system, Rick Perry promised that “taxes will be cut across all income groups in America.” But a newly released analysis of his plan by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center concluded that many lower-income persons and families would see …
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