Author Archives: Lori Robertson

Tax Cuts, Medicare and Florida Democrats

In episode 23 of FactCheck Radio, we debunk a Republican talking point on the Bush tax cuts being spread by Sarah Palin and former Sen. Fred Thompson. Plus, we examine actor Andy Griffith’s misleading ad for Medicare, and false charges in the Democratic Senate primary in Florida. [podcast]http://factcheck.org/Images/image/radio/FactCheckRadio_episode23.mp3[/podcast] For more …
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Angle’s Blame Game, Reprise

GOP candidate Sharron Angle’s latest ad blames rival Sen. Harry Reid for Nevada’s dramatic decline in home value. That’s a real stretch. Angle gets the numbers right, but doesn’t show that Reid is responsible. In fact, the housing bubble was already starting to deflate by the time Reid became Democratic …
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Colorado PAC Attacks

Democratic candidates in Colorado’s Senate primary are attacking each other’s acceptance of PAC money — but one is being misleading, while the other fails to tell the full story. First out of the box was Andrew Romanoff, accusing incumbent Sen. Michael Bennet of taking "nearly a million dollars from Washington …
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Context Matters and Mailers Mislead

In episode 21 of FactCheck Radio, we look at the well-known case of USDA employee Shirley Sherrod — an incident that shows, once again, context matters. Plus, we highlight false and misleading claims by President Obama, Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold and his GOP opponent Ron Johnson, and New York Democratic …
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Shirley Sherrod’s Contextual Nightmare

We’ve posted no shortage of pieces on political attacks that leave context on the cutting room floor to give the public a misleading impression. An opponent’s statements, cherry-picked and shorn of any language that could provide the intended meaning, can be shaped into a slashing ad.  Or they can lose …
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Maligning Maloney by Mailer

In a flurry of mailers sent to New York’s Upper East Side Democratic voters, challenger Reshma Saujani claims that incumbent Rep. Carolyn Maloney has taken $2.5 million from "special interests" while she has accepted none. Um, really? What about the $220,000 Saujani has received from Wall Street, her leading source …
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Sunday Replay

Call this one the Axelrod Edition. President Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, was on three of the political talk shows on July 11, and we found that he strayed from the factual straight-and-narrow several times in talking about the oil spill, border security and other issues. We also found Republican …
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Loans to Mobsters, Ties to BP? Kirk’s Attack Ads Go Too Far

Republican Rep. Mark Kirk is attacking his Democratic opponent in the Illinois race for the U.S. Senate with two ads that go beyond what the facts support. The ads make unsupported claims about the role Giannoulias played at his family’s troubled bank and strain  to tie him to BP, among …
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Oil Spill Whoppers

The April 20 explosion that started oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico has prompted a slew of claims and counterclaims about the disaster. What caused it, how it’s being handled, the history of drilling accidents in the area – all are subjects ripe for false or misleading statements by politicians and others. …
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Sunday Replay

On the Sunday before confirmation hearings kicked off for Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, we heard several misleading comments having to do with her or nominations of earlier years. We also found no evidence to back up Sen. John Cornyn’s claim that the new health care law was negatively impacting …
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