by Brooks Jackson
Let me put the matter bluntly: an awful lot of the e-mailed messages zipping around the Internet are lies — and too many are being sent on by gullible, lazy friends who ought to know better. These falsehoods are multiplying like viruses as recipients forward them to their entire list of friends without making the slightest effort to verify what’s being claimed, often with cover messages saying something like, "You HAVE to read this!" This cyber-sickness should stop. All it takes is a little bit of common sense and skepticism, some curiosity and a few... [Read more]
by Brooks Jackson
Where are all the nasty, personal, negative TV spots? Candidates seem to be reluctant to run them — and there’s a reason. A new law requires presidential candidates to appear in their own ads and take personal responsibility for what they say. The idea behind this new "stand by your ad" law is that anyone slinging mud will have to do it personally, and risk getting splattered by their own missiles. And this is a reform that actually seems to be working. So far. Stand By Your Ad It is only a few words in the new McCain-Feingold campaign finance law,... [Read more]
by Brooks Jackson
In my 33 years of covering Washington and national politics, I’ve had some of the best jobs in American journalism — including the development of ‘adwatch’ and ‘factcheck’ stories for CNN. And with the launch today of FactCheck.org I hope to continue my professional lucky streak. This is going to be a fun job — and somebody has to do it. There already have been lots of dubious factual claims and outright falsehoods tossed around in the Presidential campaign: Howard Dean falsely claiming that most middle-class taxpayers got no tax... [Read more]
