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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Gephardt ‘Enron’ Attack Misses the Mark

Dick Gephardt has been attacking Howard Dean for giving “huge tax breaks” to Enron. But Gephardt has failed to show that Enron got any special treatment.

Puncturing a Republican Tax Fable

Republican National Chairman Ed Gillespie said “80% of the tax relief for upper income filers goes to small businesses.” That’s untrue – and a classic example of a statistical distortion gone amok.

Facts Take a Bath at Democratic Debate

Political junkies tuning into the most recent Democratic candidates debate Dec. 9 in Durham, NH should not believe all that they heard.

Liberal Group Attacks Dean on Gun Control

A new liberal group is running a TV ad in Iowa attacking Howard Dean for his record on gun control. The ad says Dean was endorsed repeatedly by the National Rifle Association for governor of Vermont — which is true. Dean’s position has shifted a bit since then, however.

Attack Ad by Anti-tax Group Too Close for Dean’s Comfort

An anti-tax group started running an attack ad Thursday Dec. 4 in Iowa and New Hampshire saying “Howard Dean says he’ll raise taxes on the average family by more than nineteen hundred dollars a year.” Dean calls the ad “false,” but we find it is mostly right.

Is this a great job, or what?

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 cut,

RNC Fails to Document Ad’s Claim

In a TV ad supporting the President the Republican National Committee went four words too far, not-very-subtly implying that Democrats who have criticized him are something close to traitors.

Census Says Income is Down, but Some Republicans Claim it’s Up

In September the Census Bureau issued its annual figures on income and poverty, and to nobody’s surprise poverty rose and U.S. median income went down in 2002. On the same day, however, the Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee issued a news release claiming that after-tax income went up – and citing Census figures.