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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Florida Ad War: Mitt Pounds Newt

Florida Ad War: Mitt Pounds Newt

The air wars in a pivotal Florida Republican primary race have so far been a decidedly one-sided affair, with Mitt Romney and a pro-Romney super PAC saturating the airwaves for weeks with a slew of attack ads aimed chiefly at Newt Gingrich. …

The State of Obama’s Facts

The State of Obama’s Facts

Summary
The president’s State of the Union address got the facts right — mostly.

Obama said “the Taliban’s momentum has been broken” in Afghanistan. But targeted assassinations continue, and at least one independent foreign policy expert says the enemy may just be waiting until the U.S. leaves.
The president said a get-tough tariff on tire imports from China has saved more than 1,000 U.S. jobs. But tire industry officials say Chinese imports have simply been replaced by imports from other countries.

Misleading Claims in Obama’s First 2012 Spot

Misleading Claims in Obama’s First 2012 Spot

President Obama’s first 2012 campaign ad misleads on ethics, “clean-energy” jobs and U.S. dependence on oil imports. The spot uses outdated quotes from groups that said his record on ethics is “unprecedented” and that he “kept a promise to toughen ethics rules.” One of those same …

South Carolina Smackdown

South Carolina Smackdown

Facts were sometimes used as blunt instruments as the four remaining GOP presidential candidates hammered away at each other in the last debate before Saturday’s South Carolina primary. Santorum and Romney tangled …

Facts Strained in ‘King of Bain’

Facts Strained in ‘King of Bain’

A 28-minute political documentary released this week by a pro-Newt Gingrich super PAC presents a one-sided, often distorted and misleading view of Mitt Romney’s years leading the venture capital firm Bain Capital. Interspersed with appropriately eerie music, the video …

Gingrich’s ‘Baloney’-filled Attacks on Romney

Gingrich’s ‘Baloney’-filled Attacks on Romney

Newt Gingrich is out with two new attacks on Mitt Romney: an ad airing in South Carolina that tries to brand Romney as a “pro-abortion” governor, and a nearly three-minute Web video that gauges Romney statements on a “Baloney-O-Meter.” We found a bit of baloney in both …

Mangled Facts in Manchester

Mangled Facts in Manchester

Truth took a punch or two at the first of two GOP debates before New Hampshire’s critical presidential primary. Romney, talking about taxes, said federal, state and local government consume 37 percent of the economy today compared with only 27 percent when John F. Kennedy was president. In fact …

Attacks Against Gingrich: How Accurate?

Attacks Against Gingrich: How Accurate?

A pro-Romney group is savaging Newt Gingrich with TV ads and mailers to Iowa Republicans. Gingrich dismisses the attacks as “lies.” We find that some of the claims from Restore Our Future are indeed distorted, false or misleading. But several are also right on target.

The Whoppers of 2011

The Whoppers of 2011

Despite what you may have heard in 2011: The new health care law won’t cost many jobs (and they’ll be poorly paying jobs at that). Republicans aren’t proposing to “end” Medicare (and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden has signed onto a modified version …

Crossroads GPS Twists Facts in Senate Ads

Crossroads GPS Twists Facts in Senate Ads

Crossroads GPS distorts the facts in TV ads that attack two Democratic Senate candidates for their roles in the Wall Street bailout and the federal health care law: The well-heeled conservative group says Elizabeth Warren was appointed to oversee how tax dollars were spent for bank bailouts …