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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

The Fall TV Season’s Senate Air Wars

The Fall TV Season’s Senate Air Wars

The November elections are still nearly a year away, but the TV air wars over Senate seats have officially begun in earnest. The balance of power is up for grabs, and outside groups are pouring millions into ads attacking candidates in key Senate races. The biggest plays have come from Crossroads GPS …

Cain’s Pattern of Evasion and Misdirection

Cain’s Pattern of Evasion and Misdirection

Herman Cain’s prevarications about how accusations of sexual harassment were settled are only the most recent example of the candidate’s penchant for making contradictory statements on major issues. He also has made a habit of telling untruths about his own stance on abortion and about his signature 9-9-9 …

FactChecking Health Insurance Premiums

FactChecking Health Insurance Premiums

Health insurance premiums for employer-sponsored family plans jumped a startling 9 percent from 2010 to 2011, and Republicans have blamed the federal health care law. But they exaggerate. The law — the bulk of which has yet to be implemented — has caused only about a 1 percent …

Romney v. Perry in a YouTube Slugfest

Romney v. Perry in a YouTube Slugfest

Mitt Romney and Rick Perry are hammering each other with dueling — and distorted — YouTube ads. Romney’s ad says “unemployment has doubled on Perry’s watch” as Texas governor. That’s true. But it’s also true that Texas has bucked the national trend and now has a lower jobless rate …

Tales From New Hampshire

Tales From New Hampshire

Our research has turned up some more dubious and misleading claims from the economic debate among Republican candidates in Hanover, N.H. Cain claims his 9-9-9 proposal to overhaul the tax code is “simple, transparent, efficient, fair, and neutral.” But his campaign …

Clearing the Air on Perry’s Record

Clearing the Air on Perry’s Record

Texas Gov. Rick Perry cites partly cloudy statistics to back up his boast that Texas is doing just fine cleaning its air on its own — without the EPA. Perry boasts that “we cleaned up our air in Texas more than any other state, during the decade of the 2000s.” …

West Virginia Race Goes to the Dogs

West Virginia Race Goes to the Dogs

If West Virginia’s special election for governor were a greyhound race, the winning dogs would be “Falsehood” and “Distortion.” In dead last? “The Truth.” Both candidates — Republican Bill Maloney and acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin — and their well-financed surrogates are engaged …

Fanciful ‘Facts’ At Fox News Debate

Fanciful ‘Facts’ At Fox News Debate

Nine Republican presidential candidates debated for two hours in Orlando, Fla., and they served up more exaggerations and falsehoods — about Obama, each other, and even Thomas Jefferson. Perry claimed Romney supports Obama’s Race to the Top education initiative. In fact …

CNN/Tea Party Debate

CNN/Tea Party Debate

The GOP presidential candidates debated for the second time in six days — tossing out a variety of false and misleading claims on everything from Social Security to vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases. …

FactChecking the Reagan Debate

FactChecking the Reagan Debate

The GOP candidates took some liberties when discussing jobs, Social Security, immigration, health care and other issues during the presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Library: Perry exaggerated when he called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme” that won’t …