FactCheck.org Author: Brooks Jackson

Our election coverage wins a Clarion Award

July 16, 2009

We’re going to have to get a bigger trophy case.
FactCheck.org’s 2008 election coverage has been selected by the Association for Women in Communications for one of its Clarion Awards. We’re both honored and pleased by this additional recognition, which comes on the heels of our third consecutive Webby “People’s Voice” Award for best political site on the Internet.
The 2009 Clarion competition attracted nearly 500 entries in various categories. Our election coverage won in the category of “Online Publication”

ACLU and Cemetery Crosses

July 5, 2009

Q: Is the ACLU suing to have cross-shaped headstones removed from military cemeteries?
A: The ACLU has filed no such suit, and it hasn’t sued to "end prayer from the military" either.

Third term for Obama?

June 18, 2009

Q: Is there a move to make Obama eligible for more than two terms as president?
A: A bill that proposes repealing the 22nd Amendment has been introduced, but so far it has very little support.

Making Sense of Stimulus Spending

June 16, 2009

With the economy continuing to shed hundreds of thousands of jobs per month, Republicans are stepping up attacks on President Obama. They claim that the massive “stimulus” spending isn’t working very well. A Republican Party Web site classifies as “fiction” the president’s repeated claim that the spending already has “saved …

Obama’s Auto Team & ‘The Laws of Physics’

June 15, 2009

Q:Did the Obama auto team tell a Michigan engineer the government should change “the laws of physics”?
A: This is another Internet tall tale. The supposed source of the story says he has not even met with the Obama task force.

Obama & Naval Academy swords

June 13, 2009

Q: Did Obama order a "swordless graduation" at the U.S. Naval Academy?
A: This Internet scuttlebutt is false. Graduating midshipmen have gone without swords at graduation for decades, even when Bush and Cheney spoke.

Privately Owned Gun Tax?

June 7, 2009

Q: Would Senate bill 2099 put a yearly $50 tax on each privately owned firearm?
A: There is no such bill. A chain e-mail containing bogus claims refers to a bill that died more than eight years ago.

‘Dealergate’: Mistaking Anecdotes for Data

June 6, 2009

Ever since Chrysler announced that it wanted to shed 789 of its 3,188 nationwide dealerships, speculation and outright accusations have circulated to the effect that Republican donors were being singled out. The list of dealers slated for closing contained some who had given to Republican candidates, and far fewer who had given to Democrats. One blogger’s early tabulation, based on the first five pages of the 40-page list of closed dealers, showed $120,000 had been given to GOP candidates and $34,350 to Democratic candidates in 2004 and 2008 (exclusive of presidential candidates).

More “Birther” Nonsense: Obama’s 1981 Pakistan Trip

June 5, 2009

We continue to receive queries about claims and theories advanced by "birthers," who wish to believe that Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the USA or that he somehow gave up his citizenship and thus is not qualified to hold the office he occupies. One is a claim, first advanced last year, that his trip to Pakistan in 1981 proves he must not have been a U.S. citizen because Americans were not permitted to travel there at the time.