There is a nasty claim making the rounds in virulently anti-McCain circles, accusing him of responsibility for the terrible 1967 disaster aboard the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. That claim is bunk, and we said so in our Sept. 5 Ask FactCheck item, “Did McCain crash five planes?” Now we are saying so again – even more emphatically – based on additional research.
Among the new details: We question McCain’s widely accepted story that it was his own A-4 Skyhawk that was first hit by the errant missile that touched off the disaster.
Stories by Brooks Jackson
Director Emeritus, FactCheck.org
More on Palin’s False Energy Claim
There’s more on Sarah Palin’s claim, made in her ABC News interview, that Alaska produces 20 percent of the nation’s energy supply. As we noted in our original article, official statistics from the federal government show that Alaska produces only 3.5 percent of the total energy produced in the U.S., and 2.4 percent of the energy consumed.
McCain-Palin campaign officials said she meant to say that Alaska accounts for 20 percent of the nation’s oil and gas production,
Palin’s big energy blooper
We published this article on our home page late Friday:
Energetically Wrong
September 12, 2008
Palin says Alaska supplies 20 percent of U.S. energy. Not true. Not even close.
McCain-Palin Distorts Our Finding
Summary
A McCain-Palin ad has FactCheck.org calling Obama’s attacks on Palin "completely false" and "misleading." That’s what we said, but it wasn’t about Obama.
Our article criticized anonymous e-mail falsehoods and bogus claims about Palin posted around the Internet. We have no evidence that any of the claims we found to be false came from the Obama campaign.
The McCain-Palin ad also twists a quote from a Wall Street Journal columnist. He said the Obama camp had sent a team to Alaska to "dig into her record and background."
Don’t mess with us
We were displeased, to say the least, when the McCain campaign released a new TV ad today making it seem as though FactCheck.org was endorsing its claims that Obama is making stuff up about Palin. So we posted this article on our home page:
McCain-Palin Distorts Our Finding
September 10, 2008
Those attacks on Palin that we debunked didn’t come from Obama.
Sliming Palin
Summary
We’ve been flooded for the past few days with queries about dubious Internet postings and mass e-mail messages making claims about McCain’s running mate, Gov. Palin. We find that many are completely false, or misleading.
Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn’t cut it at all. In fact, she increased funding and signed a bill that will triple per-pupil funding over three years for special needs students with high-cost requirements.
Picture of Palin Is a Fake
Q: Is that a real photo of Sarah Palin holding a rifle and wearing a bikini?
A: It's a fake — Palin's head on the body of a woman who posed for it 2004 as a joke. We have the full story of how this image was created and spread like a virus, fooling many.
McCain’s Position on Abortion
Q: Does McCain want to ban "all" abortions?
A: He has said he favors a Constitutional amendment that would outlaw abortion. He would allow exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when the life of the mother is at stake.
FactChecking McCain
Summary
We checked the accuracy of McCain’s speech accepting the Republican nomination and noted the following:
McCain claimed that Obama’s health care plan would "force small businesses to cut jobs" and would put "a bureaucrat … between you and your doctor." In fact, the plan exempts small businesses, and those who have insurance now could keep the coverage they have.
McCain attacked Obama for voting for "corporate welfare" for oil companies. In fact, the bill Obama voted for raised taxes on oil companies by $300 million over 11 years while providing $5.8 billion in subsidies for renewable energy,
McCain’s Plane Crashes
Q: Did McCain crash five planes? Did he cause the 1967 Forrestal fire?
A: No. Chain e-mails and Internet postings that make that claim are mistaken. One crash was found to be his fault, but the Navy commended his piloting skills.