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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Radio Ads Accuse Kerry Of Not Helping Blacks

Summary
The newly established group People of Color United (PCU) began running a series of radio ads August 2 that challenges John Kerry’s record on “helping and hiring Blacks.”
Some of the content is misleading. One ad blames Kerry for ensuring that jobless workers won’t be eligible for an extra 13 weeks of unemployment benefits. It’s true Kerry missed a crucial vote in which an extension of benefits fell just one vote short of Senate passage,

Bush Nails Kerry’s Poor Attendance at Intelligence Committee Hearings

Summary
A Bush-Cheney ’04 ad released Aug. 13 accuses Kerry of being absent for 76% of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s public hearings during the time he served there. The Kerry campaign calls the ad “misleading,” so we checked, and Bush is right.
Official records show Kerry not present for at least 76% of public hearings held during his eight years on the panel, and possibly 78% (the record of one hearing is ambiguous).
Kerry points out that most meetings of the Intelligence Committee are closed and attendance records of those meetings aren’t public,

DNC Ad Says Bush Lost Manufacturing Jobs

The Democratic National Committee released an ad Aug. 6 saying 2.7 million manufacturing jobs had been lost under Bush. That’s true, but ignores the fact that manufacturing jobs started their decline three years before Bush took office.

Media Fund Ad Misquotes Bush

An ad released by the Media Fund is targeted to Ohio, featuring Ohio residents criticizing the President for loss of jobs overseas. In it, one of them says, “When President Bush says he’s going to help companies outsource jobs, it’s infuriating.” Bush didn’t say that.

Anti-Kerry Ad Highlights Changes On Welfare, Death Penalty

A Club for Growth PAC TV ad released July 26 accurately cites Kerry’s changing positions over the years on welfare reform, the death penalty for terrorists, and gasoline taxes. But it also falsely implies that he’s voted to raise taxes 350 times, a claim we’ve de-bunked before.

Bush’s “16 Words” on Iraq & Uranium: He May Have Been Wrong But He Wasn’t Lying

Summary
The famous “16 words” in President Bush’s Jan. 28, 2003 State of the Union address turn out to have a basis in fact after all, according to two recently released investigations in the US and Britain.
Bush said then, “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” Some of his critics called that a lie, but the new evidence shows Bush had reason to say what he did.