Author Archives: Viveca Novak

Radio Daze

Summary At the first all-radio debate of this election cycle, there were several factual faux pas by the Democrats at the table. Two candidates, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, were primarily responsible. Biden linked an $18-per-barrel increase in the price of oil to the Senate resolution declaring Iran’s Revolutionary Guard …
More >>

Posted in Articles | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Cognitive Science and FactCheck.org, or Why We (Still) Do What We Do

Have you heard about how Al Gore claimed to have invented the Internet? What about how Iraq was responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center? Or maybe the one about how George W. Bush has the lowest IQ of any U.S. president ever? Chances are pretty good that …
More >>

Posted in Special Reports | Tagged , | Comments Off

Twisting Facts in Spanglish

Summary The Sunday night debate, complete with interpreters, produced a few flubs or fibs from the Democratic field, including these: Rep. Dennis Kucinich gave a figure for health insurance company profits that was vastly overstated. He also made a much-disputed claim about NAFTA. Former Sen. John Edwards made his health …
More >>

Posted in Articles | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

Some Old, Some New

Summary The Republican candidates aired their views, claims and criticisms in yet another debate. We found a few mistakes and questionable pronouncements: Rudy Giuliani said 2,000 illegal immigrants was the most the federal government deported from New York City during any of his years as mayor.  That doesn’t square with …
More >>

Posted in Articles | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

Sunday Morning Missteps

Summary The Republican presidential candidates debated – and sounded some more false notes: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney falsely claimed U.S. job growth had been nearly 17 times faster than Europe’s. Actually, European Union employment grew faster than that of the U.S. last year. Romney’s source for the information told …
More >>

Posted in Articles | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

Unspinning the FairTax

Summary In our recent article on the second GOP debate, we called out Gov. Mike Huckabee as well as Reps. Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter for their support of the FairTax. We wrote that the bipartisan Advisory Panel on Tax Reform had “calculated that a sales tax would have to …
More >>

Posted in Articles | Tagged , , | Comments Off

GOP Candidates Debate, Round 2

Summary Claims, facts and figures flew at the second GOP presidential debate of 2008. Not all were true. For example: Mitt Romney claimed he didn’t raise taxes when he was governor of Massachusetts, failing to note that he increased government fees by hundreds of millions of dollars and shifted some …
More >>

Posted in Articles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off

Republican Candidates Debate

Summary Ten Republican candidates for president debated at the Reagan Library in California, the first GOP debate of the 2008 campaign. Here and there we found stumbles, spin and exaggerations, just as we did at the Democratic debate a week earlier. Giuliani claimed that adoptions shot up 65 to 70 …
More >>

Posted in Articles | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

Democratic Candidates Debate

Summary Eight Democratic candidates debated in South Carolina. We found some minor stumbles. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, explaining his call to show compassion for Palestinians, put a spin on the remark that differs from the way it was originally reported by an Iowa newspaper. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of …
More >>

Posted in Articles | Tagged , , , | Comments Off