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Viral Spiral
FactCheck Mailbag
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of May 7-13.
See letters from previous weeks“ Why is that worth noting? Does it change the facts? ” -
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2012 Players Guide
Author Archives: Joe Miller
Did McCain Invent the BlackBerry?
John McCain is having his very own Al Gore moment. McCain’s top economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, waved his BlackBerry to a room full of reporters, explaining that "you’re looking at the miracle that John McCain helped create.” Gore was widely mocked for his claim that “I took the initiative in …
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Fact-Checking Is Useless
Well, okay, they’re not actually saying that it’s useless. Just potentially counter-productive. An article last September pointed to cognitive science research showing that debunking myths can have the effect of reinforcing the very myths you’re trying to refute. That’s because the human brain is hardwired with a lot of shortcuts. …
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Distorting Our Findings, Part II
On Sept. 10, we objected when the McCain-Palin campaign released an ad implying that we’d criticized Obama for “completely false” and “misleading” claims about Sarah Palin. We did use those words, but we used them to criticize anonymous Internet rumormongers, not Obama. Now that same claim from the McCain-Palin camp …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged factcheck.org, Internet rumors, John McCain, Sarah Palin, TV ads
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The Bush Doctrine?
In her first sit-down interview since securing the Republican v.p. slot, Sarah Palin talked about her position on the Bush Doctrine with ABC’s Charlie Gibson: Here’s the relevant section of the exchange: Gibson: The Bush Doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense; that …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Bush Doctrine, charlie gibson, foreign policy, President Bush, Sarah Palin
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About That Kilkenny E-Mail
So far, we’ve received roughly 43,937,809 (note: number is exaggerated for effect) e-mails asking us whether the chain e-mail from Wasilla’s most famous non-Palin, Anne Kilkenny, is accurate. As we wrote earlier this week, yes, Kilkenny is a real person and she did in fact write the e-mail. We looked at …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Alaska, Anne Kilkenny, factcheck.org, politifact.com, Sarah Palin
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We’re On TV, Too
No, it’s not a new feature. But if you’re not watching Sarah Palin on ABC tonight, you should check out CBS News. That’s where you’ll find factcheck.org deputy director Viveca Novak who’ll be bringing you our latest on recent ads from the McCain and Obama campaigns. Oh, and if you …
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Palin’s VP Experience
As long as we’re talking about Sarah Palin’s first v.p. interview, it’s worth noting that she may have stretched the facts a bit when Gibson asked whether she had ever met a foreign head of state. Gibson: I’m talking about somebody who’s a head of state, who can negotiate for …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged charlie gibson, foreign policy, interview, Sarah Palin
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Palin’s Change on Climate Change
Dipping one more time into last night’s Gibson/Palin interview, we found another misleading claim, this time on climate change. When Gibson accused Palin of flip-flopping her stance on the causes of global warming, Palin denied her position had changed on whether humans are partially responsible. But that doesn’t quite jibe …
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Posted in The FactCheck Wire
Tagged Alaska, charlie gibson, climate change, energy, global warming, Sarah Palin, vice presidential debate
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