Enthusiastic truth-seekers (and angry partisans) have been inundating us with questions this election cycle. We’re thrilled to be your go-to guys, but sometimes the rumors take a long time to untangle — the truth is rarely straightforward enough to fit neatly into an ad, a sound bite or a chain e-mail. As the election nears, though, we’re pleased to say that we’ve wrapped up pieces on some of the most requested fact-checks of all time, or at least of this year.
- “He Lied” About Bill Ayers? — FactCheck investigates Obama’s ties to ’60s radical Bill Ayers (they exist, but are not as strong as McCain has implied). FactCheck investigates FactCheck’s ties to Ayers too (we are his father’s brother’s nephew’s cousin’s former roommate).
- ACORN Accusations — What’s the real deal with ACORN? We investigate the voter fraud charges (evidence is scant) as well as Obama’s connections (weak, but stronger than he lets on).
- What about that Anne Kilkenny e-mail? — Actually, the factual claims are pretty close to right. Don’t get cocky, though — the other 2,938,570,175 chain e-mails in your inbox are probably still bogus.
For more of our most frequently-asked questions (and their answers), see our Hot Topics page.