Q: Did President George W. Bush drop everything to visit Ft. Hood victims? Was he ordered away by the Obama administration?
A: Bush did visit the wounded at Ft. Hood, but a Bush spokesman says that his visit was coordinated with base officials and that he was not asked to leave by the White House.
Month: February 2010
Just the Facts 2010: Pictures
The FactCheck.org vidcast, “Just the Facts,” returns with a new webisode that examines deceptions made with images. We examine whether President Obama used the wrong hand for the Pledge of Allegiance, had a teleprompter set up to talk to grade-school children, or previously was acquainted with …
February 11, 2010
An average of 260 inches of snow falls a year in Mount Washington, N.H. Valdez, Alaska, sees an average of 326 inches of snow.
Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center
Insurance Coverage: Obama’s Air Ball
During an impromptu press conference with the White House press corps on Feb. 9, President Barack Obama claimed that more people are getting their health insurance this year from the government than through the private sector. But that’s not even close to being true. If this had been a basketball shot, it would have missed the backboard:
Obama, Feb. 9: I don’t know if people noted, because during the health care debate everybody was saying the president is trying to take over —
Fake News, Real Fact-Checking
"Daily Show" anchor Jon Stewart has an uneven record of fact-checking political figures. In September 2008, we called him out for getting his gun facts wrong — he called Joe Biden "crazy reckless" and wrong when he referred to his Beretta shotgun, claiming that Beretta "is a handgun." In fact, Beretta is famous for its shotguns, as well as the handguns mentioned in James Bond novels. And he could have done better when Betsy McCaughey, who referred to us as "spot-check dot org"
February 10, 2010
An average of 105 snow storms occur in the continental United States each year.
Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Feb. 2-Feb. 8
This week, readers sent us comments on the length of bills, journalistic ethics and other people’s e-mails. In the FactCheck Mailbag, we feature some of the e-mail we receive.
Readers can send comments to editor@factcheck.org. Letters may be edited for length.
February 9, 2010
The prevalence of obesity among U.S. adult males was 32.2 percent in 2007-2008; it was 35.5 percent among females.
Source: Journal of the American Medical Association
Tea Party Fact-Checking
Sarah Palin made a splash over the weekend as the keynote speaker at the first National Tea Party convention, and she followed up with an interview on Fox News Sunday. But she didn’t always stick to the facts. Palin implied that the Nigerian would-be Christmas Day bomber stopped talking after he was read his Miranda rights. He did, but …
February 8, 2010
In a quarter of the land in the Northern Hemisphere, there’s an underground layer that is frozen all year long.
Source: National Snow and Ice Data Center