A liberal-leaning group founded by former DNC chairman Howard Dean.
Year: 2011
Ending Spending
A fiscally conservative group founded by J. Joe Ricketts, a businessman who also founded Ameritrade.
Patriot Majority USA
A liberal-leaning group founded by a Democratic political strategist and heavily funded by labor unions.
Progressive Change Campaign Committee
A liberal-leaning group founded by a MoveOn.org strategist, a former labor organizer and an Internet activist.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Lobbying group representing business interests. Leans Right-center.
Sept. 16: HPV, Texas Jobs, Social Security
Why Do They Do It?
Why do politicians persist in peddling exaggerations, twisted facts and outright falsehoods? Here's a theory from a veteran political reporter.
Jon Keller of WBZ in Boston offered up his explanation in his "Keller @ Large" commentary for Sept. 15. It was prompted by our coverage of the recent Republican presidential candidates' debate and our criticism of President Obama's jobs speech.
We were flattered by the nice mention, of course. But what really caught our attention was Keller's conclusion:
Jon Keller,
An Antidote for Bachmann’s Anecdote
No scientific evidence backs Rep. Michele Bachmann's second-hand story of HPV vaccine causing mental retardation. Our research reveals that 35 million doses of the vaccine have been administered, without a single reported case of mental retardation. A total of four cases of a disorder involving inflammation of the brain have been reported, but a panel of scientists found there was insufficient evidence to establish that the vaccine caused those.
The Republican presidential candidate has repeatedly related an anecdote about a post-debate encounter with a woman who told her a vaccine promoted by Texas Gov.
FactCheck Mailbag, Week of Sept. 6-12
This week, readers sent us comments about our fact-checks of the Reagan presidential debate and ads in a New York special election.
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.
CNN/Tea Party Debate
The GOP presidential candidates debated for the second time in six days — tossing out a variety of false and misleading claims on everything from Social Security to vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases. …