Competing attack ads ask what voters “really know” about Florida congressional candidates Alex Sink and David Jolly. But don’t count on the ads to clear things up, as both rely on misleading claims.
Competing Attack Ads in Florida Miss Mark
Issues: medicare
Cruz Distorts ACA Impact on Seniors, Children
Sen. Ted Cruz says his “fight against Obamacare must continue,” and so must our fact-checking of claims about the law.
Arkansas Race Off to Misleading Start
The Arkansas Senate race got off to a dubious start as both major party candidates found themselves under attack in misleading TV ads.
VA Democrats Throw the Book at Cuccinelli
A Democratic TV ad goes a little too far when it says GOP gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli’s new book “questions whether Medicare and Social Security should exist.”
It’s Groundhog Day for Fact-Checkers
Patriot Majority USA, a Democratic political action committee, taps the same old playbook from summer 2012, dredging up all-too-predictable Medicare and health care claims in attacking Arkansas Republican Rep. Tom Cotton, a potential 2014 Senate candidate.
Dueling Fiscal Cliff Deceptions
A fog of misinformation has settled on the fiscal cliff, as both House Speaker John Boehner and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have traded conflicting, misleading and false statements in recent days on the president’s deficit-reduction plan:
Geithner falsely claimed on “Fox News Sunday” that the president’s proposals to slow Medicare growth are “not shifting costs to seniors.” There are four proposals that would increase costs to some seniors by $32.9 billion over 10 years, beginning in 2017,
The Final Attack Ads
Both sides in the presidential race are making one last push for votes with false and distorted claims on television, radio and even in text messages:
A liberal super PAC’s radio ad in Ohio twists Mitt Romney’s words by having him say six times: “I’m not concerned about the very poor.” He actually said: “I’m not concerned about the very poor; we have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.”
A conservative super PAC falsely claims in a TV ad that President Obama’s health care law “creates an unaccountable new board that can cut Medicare benefits with no notice —
Hawaiian Whopper
An ad by Republican Senate candidate Linda Lingle in the Aloha State is telling a real whopper — about us.
Her ad says that FactCheck.org rated a claim made by her opponent as “the worst political deception of the year,” and it shows our logo with a headline reading “Whopper of the Year.” The fact is we have never run a headline saying that, and have never singled out any one political falsehood as the worst.
Whoppers of 2012, Final Edition
With only days to go until Election Day 2012, we look here at the most egregiously false and misleading claims from the entire presidential campaign. Some examples …
NRCC Claims Democrat Will End Medicare
The National Republican Congressional Committee misleads in a TV ad that claims a Democratic candidate for Congress supports “eliminating Medicare entirely.”
David Gill, who is running for a House seat in Illinois, supports a universal health care plan that would cover all Americans — ending the need for a stand-alone Medicare program. The federal government would still provide coverage to seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries under the proposal.
The NRCC’s ad contains three more claims that fail to tell the whole story or are misleading.