In episode 30 of our podcast, we look at deceptive ads from a conservative group on the new health care law, misleading spots on Social Security from Democrats, and a false claim about a GOP House candidate and draft dodging.
For more on the stories discussed in this episode, see:
Misleading Onslaught by 60 Plus Sept. 17
Social Security: (Mostly) in Their Own Words Sept. 21
Patriotism Falsely Impugned Sept. 22
Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida is falsely accusing his opponent of evading the Vietnam War draft, claiming “he doesn’t love this country.” Republican candidate Daniel Webster didn’t “refuse the call to service,” as claimed in a vicious TV ad …
We have updated our Ask FactCheck item on John McCain’s flying career to note new information uncovered by the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper found records of a Navy investigation into the crash of John McCain’s aircraft while he was in flight training in 1960. McCain and others have written that the plane went down in Corpus Christi Bay when the engine quit, but Navy investigators concluded that the engine was still running when the plane hit the water,
There is a nasty claim making the rounds in virulently anti-McCain circles, accusing him of responsibility for the terrible 1967 disaster aboard the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. That claim is bunk, and we said so in our Sept. 5 Ask FactCheck item, “Did McCain crash five planes?” Now we are saying so again – even more emphatically – based on additional research.
Among the new details: We question McCain’s widely accepted story that it was his own A-4 Skyhawk that was first hit by the errant missile that touched off the disaster.