NewsTrust - Fake News - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Bachmann’s Fundraising Whopper

Sun, 20 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Robert Farley - May. 20 (Fact Check) - In several urgent fundraising appeals, Rep. Michele Bachmann falsely claims that biased “liberal judges” redrew her congressional district “in retaliation for repeatedly standing up to President Obama.” The truth is that only two of the five judges were Democratic appointees, and Bachmann’s Minnesota district has become even more Republican than … More >>

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Does Fact-Checking Work? False Statements are Wrong Metric

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Columbia Journalism Review - By Brendan Nyhan - Mar. 31 (News Analysis) - Politics today seemingly has more fact-checking than ever before. As a result, reporters are asking a new question: Does fact-checking work? At the national level, USA Today's Martha T. Moore described it as "an article of faith" among fact-checkers that "factually accurate information is something voters want and need, and they provide plenty of it." Unfortunately, she...

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 4 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

General Motors Decides Climate Change Is Real, Pulls Support From Heartland Institute

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Sharon Silke Carty - Mar. 30 (News Report) - After getting called out by an environmental group, General Motors has pulled support from the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based nonprofit well-known for attacking the science behind global warming and climate change. The automaker told the Heartland Institute last week that it won't be making further donations, spokesman Greg Martin said. At a speech earlier this month, GM CEO Dan Akerson said his company is running its business under the assumption that climate change is real. "We applaud GM's decision and the message it sends -- that it is no longer acceptable for corporations to promote the denial of climate change and that support for an organization like Heartland is not in line with GM's values," said Daniel Souweine, campaign director for Forecast the Facts, a group that urges meteorologists to talk more openly about climate change.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Mitt Romney: President Barack Obama is "ending Medicare as we know it."

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Louis Jacobson - Mar. 22 (Fact Check) - Mitt Romney is trying to turn the tables on President Barack Obama by using a favorite Democratic line against him, accusing Obama of "ending Medicare as we know it." That's been a trusty line for the Democrats, with variations used in campaign commercia

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

4 important truths about Mike Daisey’s lies & the way ‘This American Life’ told them

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Poynter Institute - By Craig Silverman - Mar. 19 (News Analysis) - Fact checking is a real process, but what “This America Life” did wasn’t fact checking. The press release about the retraction show referenced the “fact checking before the broadcast of Daisey’s story” and the original show included this from Glass: This

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 8 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Rush Limbaugh Scandal Proves Contagious for Talk-Radio Advertisers

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

The Daily Beast - By John Avlon - Mar. 10 (News Analysis) - Premiere Networks, which distributes Limbaugh as well as a host of other right-wing talkers, sent an email out to its affiliates early Friday listing 98 large corporations that have requested their ads appear only on “programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity).”

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average - 7 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Super Tuesday guide: Finding truth in the attacks

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0800

PolitiFact - By Becky Bowers - Mar. 04 (Fact Check) - As 10 states prepare to vote on Super Tuesday, here’s PolitiFact’s guide to the multimillion-dollar ad blitz. With the field down to four Republican contenders, campaigns and super PACs are attacking their opponents with hot-button allegations about supporting Planned Parenthood, Obamacare and even Nancy Pelosi that are designed to strike fear in the hearts of Republican voters. There's been some piling on. We've seen several examples where two (or more) candidates have made the same attack. The one candidate who hasn't been attacked much: Ron Paul. He's has been busy attacking others — but we didn’t find ads attacking him. ... >>More

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 5 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Whoppers of 2011

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson - Dec. 21 (Fact Check) - Despite what you may have heard in 2011: The new health care law won’t cost many jobs (and they’ll be poorly paying jobs at that). Republicans aren’t proposing to “end” Medicare (and Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden has signed onto a modified version of the GOP plan). Most of the “millionaires” who would pay higher tax rates under a Democratic proposal aren’t job-creating small-business owners. President Obama’s mother didn’t really fight to get health insurance coverage as she was dying. And there was plenty more spin and deception in 2011. Obama claimed he pays a lower tax rate than a teacher. Michele Bachmann endorsed a claim that HPV vaccine causes mental retardation. Joe Biden claimed rapes quadrupled in Flint, Mich., after police layoffs. And that’s just some of the nonsense we debunked.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.1 average - 10 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Romney’s Ad ‘Deceitful & Dishonest’?

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson - Nov. 23 (Fact Check) - The Obama campaign is in a lather over Mitt Romney’s first TV spot, calling it “a deceitful and dishonest attack” because of an edited quote from 2008. That’s a matter of opinion. We find a far more consequential issue is the ad’s exaggerated claim that the new health care law … More >>

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

‘Government-Run’ Nonsense

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson - Nov. 22 (Fact Check) - The U.S. Chamber of Commerce puts a new twist on a tired old falsehood about “government-run health care” in one of its new ads attacking Democratic lawmakers. We noted other dubious claims as well. An ad against Sen. Jon Tester in Montana accuses him of favoring “government-run health care”

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

As ‘Daily Show’ turns 15 years old, Jon Stewart’s best media criticism moments

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Poynter Institute - By Julie Moos - Jul. 23 (News Analysis) - The longest-running show on Comedy Central debuted July 21, 1996 — 15 years ago this week. Jon Stewart became host of “The Daily Show” in 1999, and has been commenting on the media ever since. Stewart, who has often been compared to broadcast news icon Edward R. Murrow, insists he is not a journalist but holds accountable those who are. Stewart and his staff are serious about media criticism, as they told Mallary Tenore in 2009. Here are highlights of the show’s media criticism through the years.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.5 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Jon Stewart says those who watch Fox News are the "most consistently misinformed media viewers"

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Louis Jacobson - Jun. 20 (Research) - The way Stewart phrased the comment, it’s not enough to show a sliver of evidence that Fox News’ audience is ill-informed. The evidence needs to support the view that the data shows they are "consistently" misinformed -- a term he used not once but three times. It’s simply not true that "every poll" shows that result. So we rate his claim False.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.3 average (not enough reviews) - See Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

PolitiFact's guide to Obama's birth certificate

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

PolitiFact - By Bill Adair - Apr. 27 (Fact Check) - Nothing we've published in the four-year history of PolitiFact has generated as much interest as our coverage of President Barack Obama's birth certificate. New allegations from Donald Trump (new from Trump, at least; most of them have been explored by PolitiFact and other fact-checkers) have prompted fresh interest in the subject, so we thought we'd provide a handy guide to our coverage.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Donald, You’re Fired!

Sat, 09 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Brooks Jackson, Eugene Kiely, Michael Morse - Apr. 09 (News Analysis) - If Donald Trump worked for us, we’d have to say: "Donald, you’re fired — for incompetence." The successful developer and TV celebrity says he’d make a good president, and maybe he would — we take no stand either way about that. But when it comes to getting facts straight, he fouls up again and again on the basics of President Barack Obama’s birth. As a rookie reporter, he just wouldn’t make it. He claims the president’s grandmother says Obama was born in Kenya. In fact, the recording to which he refers shows Sarah Obama repeatedly saying through a translator: "He was born in America." He claims that no hospital in Hawaii has a record of Obama’s birth. Hospital records are confidential under federal law, but Honolulu’s Kapi’olani Medical Center has published a letter from Obama calling it "the place of my birth," thus publicly confirming it as his birthplace. He insists that the official "Certification of Live Birth" that Obama produced in 2008 is "not a birth certificate." That’s wrong. The U.S. Department of State uses "birth certificate" as a generic term to include the official Hawaii document, which satisfies legal requirements for proving citizenship and obtaining a passport. He claims that there’s no signature or certification number on the document released by Obama. Wrong again. Photos of the document, which we posted in 2008, clearly show those details. He says newspaper announcements of Obama’s birth that appeared in Hawaii newspapers in 1961 "probably" were placed there fraudulently by his now-deceased American grandparents. Actually, a state health department official and a former managing editor of one of the newspapers said the information came straight from the state health department. He claims "nobody knew" Obama when he was growing up and "nobody ever comes forward" who knew him as a child. "If I ever decide to run, you may go back and interview people from my kindergarten," Trump said. Well, two retired kindergarten teachers in a 2009 news story fondly recall teaching a young Barack Obama.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.0 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Obama at Zeitgeist Rumors Dominate San Francsico Twittersphere

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800

thefeast.com - By Kevin Meenan - Feb. 18 (News Report) - President Barack Obama enjoying a #SFbeerweek brew with at the newly reopened Zeitgeist, and pics to prove it?! Rumors swirled late night Thursday that the Commander in Chief - in town for a quick meal with the Silicon Valley elite -- had made a post-dinner detour to the famed hipster hang, presumably to celebrate the bar's grand reopening. San Francisco tweeters please, are we really that gullible? Sigh. Our morning net sleuthin' skills traced the origin of the rumor back to Techmeme's Gabe Rivera, who first tweeted a fake Zeitgeist Foursquare check-in with "@barackobama @dickc @ericschmidt @scobleizer" and later linked to a apparently believable Instagram pic of Obama boozing it up at a similarly divey haunt.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.6 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

How Truthy is the Twitter Torrent?

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Miller-McCune - By Emily Badger - Oct. 07 (Special Report) - Memes divide and replicate on the Internet in a way they never did through old-fashioned media or word of mouth. In a matter of mouse clicks, the government is planning death panels. The president is a Muslim. There are headless bodies in the desert, medical microchips under our skin and IRS agents are coming for our guns.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.7 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

A Final Weekend of Whoppers?

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

FactCheck - By Lori Robertson - Mar. 19 (News Analysis) - With the House preparing for a final vote on the Senate health care legislation, with revisions, Sunday afternoon, we thought we’d give our readers a wrap-up of the top falsehoods of late. The debate over this bill has stretched on almost as long as a presidential campaign, and we suspect this weekend will be filled with politicians and third-party groups making their final — and faulty — pitches. There’s little doubt they’ll repeat wrong and misleading statements about premium costs, a government takeover, keeping your plan, Medicare cuts and more. Keep reading for details.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.1 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

The Washington Post Lets Pete Peterson Write The News On The Deficit

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

OurFuture.org - By Roger Hickey - Jan. 01 (Investigative Report) - The [article published in the Wash Post], entitled "Support grows for tackling nation's debt," appeared to be one of those background news pieces common in newspapers like the Post. But article was written not by the newspaper’s reporters – and not by an objective wire service, like the Associated Press – but by a new organization called The Fiscal Times, whose founder and major backer, Peter G. Peterson, has a long-term ideological commitment to convincing Americans that “support is growing for tackling the nation’s debt.”

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

In Iraq, Colbert shaves head, declares victory

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

airforcetimes.com - By By Kim Gamel - The Associated Press - Jun. 08 (News Report) - Celebrities have frequently traveled to Iraq to entertain the troops. But the series of half-hour shows — dubbed “Operation Iraqi Stephen: Going Commando” — mark the first time anyone has broadcast a taped show from Iraq from a tour intended to entertain U.S. troops.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.4 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

McCain And Obama Criticize New Coal Plants — Right Wing Goes Insane

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Think Progress - By Brad Johnson - Nov. 02 (Special Report) - Both presidential candidates, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) have called for a mandatory cap on carbon emissions in the United States. Coal-fired power plants, which produce about 49 percent of U.S. electricity, account for 83 percent of power-sector emissions. Because of the global warming footprint, the cheapness of coal-fired electricity is illusory.

NewsTrust Rating: 2.0 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Top Troubling Tropes of Campaign '08

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

FAIR - Oct. 23 (News Analysis) - Not only do journalists organize the election story around the question--not terribly helpful to voters--of who's up and who's down, they largely base their evaluation of the race on shallow image-based narratives that the media construct themselves: Barack Obama is an "elitist" who might not "get the way we live" (Extra!, 7=8/08), while John McCain is a straight-talking "maverick" (Extra!, 5=6/08). Though these tropes are treated by establishment news outlets as self-evident, they usually fail to stand up to any kind of scrutiny.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.8 average - 6 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Deceiving Images

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Link TV - By Nicholas Lemann, George Lakoff, - Oct. 05 (Special Report) - (VIDEO 1 hour 24 mins.) This special panel features experts in the field of communication in a discussion about the escalating use of manipulative techniques in American political life. The panel is moderated by Nicholas Lemann, Columbia University dean of its Journalism School, and George Lakoff, UC Berkeley professor.

NewsTrust Rating: 3.9 average - 3 Reviews » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Liddy guest Walid Shoebat falsely claimed that Obama is "definitely a Muslim"

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Sep. 12 (News Analysis) - On his radio show, G. Gordon Liddy hosted self-described former terrorist Walid Shoebat to advance the false claim that Sen. Barack Obama, whom Shoebat said would be "extremely dangerous" as president, is a Muslim. Liddy also did not challenge Shoebat's false claim that Hamas supports Obama.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

NECN video posted on Boston Globe website falsely suggests "lipstick" comment immediately followed Palin reference

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Sep. 12 (News Analysis) - In a New England Cable News video posted on the Boston Globe website, two comments by Sen. Barack Obama are spliced together, falsely suggesting that his comment that "[y]ou can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig" immediately followed a reference to Gov. Sarah Palin. In fact, the "lipstick" comment immediately followed Obama's comments about Sen. John McCain's policies and political tactics.

NewsTrust Rating: 4.4 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer

Quinn & Rose's Rose, whose co-host referred to NOW as the "National Organization for Whores," called Obama a "sexist pig"

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Media Matters - Sep. 11 (News Analysis) - On the Quinn & Rose radio show, co-host Rose Tennent claimed that Sen. Barack Obama's remark regarding Sen. John McCain's policies, "[Y]ou can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig," was directed at Gov. Sarah Palin. After saying she was "offended" and "appalled" by Obama's remark, Tennent stated, "You know what, you're a pig, you're a chauvinist pig is what you are, Barack." On previous shows, Tennent's co-host Jim Quinn introduced a segment about Sen. Hillary Clinton by playing the song "The Bitch Is Back" and referred to the National Organization for Women as the "National Organization for Whores."

NewsTrust Rating: 4.7 average (not enough reviews) - See Review » - Review It Visit NewsTrust | About | Sign Up | Disclaimer