http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/ en-us Copyright 2008 Fri, 09 May 2008 06:00:00 -0400 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.36 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Rosie O'Donnell "The government did give syphilis to black Americans for 40 years. What [Rev. Jeremiah Wright] was saying is in his history, in his genetic memory, he knows what it's like for the government to infect his own people. Because he lived through those Tuskegee experiments." --Rosie O'Donnell, May 5, NBC Today Show. Some myths are practically impossible to eradicate, particularly when they are repeated by trusted public figures. Long before the Rev. Jeremiah Wright talked about the U.S. government using the AIDS virus as a means of genocide against African-Americans, prominent commentators made equally fallacious assertions about the Tuskegee syphilis study. The list of people claiming that the government deliberately infected African-Americans with syphilis includes Wright, Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings--and now Rosie O'Donnell. The Facts As outlined in a previous post , the Tuskegee study involved a group of 399 black men suffering from syphilis, who were http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/05/the_tuskegee_experiment_part_i.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/05/the_tuskegee_experiment_part_i.html MSM Watch Fri, 09 May 2008 06:00:00 -0400 Elton John fundraiser, April 9, 2008. "There was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995....And I think she was the first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone." --Bill Clinton, campaigning in Indiana, April 10, 2008. Just as the Bosnia sniper flap seemed to be dying down, count on a finger-pointing Bill Clinton to fan the embers. The former president managed to make half a dozen factual errors in coming to the defense of his wife for her now acknowledged "misstatements" about her March 1996 Bosnia trip. By Friday afternoon, the would-be first laddie was revising his revisionist version of history. He told reporters that he had received a call from Hillary telling him to "let me handle it." http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/04/bill_shoots_from_the_hip.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/04/bill_shoots_from_the_hip.html Candidate Watch Fri, 11 Apr 2008 17:38:20 -0400 Celebrating victory in Columbus, Ohio, March 5, 2008 "No person has ever won the White House without winning the Ohio primary, in either party...Somehow the people of Ohio end up picking the winners." --Hillary Clinton, interview with Columbus, Ohio, TV station, March 4, 2008. It has become part of political mythology that you cannot win the presidency without carrying Ohio. (Actually John Kennedy pulled off this feat in 1960, winning the general election even though he lost Ohio by 273,000 votes.) But can you win the presidency without winning your party's Ohio primary? History suggests that Hillary Clinton is wrong on this point. The New York senator made the "No person has ever won the White House" claim in an interview with an Ohio TV station while waiting for the results to arrive. She qualified the claim later in the evening, in her victory speech, when she added the http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/03/clinton_stumbles_on_ohio_histo.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/03/clinton_stumbles_on_ohio_histo.html Candidate Watch Wed, 05 Mar 2008 11:52:05 -0400 Shaking hands in Boca Raton, Fl., Jan. 24, 2008 "Gov. Romney wanted to set a date for withdrawal [from Iraq] similar to what the Democrats are seeking, which would have led to a victory by al Qaeda in my view." --John McCain, rally in Fort Myers, Florida, Jan. 26, 2008. John McCain is trying to shift the debate back to Iraq from the economy. He lumped Mitt Romney with the Democrats, saying, "if we surrender and wave a white flag, like Senator Clinton wants to do, and withdraw, as Governor Romney wanted to do, then there will be chaos, genocide, and the cost of American blood and treasure would be dramatically higher." The former Massachusetts governor has hit back, accusing his rival of "dishonesty," and distorting his position. So who is telling the truth? http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/mccain_attacks_romney_on_iraq.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/mccain_attacks_romney_on_iraq.html Candidate Watch Mon, 28 Jan 2008 06:00:00 -0400 Robert Johnson slams Obama. "As an African-American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book -­ when they have been involved." --BET founder Robert L. Johnson at Hillary Clinton rally, Columbia College, S.C., January 13, 2008. "My comments today were referring to Barack Obama's time spent as a community organizer, and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect." --Johnson statement released by Clinton campaign, January 13, 2008. "I'm writing to apologize to you and your family personally for the un-called-for comments I made at a recent Clinton event. In my zeal to support Senator Clinton, I made http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/barack_obamas_neighborhood.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/01/barack_obamas_neighborhood.html Candidate Watch Fri, 18 Jan 2008 06:00:00 -0400 Romney at Planned Parenthood fund-raiser, June 12, 1994. "Every piece of legislation which came to my desk [as] governor, I came down on the side of preserving the sanctity of life." --Mitt Romney, NBC "Meet the Press", December 16, 2007. It is becoming difficult for Mitt Romney to keep track of his twists and turns on the abortion issue. The photograph above shows Romney back in June 1994 during his first big political campaign, running against Sen. Ted Kennedy in Massachusetts. It was taken at a fund-raiser for the pro-abortion rights group, Planned Parenthood, in Cohasset, Mass. The woman with her back to Romney is Nicki Nichols Gamble, former president of the Massachusetts branch of Planned Parenthood, which accepted a $150 contribution from Romney's wife Ann (in a white jacket to Romney's right.) The "pro-choice" candidate for senator, and later governor, of Massachusetts is now the "pro-life" candidate for http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/mitt_romneys_flip_flop_flip.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/mitt_romneys_flip_flop_flip.html Candidate Watch Thu, 20 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Mike Huckabee in Greenville, SC, Dec. 8, 2007". "In Arkansas, Governor Huckabee supported broadening a particular merit scholarship -- not in-state tuition - to include high-achieving children who were applying for citizenship...The proposal to make children of illegal immigrants eligible for in-state tuition was not part of the Governor's plan." --Huckabee press release, www.mikehuckabee.com, December 15, 2007. Now that he has become a front-runner, Mike Huckabee is feeling the heat from other Republican candidates who are scrutinizing his record as governor of Arkansas for evidence of "liberal" or "Democratic" inclinations. One leading rival, Fred Thompson, has accused Huckabee of having "championed" an effort to permit illegal immigrants to benefit from in-state tuition rates at state universities. Huckabee has denied the charge, claiming that his support was limited to a much more restrictive scholarship program. Huckabee's denials fly in the face of the record. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/pinocchios_for_huckabee_on_ill.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/12/pinocchios_for_huckabee_on_ill.html Candidate Watch Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Obama in Portsmouth, NH, yesterday. UPDATED We have a president who chortled about the fact that he has not left the country before he was president. It's very hard for us to lecture others about their economies when we have doubled the national debt during one presidential term, or during the administration of a single president. --Barack Obama, Foreign policy forum in Portsmouth, NH, November 27, 2007. It is true that George W. Bush had limited foreign travel experience prior to becoming president, but it is a myth that he had never been outside the United States. Obama was also wrong on the national debt. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/11/obama_tells_a_whopper_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/11/obama_tells_a_whopper_1.html Candidate Watch Wed, 28 Nov 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Dream presidential ticket for UFO believers. "The federal government has not come clean on all that it knows...They don't produce documents on this, they should get it all out...The government has not handled this well over the years, that is a historical fact." --Bill Richardson, interviewed by Chris Matthews on MSNBC, claiming that the US government is witholding information on UFOs, October 30, 2007. "More people in this country have seen UFOs than, I think, approve of George Bush's presidency." --Dennis Kucinich, Democratic presidential debate, October 30, 2007. Last week's media excitement over the claim by Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich to have personally seen a UFO obscured a much more newsworthy story. Bill Richardson alleges UFO coverup! Archives officials wonder if New Mexico governor is living on a different planet!! Top UFO researcher endorses Clinton-Richardson presidential ticket, predicts Democrats will end "UFO truth embargo"!!! The Fact Checker investigates! http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/11/aliens_support_clinton_richard.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/11/aliens_support_clinton_richard.html Candidate Watch Tue, 06 Nov 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Before everybody relaxes for the weekend, some facts to ponder over Halloween: Barbers for Dodd "Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd today announced that his campaign will begin running a new ad entitled "Jim's," highlighting his ability to achieve results as President....The 60-second spot will run in Iowa and on national cable networks and introduces John and Jesse, two barbers at Jim's barbershop in Winterset, Iowa, where the ad was shot." --Dodd campaign press release, October 24, 2007. There's one minor problem with the Dodd ad, and we are indebted to the Des Moines Register for pointing it out. "John" and "Jesse" are not barbers. They are not Democratic voters. In fact, they are not even from Iowa. They are actors from Chicago. There is a "Jim's barbershop" in Winterset, but it is run by a registered Republican, Jim Kinser, who let the Dodd people have the run of his store, but http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/barbers_for_dodd_gorbie_endors_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/barbers_for_dodd_gorbie_endors_1.html Candidate Watch Fri, 26 Oct 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Romney and Giuliani line up for Sunday's debate with other Republican candidates. Republican Debate on Fox News, October 21, 2007: MITT ROMNEY: "We solved the problem of health care in our state not by having government take it over, the way Hillary Clinton would [but] with private, free-enterprise approaches...Hillary says the federal government's going to tell you what kind of insurance, and it's all government insurance." RUDY GIULIANI: "We only have 17 million people in America who buy their own health insurance. If we have 50 million or 60 million people who bought their own health insurance, the price of health insurance would be cut in more than half." Republican candidates have been vying among themselves to denounce "Hillary Care" as tantamount to the introduction of "socialized medicine," and a government-run health system, similar to the British National Health system. The Clinton campaign argues that the senator's federal health http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/hillary_care_and_socialized_me.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/hillary_care_and_socialized_me.html Candidate Watch Wed, 24 Oct 2007 06:00:00 -0400 Pinocchio time! Two weeks ago, we posted an item that looked at the political reinvention of Mitt Romney. We focused on his shifting positions on abortion: from "a pro-choice" stance while he was running for senator, and later governor, of the blue state of Massachusetts to a "pro-life" platform now that he is attempting to win the Republican presidential nomination. The question was not whether he had flip-flopped, but whether he has been honest about the flip-flops. Predictably, commenters were divided. Some felt that Romney deserved four Pinocchios, or even five, if such a category existed. Others said he had been "up-front" about his change of position. One commenter gave the Fact Checker "four jellyfish" for declining to issue an snap judgment on Romney, while assigning three Pinocchios to MoveOn.org for its broadside against General Petraeus. The reason why we hesitated on the Romney/abortion question is that it is http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/the_mitt_and_rudy_show_part_ii.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/the_mitt_and_rudy_show_part_ii.html Candidate Watch Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:00:08 -0400 Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani following the GOP debate in Dearborn, Mich.(AP). RUDY GIULIANI"Under Governor Romney, spending went up in Massachusetts, per capita, by 8 percent. Under me [in New York] spending went down by 7 percent...I brought taxes down by 17 percent. Under him, taxes went up 11 percent per capita." MITT ROMNEY"It's baloney. Mayor, you've got to check your facts. No taxes -- I did not increase taxes in Massachusetts. I lowered taxes...My spending grew 2.2 percent a year. Yours grew 2.8 percent a year." --Republican Debate, Dearborn, Michigan, October 10, 2007. Full transcript here. It sounds like one of those primitive schoolyard fights. "Yah, boo, you stink. My Play Station is better than yours." "No, you stink. I have a better TV set." So which, if either of them, is telling the truth? The former mayor of New York or the former governor of Massachusetts? The http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/the_mitt_and_rudy_show_lies_da_1.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/the_mitt_and_rudy_show_lies_da_1.html Candidate Watch Thu, 11 Oct 2007 14:00:00 -0400 Rudy Giuliani on lawsuit that he filed against American gun manufacturers while Mayor of New York, addressing the National Rifle Association, September 21, 2007: "I did initiate that lawsuit back in 2000. Since then, I think that lawsuit has taken several turns and several twists that I don't agree with. I also think that there have been subsequent intervening events, September 11th, which cast a different light on the Second Amendment and Second Amendment rights." The Facts Does Giuliani's explanation for his change of heart on his own lawsuit stand up or is he simply pandering to the Republican base? http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/giulianis_twists_and_turns_on.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/10/giulianis_twists_and_turns_on.html Candidate Watch Fri, 05 Oct 2007 06:00:01 -0400 http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/09/romney_and_abortion.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2007/09/romney_and_abortion.html Candidate Watch Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:15:57 -0400