2008 Woodie Awards
New Web site aims to keep both sides of the aisle honest
Jason Cox
Issue date: 1/28/04 Section: State and Local
Remember back in the day when the weapons of mass destruction were just plain old weapons of mass destruction?
OK, so it was last year, but President George W. Bush referred to them as "weapons of mass destruction-related programs" when talking about the war in Iraq in his State of the Union speech last week.
And when the liberal activist group moveon.org criticized Bush's drug prescription plan by asserting that the pharmaceutical companies made "huge" contributions to his campaign, they failed to mention that the total contributions made by these companies is just under $900,000 for both his 2000 and 2004 campaigns. In other words, the industry doesn't even rank in his top 30 supporters.
These inaccuracies and others like them are being brought to the forefront by the non-partisan Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, which has started the Annenberg Political Fact Check at www.factcheck.org.
The site launched in December, and Fact Check Director Brooks Jackson said site traffic is up dramatically since he appeared on NOW With Bill Moyers just more than a week ago. He said more than 6,000 people have subscribed to e-mail updates, compared to approximately 800 before the PBS appearance.
Jackson is no newbie to the business, with more than 30 years of experience in journalism covering Washington for The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press and CNN.
And even though the site has been up for less than two months, there seems to be no shortage of reports. With headlines such as "Facts Take a Bath at Democratic Debate," "Puncturing a Republican Tax Fable" and "Edwards Ad Falsely Claims Taxes Have Increased," it seems there's no shortage of material for Jackson and his co-workers.
At first glance, the site might seem to have a rightward bent. After all, as of Friday there were 14 stories posted striking down various claims by Democrats versus only eight that do the same to Republicans.
Jackson said there's a simple reason: The Democrats are just talking more right now.
"For the time we've been active, the fact is Democrats have been doing most of the talking," he said, "and Democrats have been accusing each other of lying not infrequently, and we've had to spend a disproportionate amount of time sorting that sort of thing out.
"You'll find more articles about Democrats than about Republicans on our site at the moment, but that's purely as a result of the fact that we're in a hot Democratic nomination contest. That, obviously, will change as the general election approaches."
Jackson said one of his favorite busts on political spinners came when a Republican congressman issued a press release saying that the average after-tax income had gone up, contrary to census figures that stated that incomes had actually gone down by a full percentage point.
Researchers at Fact Check delved into the House Joint Economic Committee meeting records, where the congressman claimed the figures came from, and they came to find that this figure was based on an experimental way of calculating after-tax figures that did not factor in capital gains income.
"You just know that's going to be used by every Republican speech writer in the coming campaign and then cite the Joint Economic Committee of Congress," Jackson said, "when what they're really citing is a Republican staff member who wrote a press release at the joint economic committee.
"It did not reflect a bipartisan view," he continued.
Republican staff member Christopher Frenze was so upset by the article that he wrote a letter demanding a retraction. According to the article about the retraction, researchers re-checked their facts, then published Frenze's letter along with a statement that the group stood by its facts.
The Annenberg Political Fact Check can be accessed at www.factcheck.org.
OK, so it was last year, but President George W. Bush referred to them as "weapons of mass destruction-related programs" when talking about the war in Iraq in his State of the Union speech last week.
And when the liberal activist group moveon.org criticized Bush's drug prescription plan by asserting that the pharmaceutical companies made "huge" contributions to his campaign, they failed to mention that the total contributions made by these companies is just under $900,000 for both his 2000 and 2004 campaigns. In other words, the industry doesn't even rank in his top 30 supporters.
These inaccuracies and others like them are being brought to the forefront by the non-partisan Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, which has started the Annenberg Political Fact Check at www.factcheck.org.
The site launched in December, and Fact Check Director Brooks Jackson said site traffic is up dramatically since he appeared on NOW With Bill Moyers just more than a week ago. He said more than 6,000 people have subscribed to e-mail updates, compared to approximately 800 before the PBS appearance.
Jackson is no newbie to the business, with more than 30 years of experience in journalism covering Washington for The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press and CNN.
And even though the site has been up for less than two months, there seems to be no shortage of reports. With headlines such as "Facts Take a Bath at Democratic Debate," "Puncturing a Republican Tax Fable" and "Edwards Ad Falsely Claims Taxes Have Increased," it seems there's no shortage of material for Jackson and his co-workers.
At first glance, the site might seem to have a rightward bent. After all, as of Friday there were 14 stories posted striking down various claims by Democrats versus only eight that do the same to Republicans.
Jackson said there's a simple reason: The Democrats are just talking more right now.
"For the time we've been active, the fact is Democrats have been doing most of the talking," he said, "and Democrats have been accusing each other of lying not infrequently, and we've had to spend a disproportionate amount of time sorting that sort of thing out.
"You'll find more articles about Democrats than about Republicans on our site at the moment, but that's purely as a result of the fact that we're in a hot Democratic nomination contest. That, obviously, will change as the general election approaches."
Jackson said one of his favorite busts on political spinners came when a Republican congressman issued a press release saying that the average after-tax income had gone up, contrary to census figures that stated that incomes had actually gone down by a full percentage point.
Researchers at Fact Check delved into the House Joint Economic Committee meeting records, where the congressman claimed the figures came from, and they came to find that this figure was based on an experimental way of calculating after-tax figures that did not factor in capital gains income.
"You just know that's going to be used by every Republican speech writer in the coming campaign and then cite the Joint Economic Committee of Congress," Jackson said, "when what they're really citing is a Republican staff member who wrote a press release at the joint economic committee.
"It did not reflect a bipartisan view," he continued.
Republican staff member Christopher Frenze was so upset by the article that he wrote a letter demanding a retraction. According to the article about the retraction, researchers re-checked their facts, then published Frenze's letter along with a statement that the group stood by its facts.
The Annenberg Political Fact Check can be accessed at www.factcheck.org.
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