<h3>Viral Spiral 2012</h3>

The worst crackpot claims, paranoid conspiracy theories and malicious lies of 2012.<h3>Gun Rhetoric vs. Gun Facts</h3>

We offer facts and context as a national gun-control debate intensifies.<h3>Chained Explained</h3>

A more accurate inflation adjustment could cut $300 billion from the deficit.<h3>Facing Facts on Fiscal Cliff</h3>

How did the U.S. reach a 'fiscal cliff' and what does it mean?
The WireFeatured Articles

Our Annual Year-end Appeal

December 17
Donate_thumb

During the presidential campaign, the Obama campaign emailed fundraising appeals with subject lines such as “This is critical” and “Absolutely urgent” to lament how the Democrats were being outraised and outspent by Republicans. But here’s something to consider: The Obama and Romney campaigns combined raised a record amount of more …
More >>

Fiscal Cliff Air Wars

December 13
Cliff

The presidential election ended last month, but the partisan air wars continue with competing fiscal cliff ads from the conservative Crossroads GPS and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Most of what is in the ads falls into the realm of opinion, but we found a couple points to quibble with …
More >>

Dueling Fiscal Cliff Deceptions

December 5
Boehner Geithner

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 …
More >>

Durbin (Again) Denies Social Security’s Red Ink

November 28
Durbin

Sen. Richard Durbin says that “Social Security does not add one penny to our debt.” That’s false. It was wrong 21 months ago, when Durbin said it once before, and it’s even more off the mark now. The federal government for the first time in its history had to borrow …
More >>

Group’s ‘Obamacare Tax Form’ Evades Facts

November 16
ObamaCare Tax Form2

A conservative group misleads taxpayers on the Affordable Care Act and the Internal Revenue Service’s future role in enforcing it. Americans for Tax Reform posted a “projected” IRS tax form on its website that claims to “help families and tax specialists prepare” for new tax provisions under the health care …
More >>

Facts Falling Off the Fiscal Cliff

November 14
johnboehner

In press conferences on the so-called fiscal cliff, House Speaker John Boehner greatly exaggerated the negative effect on the economy of raising taxes on upper-income individuals. Boehner erred when he said that “the problem with raising tax rates on the wealthiest Americans is that more than half of them are …
More >>

Obama’s Numbers, Updated

November 5
Numbers_Thumb

In the interest of timeliness and accuracy, we are issuing an updated version of “Obama’s Numbers,” our collection of key measures of the president’s time in office. A few things have changed since we published our original version Oct. 8 — some for better, and some for worse. The number …
More >>

The Final Attack Ads

November 2
Obama_SuperPAC4America

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 …
More >>

Campaign Funny Business

November 1
SecretaryofBusiness

An ad from the Romney campaign mocks President Obama’s proposal to create a “Secretary of Business,” but misrepresents the president’s proposal. The ad says that “his solution to everything is to add another bureaucrat.” But in fact, Obama’s plan actually seeks to consolidate more than a half dozen agencies, trim …
More >>

computer keyboard

Viral Spiral 2012

The constant battle against crackpot claims, paranoid conspiracy theories and malicious lies.

December 27

We’ve long warned our readers to make good use of the delete key when emails spreading sketchy claims pop up in their inboxes. But we’ve found that old viral emails, unfortunately, never die — and new ones spread like a highly contagious disease. These overwhelmingly anonymous messages are, by and large, bogus.
More >>

Brooks Jackson with Webby Award

Firefighters, Fact-Checking and American Journalism

A (sort of) farewell message from our departing director.

December 21

When I came to Annenberg and launched FactCheck.org in December 2003, I had a single research assistant and practically no competition. Now, nine years later, FactCheck.org has an excellent staff, and so many other journalists are fact-checking politicians that one media critic calls it “the ever-growing factchecking industry.” So I think …
More >>

guns

Gun Rhetoric vs. Gun Facts

We offer facts and context as a national gun-control debate intensifies.

December 20

The mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., has reignited a national debate on gun control. As elected leaders begin the dialogue, some facts are clear — there has been a massive increase in gun sales. Some things are not so clear — such as whether there is causation between more guns and more violent crimes. And some …
More >>

inflation-article

Chained Explained

A more accurate inflation adjustment could cut $300 billion from the deficit.

December 11

Using a more accurate cost-of-living adjustment for federal benefit payments and tax brackets would cut the federal deficit by perhaps $300 billion over the next 10 years. But it faces opposition from both right and left. Economists generally agree …
More >>

Fiscal FactCheck

Facing Facts on Fiscal Cliff

How did the U.S. reach a 'fiscal cliff' and what does it mean? Here are the facts.

November 30

The U.S. faces the possibility of another recession — the third in 11 years — if President Obama and Congress cannot find a way to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. The one-two combination of massive tax increases and spending cuts …
More >>

Survey

Our Subscribers Speak

Most say we're clear, accurate, useful and unbiased.

November 14

Once again, FactCheck.org’s subscribers tell us they find our articles to be clear, unbiased, accurate and useful. The results of our latest post-election survey are similar to those from surveys we conducted after the presidential elections …
More >>