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FactCheck.org

Supposed fact-checking site that's occasionally gotten things wrong (link, link) or shown bias (factcheck.org/elections-2008/wrong_paul.html).

Claims to have seen Barack Obama's "Certificate of Live Birth", and posted pictures of it to their website. However, on the same page they claim that the state of Hawaii has verified that Obama was born in Honolulu; those who state that definitively are lying since no definitive proof of his birthplace has yet been provided.

They are "funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation" (factcheck.org/about), the same foundation that started the Chicago Annenberg Challenge which was headed up by Barack Obama.

Last modified Sep 7, 2014
Discussed in (click each link for the full post):

Viveca Novak of Fact Check misleads about immigration impact on jobs - 05/15/10

Viveca Novak of FactCheck offers "Does Immigration Cost Jobs? /Economists say immigration, legal or illegal, doesn't hurt American workers" (factcheck.org/2010/05/does-immigration-cost-jobs). It's yet another misleading attempt to try to convince people that what they see happening with their own eyes is not happening. 1. It includes this highly misleading claim:

FactCheck furiously spins healthcare coverage for illegal aliens; Obama still right! - 09/11/09

FactCheck offers "Obama’s Health Care Speech/We fact-check the president's address to Congress and the nation" (factcheck.org/2009/09/obamas-health-care-speech) which to a certain extent contradicts claims made by their own director Brooks Jackson back on August 14. At that time, he said it was "False" that "Illegal Immigrants Will Be Covered" under the House bill; his claim itself is false. With the new article they're at least admitting that those who point out that illegal aliens would be covered "have a point", but they furiously spin things - surprise! - to Obama's benefit: [In his...

Blogger: FactCheck misattributed chain email to me ("Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200") - 08/30/09

FactCheck offers "Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200" (factcheck.org/2009/08/twenty-six-lies-about-hr-3200), a discussion of a chain email for which they say: A notorious analysis of the House health care bill contains 48 claims. Twenty-six of them are false and the rest mostly misleading. Only four are true. FactCheck recently misled about illegal aliens being covered under the House bill and for that and other reasons they aren't a credible source. However, I'm going to leave pointing out what if anything they got wrong in this case to those who are experts on the bil. In this case, they make...

Brooks Jackson of FactCheck misleads about illegal aliens and ObamaCare - 08/24/09

On August 14, Brooks Jackson, Viveca Novak, Lori Robertson and Jess Henig of FactCheck offered the misleading article "Seven Falsehoods About Health Care" (factcheck.org/2009/08/seven-falsehoods-about-health-care), proving once again that Fact Check is not a credible source. They misleadingly claim that illegal aliens won't be covered under Obama healthcare, pointing to Section 246 of H.R. 3200 which says: Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States. For why that's highly misleading...

Hawaii has not authenticated the Certifications of Live Birth shown on Obama's site or on FactCheck - 08/08/09

Various sources have claimed or implied that Hawaii has verified or authenticated the pictures of a "Certification of Live Birth" ("COLB") as pictured on Obama's website. Or, they've claimed that Hawaiian officials have said that what's shown on his site matches what they have on file. Those claims are false. From this: In response to a direct question from WND, the Hawaii Department of Health refused to authenticate either of the two versions of President Obama's short-form Certificate of Live Birth, or COLB, posted online – neither the image produced by the Obama campaign nor the images...

FactCheck's "Born in the U.S.A." as of December 7, 2008 - 12/07/08

Included below is the content of the FactCheck page retrieved from factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html on December 7, 2008. Screengrabs were taken, each of which is less than 200k: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8. The page content follows the graphic showing the part about which FactCheck lied: Born in the U.S.A. August 21, 2008 Updated: November 1, 2008 The truth about Obama's birth certificate. Summary In June, the Obama campaign released a digitally scanned image of his birth certificate to quell speculative charges that he might not be a...

Brooks Jackson/FactCheck spins Obama's Civilian National Security Force - 11/13/08

One of the mistakes that Obama opponents kept engaging in during the election was to make exaggerated or not 100% legalistically formulated claims (e.g., "palling around"). The MSM then jumped on the exaggerated part of those statements in order to draw attention away from the parts that were true. And, Brooks Jackson of FactCheck uses that technique in his discussion of Rep. Paul Broun's remarks about Obama's "civilian national security force": factcheck.org/askfactcheck/is_obama_planning_a_gestapo-like_civilian_national.html Jackson quotes the Obama speech as I did here, and ends with: Does...

Where was Barack Obama born? In Hawaii? In Kenya? Somewhere else? - 10/19/08

(Please see the Obama citizenship page for the latest.) Was Barack Obama born in Hawaii, or Kenya, or somewhere else? He claims to have been born in Hawaii, but no definitive proof has been provided. It is a false statement to definitively state that he was born in Hawaii, as some media sources have done. The most they should state is that there's a very strong possibility that he was born in Hawaii and he claims to have been born there, but some reporters and other sources cross the line into pretending that the matter has been settled. The matter has not been settled, and in fact...

Justin Rood/ABC: no worries about voting fraud! (Dem-linked experts say; ACORN) - 10/17/08

Justin Rood of ABC News offers "McCain Acorn Fears Overblown/Charges of Voter Fraud Are Out of Proportion to Reality, They Say" (link). As it turns out, the "they" refers to three sources: a Barack Obama contributor, a former director of the leftwing, illegal immigration-supporting People for the American Way, and FactCheck. No others sources are allowed to weigh in.

Barack Obama funded radical Afro-centric schools (Annenberg Challenge, Rev. Wright) - 10/14/08

Just a couple days ago, both Politfact and FactCheck told us that the Chicago Annenberg Challenge ("CAC") - as run by Barack Obama - was only involved in "mainstream" educational projects. Now, it turns out that CAC gave $200,000 to Chicago's Coalition for Improved Education in South Shore ("CIESS"). That ran the South Shore African Village Collaborative ("SSAVC"), which was a network of Afrocentric schools, based on various radical teachings. Needless to say, BHO's hack apologists like the anti-American Jason Zengerle will try to downplay this (link). However, it's clear that Barack...

Bill Ayers in 2006: "education is the motor-force of revolution" (in Venezuela, with Hugo Chavez) - 10/11/08

Bill Ayers (who's just some guy in Barack Obama's neighborhood and/or someone he used to serve on a couple boards with) gave a speech in November 2006 (when Obama was just 45 years old) at the World Education Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. The full text of his speech is at his site: billayers.wordpress.com/2006/11/07/world-education-forum with a copy here, and a discussion here. The speech is a bit... radical.

Justin Rood/ABC News misleads about Sarah Palin divestment from Sudan - 10/03/08

Followers of the MSM's attempt to destroy Sarah Palin have probably noticed a trend: the MSM reports something that's false or misleading and uses the "recollections" of a Democratic politician from Alaska as their authority on the matter. That's then picked up by the blogs and amplified, until such time as a new smear is ready. Thus it is that Justin Rood of ABC News offers "Record Refutes Palin's Sudan Claim/Palin Administration Against Sudan Divestment Before It Was For It, Documents Show" (link). The main quote source in the article is Alaskan Democratic politician Les Gara, who's also...

Sarah Palin/Joe Biden vice presidential debate live coverage 10/2/08 - 10/02/08

Summary: Palin "won", in that she held her own, which was much better than the MSM and the "pundits" expected (and hoped). She didn't eviscerate Biden (even though she got in a subtle dig against Michelle Obama), but simply by being able to match him she hasn't doomed the McCain campaign and her folksy ways probably helped a good deal. She's also shown herself not to be the monster that the MSM has tried to portray her as. Commencing now.. Biden implies that madrassas aren't schools. I'm sure he knows, but... Palin had a "good conversation" with Henry Kissinger. Oh my. Was David Rockefeller...

FactCheck recompresses, removes EXIF data from Obama birth certificate photos - 09/30/08

Back on August 21, FactCheck released photos apparently showing Barack Obama's birth certificate (actually his "Certification of Live Birth" or "COLB"). At the time, I noted that the EXIF information (added by the camera) showed that the pictures had been shot months before and I mentioned such possibilities as them not setting up their camera correctly, a bad battery, and the like.

Sarah Palin rape kit smear: chronology (Mary Pemberton/AP, DailyKos, Americablog, Eric Croft, Obama campaign) - 09/29/08

Since around September 8, various sites and news organizations have tried to push the smear that Sarah Palin knowingly charged victims in Wasilla, Alaska for rape kits, and that her city stood alone in that practice. As it turns out, those claims are false (link). How did this start? A chronology is here [1], and an amplification is below. One of the "hidden hands" behind the smear appears to be Alaskan Democrats, such as former Democratic state representative Eric Croft, quoted in the AP story on 9/11 and the CNN story on 9/23. The Obama campaign apparently first got involved around 9/15,...

Barack Obama threatens licenses of stations running NRA ad (National Rifle Association) - 09/25/08

The National Rifle Association is running an advertising campaign (their site) highlighting what they say is Barack Obama's "10 Point Plan to 'Change' the Second Amendment". Their various claims involve him wanting to ban handguns, certain types of ammunition, and so forth. Needless to say, the Obama campaign disagrees, and in fact they've gone as far as issue a not-so-veiled threat against the licenses of those radio stations that are running the ad.

FactCheck looks, can't find "Chicago Way" (McCain Obama ad) - 09/23/08

Viveca Novak and Justin Bank of Fact Check offer "Guilt and Associations/McCain once again tries to tar Obama with the controversies of others" about the John McCain ad "Chicago Machine" (factcheck.org/elections-2008/guilt_and_associations.html). The ad links Barack Obama to William Daley, Emil Jones, Tony Rezko, Rod Blagojevich. Per them, the first isn't dirty, the second is only a little dirty, and there's no evidence that BHO was involved in any funny business with the last two.

John McCain ad was right and Barack Obama, MSM misled about BHO's kindergartener sex education bill - 09/16/08

Earlier this month the John McCain campaign released an ad (link, video link) saying in part: "Obama's one accomplishment? Legislation to teach "comprehensive sex education" to kindergartners. Learning about sex before learning to read? Barack Obama. This has led to a wide variety of BHO supporters - specifically those in the MSM - calling McCain a liar. To a certain extent, they have somewhat of a point: the bill might not be an "accomplishment" for BHO since he was just a supporter and not a co-sponsor and since it never passed. And, the McCain campaign might not have correctly...

FactCheck presents real Barack Obama birth certificate. Or do they... - 08/21/08

The twists and turns surrounding Barack Obama's birth certificate appear to have ended with FactCheck.org claiming that they've seen and handled the real certificate, complete with an official stamp and everything. They've even got pictures here. Well, that ends that! Except, all they have is the "Certification of Live Birth" (known in the trade as a "COLB"), and not the original birth certificate or a "long form" certificate containing things like parents' cities, etc. And, for some strange reason - as pointed out in a comment here - the EXIF information on their photos shows that at least...

Barack Obama's "civilian national security force" (????) - 07/12/08

Back on July 2, Barack Obama read his "public service" address, and it contained this line that hasn't received much notice: "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set... We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded." What the Sam Hill? There's nothing at his Service page (barackobama.com/issues/service) discussing anything near such a program. He wants to increase the size of Americorps, create a "Homeland Security Corps", create other specialized groups,...

Lindsey Graham denies NAU, smears Buddy Witherspoon (Beth Brotherton/WYFF; Robert Morris/Myrtle Beach Online) - 05/28/08

Buddy Witherspoon is a dentist from Columbia, South Carolina who's challenging Senator Lindsay Graham, and he's apparently basing his campaign around opposition to illegal immigration and also opposition to the North American Union. Rather than asking for evidence of plans for a NAU and doing research, Beth Brotherton from WYFF News 4 turned to Graham: "I think most Americans would find it hard to believe, it is hard to believe, a baseless Internet rumor...

Barack Obama lies, falsely accuses Dobbs, Limbaugh of inciting hate crimes - 05/23/08

At a Florida fundraiser yesterday, Barack Obama said this: "A certain segment has basically been feeding a kind of xenophobia. There's a reason why hate crimes against Hispanic people doubled last year... If you have people like Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh ginning things up, it's not surprising that would happen." Those statements are beyond reprehensible, and come close to accusing Dobbs and Limbaugh of breaking the law. And, the reason he did it is because he's completely corrupt, hoping to obtain political power by supporting illegal immigration. Rather than supporting our laws as a U.S...

Is Barack Obama a Muslim who practices Islam and who attended a madrassa? - 01/27/08

Is Barack Obama a Muslim who practices Islam and who attended a madrassa (madrasa) in Indonesia? Despite whatever emails you might have received, it appears that the answer to that is no. According to him, he's a "committed Christian" (link). His church is the Trinity United Church of Christ, whose pastor has made some rather questionable statements.

Barack Obama's extremist church? (Trinity United Church of Christ) - 01/17/08

Does Barack Obama belong to an anti-white, far-left church? Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ certainly appears to have made some interesting statements (link, link, link). The last includes excerpts from Obama's book.

Brooks Jackson of FactCheck, fact checked (Newt Gingrich on Senate amnesty) - 06/27/07

Brooks Jackson, Emi Kolawole & Lori Robertson of FactCheck.org offer "Gingrich Distorts Immigration Bill".

"Overstating Border Reform's Price" doesn't tell whole story - 09/16/06

Robert Greenstein and James Horney of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities offer "Overstating Border Reform's Price". It's strikingly similar to the Palm Beach Post editorial "Real immigration reform also comes at good price" of a couple weeks ago.

"Need some wood?" - 10/08/04

I'm sure all America got quite a laugh out of that Bush line in last night's debate. Unfortunately: ...Kerry startled Bush by saying that the president is counted as a small business for tax purposes because he once earned $84 from a timber company he owns. "I own a timber company?" Bush asked.

Let's all go to FactCheck.org - 10/06/04

From FactCheck.org (watch that TLD!): Edwards said Halliburton "did business with Libya and Iran, two sworn enemies of the United States" and is now "under investigation for having bribed foreign officials" while Cheney was CEO. Iran: Indeed, Halliburton has said it does about $30 million to $40 million in oilfield service business in Iran annually through a subsidiary, Halliburton Products and Services Ltd.

10/5 VP Debate thread - 10/05/04

Just answer the question, please... What about what Bremer said? Two minutes later, Cheney had not only not answered her question, he said he'd do it all over again. He might have left some wiggle room there; perhaps he wouldn't have done it exactly the same way... Edwards is stressing that he and Kerry support the troops... Edwards is bringing up Tora Bora just like Kerry did... Cheney is bringing up Kerry's U.N. comments...