November 23, 2009 1:39 pm ET
Fox News promotes GOP comparison of Senate health plan to a "Ponzi scheme"
The Fox Nation and FoxNews.com advanced the suggestion that Democrats' health care plans are, in Fox Nation's words, a "Ponzi scheme," a charge presumably based on Sen. Jon Kyl's (R-AZ) claim that "[w]hen they claim a savings ... in the first 10 years, that's because they start collecting taxes in 2010 they don't start spending money till 2014." In fact, contrary to Kyl's suggestion that savings would not extend past the first 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that the Senate health care bill would continue to reduce the deficit beyond the first 10 years by as much as $650 billion in the decade beginning after 2019.
November 23, 2009 12:50 pm ET
Wash. Times, FoxNews.com falsely claimed Justice IG report found that "ACORN mismanaged grant money"
The Washington Times and FoxNews.com falsely reported that a review by the Justice Department's inspector general of Justice Department grants to ACORN revealed that ACORN "mismanaged" grant funds. In fact, the IG report -- which identified one direct Justice grant to an ACORN affiliate and four subgrants to ACORN or ACORN affiliates between 2002 and 2009 -- did not address how ACORN or its affiliates managed these funds.
November 23, 2009 11:31 am ET
Quick Fact: Fox's Johnson falsely claims that Senate health care bill prevents payment for some screenings
While discussing U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendations on medical screenings, Fox News' Peter Johnson Jr. stated on Fox & Friends that "what we see now in the Senate bill is the Senate saying that if you get an A or a B, then it's gonna be paid for. If you get a C, it's not gonna be paid for." In fact, the bill requires only that insurers provide coverage for screenings that receive A or B recommendations from the task force; it says nothing about whether insurers may or may not cover other categories of recommendations.
November 23, 2009 7:44 am ET
Fox & Friends hosts falsely suggest Organizing for America director compared Palin to a terrorist
On Fox & Friends, co-hosts Gretchen Carlson, Brian Kilmeade, and Steve Doocy falsely suggested that Organizing for America director Mitch Stewart compared Sarah Palin to a terrorist when he wrote in a fundraising letter that her book tour is "dangerous." In fact, Stewart wrote that her tour is "dangerous" because Palin uses it as a platform to make false attacks on Democrats, and then the falsehoods are "widely covered by the media, then constantly echoed by right-wing attack groups."
November 22, 2009 3:13 pm ET
Quick Fact: Wallace falsely claims health bills direct task force to decide what services "aren't covered"
On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace falsely claimed that it's a "fact" that the House and Senate health care bills direct the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to "determine what services, what tests, screening, are covered and aren't covered," and asked whether that amounts to "government rationing." In fact, the bills require insurers to implement task force recommendations in favor of specific preventive care, but they are not required to adopt those that recommend against preventive screening.
November 21, 2009 10:47 pm ET
CNSNews' Jeffrey falsely suggests Senate bill "mandates federally subsidized abortion" inconsistent with Hyde Amendment
Terence Jeffrey, editor-in-chief of the conservative website CNSNews.com, falsely suggested that the Senate health care bill "would mandate federally subsidized abortion" in a manner inconsistent with the Hyde Amendment's restrictions on the types of abortions for which federal dollars can be used. But the section of the bill Jeffrey cited explicitly prohibits the use of federal funds to provide coverage for abortions that are currently restricted under Hyde, and requires segregation of non-federal funds from federal funds to pay for those procedures in a manner similar to that used in many states that cover such abortions under the federally subsidized Medicaid program.
November 21, 2009 4:22 pm ET
Quick Fact: WSJ's Freeman claims "there hasn't been any warming since 1998"; climate experts disagree
Wall Street Journal assistant editorial page editor James Freeman claimed that efforts to pass cap and trade legislation will fail because there is "no premise" for such legislation since "there hasn't been any warming since 1998," later adding that "there's no proof that this is happening as a result of man's activities, in fact, lately, it's not even happening anymore."
November 20, 2009 11:12 pm ET
Quick Fact: Hannity falsely claimed Gore was wrong to say British judge ruling on An Inconvenient Truth "favored his point of view"
In an interview with British filmmaker and climate change skeptic Phelim McAleer, Sean Hannity falsely claimed that Al Gore's statement that a 2007 ruling by a British judge about Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth, in Hannity's words, "favored his point of view" was "absolutely false."
November 20, 2009 10:47 pm ET
Quick Fact: Hannity falsely suggests Democratic health bills would "actually" only insure "12 million" people
Sean Hannity responded to a statement by Democratic strategist Jacques DeGraff that "We're on the threshold of taking care of 31 million Americans who don't have health insurance" by claiming that "It's actually 12 million" who would get insurance.
November 20, 2009 9:53 pm ET
Quick Fact: Fearmongering about rationing, Baier falsely claimed a "federal panel" promulgated cervical cancer guidelines
Special Report host Bret Baier falsely claimed that recently released cervical cancer screening guidelines were promulgated by a "federal panel," adding that those guidelines "open the door to this conversation about rationing." Additionally, Mara Liasson suggested that that the Senate health care reform bill would implement a task force's recommendations for breast cancer screenings when "writing the basic health care package that insurers who participate in these exchanges are going to offer."
November 20, 2009 8:04 pm ET
Limbaugh distorts apparently stolen emails to falsely claim global warming is "made up"
Rush Limbaugh -- who had previously condemned the "thugs" who hacked then-Gov. Sarah Palin's email account -- joined right-wing bloggers in touting a series of emails that were apparently stolen from the UK's Climate Research Unit [CRU]. Limbaugh proceeded to distort at least one of the emails in order to falsely suggest that it is evidence that global warming is "made up" and that leading climate scientists have been engaged in "substantial fraud."
November 20, 2009 6:18 pm ET
In LA video, O'Keefe and Giles expose their own dishonesty
In making public a video he withheld for more than two months, right-wing activist James O'Keefe finally acknowledged that a Los Angeles ACORN employee "would not assist us obtain a house for our illegal activities" -- an admission that directly contradicts claims by his colleague Hannah Giles that no ACORN employees refused to help them. Moreover, O'Keefe's claim in the video that the Los Angeles employee was the "only" ACORN employee who refused to help is contradicted by the fact that ACORN employees in two other cities contacted the police following their encounters with O'Keefe and Giles.
November 20, 2009 3:45 pm ET
Right-wing media put Obama on the couch for inch-deep analysis
Right-wing media figures, including Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, and The Washington Times' Wesley Pruden, have in recent days attacked President Obama while discussing his mental state. While claiming, "I'm not asking you to psychoanalyze the president," Beck asked psychiatrist and Fox News contributor Keith Ablow, "Are we crazy for saying something is not right?"; Savage offered a psychological diagnosis of Obama, claiming that the president has "deep psychological problems" and "deep-seated inferiority feelings."
November 20, 2009 3:19 pm ET
Morning Joe repeatedly airs Lieberman's false claim on public option
On November 20, MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough uncritically repeated Sen. Joe Lieberman's (I-CT) claim that "if you look at the campaign last year, the presidential, you can't find a mention of public option. It was added after the election as a part of what we normally consider health insurance reform." In fact, both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton proposed a public health insurance plan during the Democratic primary, and Obama continued to campaign on a health care reform plan that included a public option through the November 2008 election.
November 20, 2009 2:44 pm ET
Rove memory loss: Op-ed accuses Obama of "unusual" use of Friday news dumps
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, former Bush official Karl Rove criticized the "degree" to which the Obama administration has released "news on contentious issues late on Friday," adding that "such tactics ... can look disingenuous if they undercut public debate on substantive policy changes"; later on Fox & Friends, co-host Brian Kilmeade cited Rove's column and asserted that the administration's use of this tactic means it did not have to "confront the questioners." In fact, the Bush administration made numerous substantial and often controversial announcements on Fridays, including news about the Abu Ghraib scandal and a report related to the Pentagon's military analyst program.
November 20, 2009 2:29 pm ET
Quick Fact: Palin links nonbinding mammogram guidelines to "death panels"
On Laura Ingraham's radio show, Sarah Palin linked a task force's recent recommendations on breast cancer screenings to the widely debunked smear -- propagated by Palin -- that health care reform will include "death panels." Palin fearmongered about death panels despite the fact that the recommendations are not legally binding on health care providers or insurers.
November 20, 2009 2:22 pm ET
Quick Fact: Gateway Pundit claims Senate will vote on health care reform bill after "10 Hours" of debate
Trumpeting a Drudge Report headline, Gateway Pundit's Jim Hoft claimed that Senate Democrats "will only deliberate 10 hourson [sic] SATURDAY before they vote to nationalize one-sixth of the US economy." In fact, the Senate vote scheduled for Saturday is a vote on a cloture motion -- which would allow the full Senate to begin debate on the health care reform bill -- not a vote on whether to pass the bill, as Hoft suggested.
November 20, 2009 1:43 pm ET
Fox News' fearmongering: Nonbinding cancer screening recommendations are rationing
Fox News' Dr. Marc Siegel fearmongered that recent recommendations that younger women get fewer cervical cancer screenings represented a precursor of government rationing under health care reform. In fact, the guidelines, issued by a nongovernment medical organization, are the result of a medical review process reportedly initiated prior to the current health care debate and are not legally binding on insurers or health care providers.
November 20, 2009 1:36 pm ET
Fox News' Siegel falsely claims insurers would be required to deny preventive care under health care reform
In a November 19 New York Post column, Fox News contributor Dr. Marc Siegel cited task force recommendations against regular mammograms for some women to fearmonger that "under ObamaCare, guidelines will quickly become mandates" and that "[a]ll the major 'reform' bills create lots of new panels and other bureaucrats empowered to suggest things that doctors shouldn't do." But under Senate and House health care reform bills, insurers are required only to implement task force recommendations in favor of specific preventive care and are not required to adopt those that recommend against preventive screening.
November 20, 2009 12:21 pm ET
Ignoring key CBO findings, Fox News' Cameron misleads on cost of Senate health bill
In a report on the Senate health care reform bill for Fox News' Special Report, chief political correspondent Carl Cameron cited the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to claim that the Senate health care bill would increase federal health care spending over 10 years and that, in the decade after 2014, "the cost nearly triples to well over 2 trillion." But Cameron ignored CBO's conclusions that the bill would reduce federal deficits in both of the next two decades and that in the second decade, the bill would not increase net federal health care spending.
