That headline in today's paper likely expressed the thoughts of many people who have observed the nation's political discourse in recent weeks. Dubious claims have been made during debates, in news sound bites and in the numerous political ads in the state's media.
Sorting through the claims is a valuable service being provided by news organizations and independent groups. This is not a new trend, but independent professionals have been especially good and timely with this task this year. Here is an analysis of statements made by Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain during Tuesday's nationally televised debate in Nashville.
For more on the reliability of statements made by the candidates for national office, visit FactCheck.org, a consumer service of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenburg Public Policy Center.
North Carolina has been dubbed one of the "battleground" states this year, so what the presidential candidates say is getting a lot of attention. But we are also giving lots of attention to the critical statewide races and have made getting to the truth of statements made by those candidates a priority. Here are some examples of the work we have produced to date.
Look for more in the remaining weeks before Election Day.
Linda Williams
Linda Williams is a native of Fayetteville and graduate of UNC-CH. Her journalistic experience includes working at The Oregonian, The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. She can be reached at 
Comments
How Governor Sarah Palin is superior to Senator Barak Obama in l
Sat, 10/25/2008 - 13:08 — johnwarren7Our beautiful soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is the best future leader for this nation, not Senator Barak Obama. Our beautiful soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is also would be better at leading our nation in the future after a McCain Presidency than Senator Barak Obama would be in leading our nation in the future starting in January 2009. There are great reasons our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin would be a better future leader than Senator Barak Obama. The greatest reason for our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin's is ideology. Our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is conservative in that she is pro life, marriage, guns, low taxes, low government spending, small government, unintrosive government, traditional and judeo Christian values, Bible reading and prayer in our public schools, and military spending.She is also pro free and private enterprize. Senator Barak Obama is a liberal who is anti every thing that I have described that our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is pro about or for. A second reason that our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is superior is because of experience. As a governor she has two years of executive administrative governing experience that Senator Barak Obama does not have. A final reason that our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin is superior is because of political accomplishments. When our soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin came to office she accomplished 3 major things which are as follows: she showed great leadership in the 3 following areas: government reform, the state budget and the economy, and wise use of natural resources. She reformed government by standing up to the big oil companies by breaking up the monopoly on power and resources. She insisted on competition and basic fairness which ended the control that the oil companies had on the state, and thereby returning control of the state back to the people. She also stood up to the special interest and lobbyist, and produced major ethics reform. She lead well in the state budget by generating a surplus which came about by vetoing a half billion dollars of wasteful spending, ending the abuses of earmark spending by congress, and by getting rid of the private jet, the chef, and the chuffer. Economically under her leadership she brought about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history. She also suspended the state fuel tax, and when oil and gas prices went up dramatically, and filled up the state treasury, she sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged - directly to the people of Alaska . On natural resources she has shown great leadership by beginning a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence. When the last section of the pipeline is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart. Senator Barak Obama has done nothing, so please vote John McCain for President and give to our beautiful soon to be Vice President Sarah Palin the opportunity that she deserves leading the nation into the future after a John McCain presidency. When our soon to be Vice President does lead the nation as President after a John McCain presidency,she will be the greatest President that we have ever had. Finally she is smarter than Senator Barak Obama
Thank You
John Warren
On the other hand...
Thu, 10/09/2008 - 13:47 — fredwombleSimply read Dan Gearino to get the perspective of one N&O executive. Then decide the motive for this blog post.
http://gearino.com/?p=340
http://gearino.com/?p=342
http://gearino.com/?p=343
It's rather comical that the N&O continues to proceed "business as usual" despite the exposure of its internal bias and gross unprofessionalism in the news room. Hard to decide what is worse, the blatant partisanship or the 4th grade writing level by a fellow journalism grad. Whatever the case, this episode simply demonstrates that the definition of journalism has been changed and the entire profession is damaged as a result. Someone at the N&O should be looking for a new job, yet remains as an "Editors' Blog" poster. And I will be cancelling my subscription upon its expiration.
"Facts are stupid things"
Wed, 10/08/2008 - 19:22 — grahams_ghostI'm really disappointed in this half-hearted attempt at "objectivity" that has become the hallmark of lazy thinking and shoddy research at most media outlets these days. But this is pretty much what many feared when the Daniels family sold the paper.
Less than 3 minutes of my own research yielded the following:
Factcheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation. The current president, chairman, and sole director of the Foundation is Leonore Annenberg.
You can inspect the public record of Leonore Annenberg's political donations--lots of them, almost entirely to right-wing Republicans-- here.
Leonore Annenberg was ranked the 386th wealthiest person in the world by Forbes Magazine in 2006.
I do hope that they're not letting people through Carroll Hall with background research that is this watered down.