Under the headline “Democratic Disinformation From Charlotte,” the website Factcheck.org (9/5/12) took aim at this “dubious or misleading claim”:
Rep. James Clyburn
Rep. James Clyburn engaged in partisan myth-making when he said “Democrats created Social Security” while Republicans “cursed the darkness.” History records strong bipartisan support in both House and Senate for the measure President Roosevelt signed in 1935.
Later, in explaining this judgment, Factcheck wrote:
For sure, there was opposition to the legislation. Sen. Daniel Hastings, a Delaware Republican, warned that it would “end the progress of a great country,” as the New York Times reported. But Hastings was in the minority, even within his own party, when it came to voting on the bill.
Well, let’s factcheck Factcheck. According to the Congressional Research Service’s legislative history of Social Security (12/19/86), Hastings didn’t just warn against Social Security, he offered an amendment to the Social Security Act “to strike out the old-age benefits provisions from the bill.” The amendment was defeated 15 to 63—but with 12 Republicans in favor and just seven opposed.
So while a majority of Republicans voted for the final bill—which also included assistance for the blind and abandoned children, among other things—most of them had already gone on record as opposing the Social Security part of the Social Security Act.
Likewise, in the House, Rep. Allen Treadway (R.-Mass.), arguing that “business and industry are already operating under very heavy burdens,” offered an amendment to send the bill back to committee in order to kill it. That amendment failed—with 95 Republicans voting for it and one Republican voting against it.
So is it fair to say that Democrats created Social Security? Certainly. Is it accurate to say that it had strong bipartisan support? No, that’s entirely misleading.
Factcheck‘s other observations from the DNC largely offered more spin and special pleading. “Democrats who accuse [Romney] of proposing a middle-income tax increase are misrepresenting what he’s said”—because “he could choose, for example, to renege on his promise to cut rates or to keep the amount of revenue neutral rather than violate his promise not to raise taxes on those in the middle.”
Gov. Pat Quinn (photo by Chris Eaves)
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn “made the misleading claim that Romney ‘added $2.6 billion in debt.’… To be sure, long-term debt increased by $2.7 billion during Romney’s tenure. But that’s nothing out of the ordinary.”
Factcheck claims to be “holding Democrats to the same standards we applied in last week’s coverage of the Republican convention.” That’s true in the sense that Factcheck‘s real standard is that it will always find roughly the same degree of dishonesty on both sides—because otherwise it would not be seen as a neutral, nonpartisan arbiter by the very serious people.
Is FactCheck Unbiased?
http://mommylife.net/archives/2009/08/factcheckorg_-_1.html
FactCheck.org – Annenberg- Obama – Ayers connection
Apparently FactCheck is being used to refute conservative claims concerning Obamacare.
But we established before the election that FactCheck is not reliable – just another manifestation of the wolf in sheep’s clothing – a front for Obama:
Laura asked:
This is a side note to all the election talk, but do you know how I might find the party affiliation of the staffers of factcheck.org? I don’t even care if I know specifically about each individual, but I’m very interested in this “non-partisan” site, staffed by very real people, with very real opinions, wondering where they sit on party lines – how many of the staffers are affiliated with which party, etc..
Yes, this is very interesting.
Turns out that FactCheck – which everyone has been referring to as if it were the political Bible, is a baby of the Annenberg Foundation.
Yes, that is THE Annenberg Foundation:
Senator Obama was the first Chairman of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, which was a Division, or Project, of the Annenberg Foundation.the one with a board connected to William Ayers and Barack Obama.
See Obama’s connections to FactCheck.Org exposed
Here are the key players at FactCheck.
I actually referred to FactCheck a few times myself and relied on their word until I got wise to their true role in protecting Obama’s candidacy.
Btw, Snopes is also problematic in that its founders are extremely liberal. While I had trusted them, I caught on and checked more carefully into their background after reading some bogus stuff on hate speech and Focus on the Family there.
Google Snopes liberal bias to read other observations.
An informed electorate is an empowered electorate!
Read all my campaign commentary here.
You definitely want to spread the word on this one.
Love,
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In response to Barb: Or y’know, we may just have to face the painfully hard fact that, as Mr. Colbert once bemoaned, “Truth has a liberal bias!”
If the majority of Republicans voted for it, Social Security, by definition, had strong bi-partisan support. Whether they liked it is another matter. What matters is how they voted, and what became law.
Congresspeople hold their noses all the time and vote for things they don’t like on both sides of the aisle, because it will get them support on things they do like. It’s been like that since the beginning, and isn’t likely to stop soon.
Barb –
I don’t know where you got the info on Snopes or that the people, the Mikelsons, who started and run Snopes are liberals, but it is wrong. The Wikipedea article on Snopes puts it this way:
“Snopes receives more complaints of liberal than conservative bias,[26] but insists that it applies the same debunking standards to all political urban legends. FactCheck reviewed a sample of Snopes’ responses to political rumors regarding George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Barack Obama, and found them to be free from bias in all cases. FactCheck noted that Barbara Mikkelson was a Canadian citizen (and thus unable to vote in US elections) and David Mikkelson was an independent who was once registered as a Republican. “You’d be hard-pressed to find two more apolitical people,” David Mikkelson told them.[26][27].”
As for Fact Check, if anything in veers a little right. It is part of “The Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism one of the foremost programs of its kind in the United States. The school fosters dynamic synergies and multidisciplinary approaches to the study of communication and journalism through unparalleled access to the nation’s and the world’s entertainment, mass media and technology industries. With more than 83 full-time faculty members and 120 adjunct professors, more than 2,200 undergraduate and graduate students are served. The school houses dozens of research and public interest programs, including the Norman Lear Center and the Knight Digital Media Center. USC Annenberg has become a center for discussion among scholars and professionals in journalism, communication, public policy, media, and education.” As part of that school we have “The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania which developed FactCheck.org. Factcheck.org monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.” It is probably the best of the fact checkers around today. The one to be concerned about is Politifact which had been caught frequently in reporting inaccurately on both sides.
“PolitiFact has been both praised and criticized by independent observers, conservatives, and liberals alike. Conservative bias and liberal bias have been alleged, and criticisms have been made of attempts to fact-check statements that cannot be truly ‘fact-checked.’ “
If you delve into the history you would find that both parties have changed so much from those times, that is a completely spurious argument to compare and contrast what drove them then….and what drives then now.Dems in those days were the home of the KLAN.Against equal rights on many levels.So when you look back that far you really are not seeing the parties as they are today.Kennedy would never recognize the Dem party as it now stands.”It is not what your country gives to you,it is what you give to your country “indeed!
Michael E. needs a “factcheck.” Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
Barb Curtis, a troll trying to feed traffic to her website of lies, needs a factcheck as well. Remember the Ten Commandments, Barb: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Tsk, tsk.
BARB is just another Fox-zombie-type who (futilely) tries to discredit fact-check and watchdog sites by accusing them of “liberal bias” simply because she gets her panties in a wad every time they debunk a conservative myth or call out a conservative lie.
(I’m female, so don’t jump all over me for the “sexist” remark).
The bottom line is fact-check and watchdog sites SEEM to be left-leaning because the majority of their work focuses on the conservatives. Why? Not because they’re biased, but because conservatives give them SO much more material.
Exactly right, TD.
TD your last paragraph is so revealing.How in Gods name can the conservatives be “focused’ on more so than the party in charge?Because THEY give soooo much more material?More than thee president of the united states?More than his bully pulpit?More than the massive problems this country is dealing with?Problems that stop at the presidents desk?Problems that have grown over the last four years?Yet those out of power,are the ones being focused on?Nothing this administration has done has worked.Yet those who stand in opposition to those failures are the greater focus of the media and so called fact checkers?You have just testified that there is in fact a bias!
Not bias, michael e. Lies. As in, the conservatives tell a great deal more lies, hence more material.
It’s funny (in a pathetic kind of way) that you blame the president for everything, yet you forget that he’s not a dictator. He is just one small part of a massive system of checks & balances with less real power than you seem to realize.
Td
I Dont know what to say to people much of the time who believe anything this president has done has worked.We are soon to be in debt to the tune of 17 trillion.Some have said the real numbers are 200 trillion.Our derivative costs soon will approach 1 quadrillion(that is a q)Soon the only possible course will be to collapse the dollar, claim insolvency, and start over again.The world banks roar at such reality.You call those who question the man in charge…… liars.Wow.So they are the liars?
Ben Bernanke head of the fed last night approved the immediate printing of more money to stave off collapse.To stave off double digit inflation.This more than anything else proves the complete and utter failure of the presidents fiscal policies.His answer as always.Print and spend, and keep one step ahead of the coming tidal wave of dept.Grow the economy(sic)by raising taxes,and imposing new social programs with more taxation attached?Im at a loss…..So we have a president residing over a collapse on all fronts in his foreign policy.All fronts in his fiscal policies.Who resides over thee most divisive years in this country that we can recall.With class warfare enacted as an integral part of his power base.He strives to separate us.Did you not notice that not once in his DNC speech did he mention the word “record”.Average is 20X for a presidents speech.He wants us to forget it.TD all his policies have not failed because they were blocked.They have failed because they were passed!Today the Obama press came out putting Obama ahead on all fronts in this election cycle in their polls.Less aligned pollsters screamed out that those polls were in fact fixed, and wildly inaccurate.Re polling is showing now those numbers were in fact inaccurate.Your side is growing frenzied.You need to calm down.The transfer of power will as always go smoothly.We are after all…ALL Americans.A question………As our own president cant mention his record…..how is it you take up his flag to defend it?
“Some have said the real numbers are 200 trillion.”
Who has said this, michael e? Certainly not any credible source.
“Our derivative costs soon will approach 1 quadrillion(that is a q).”
Good grief, hyperbole much? Again, where are your sources?
Regardless, the deficit doesn’t matter (the ONLY thing Cheney was right about). It’s simply an excuse to impose harmful (and completely unnecessary) austerity measures to further divide the classes.
“You call those who question the man in charge…… liars.Wow.So they are the liars?”
Yes, they are liars, michael e. And they certainly are not “questioning” Obama. They are making factually inaccurate STATEMENTS.
“the fed…approved the immediate printing of more money to stave off collapse.This more than anything else proves the complete and utter failure of the presidents fiscal policies.”
Careful, michael e. Your ignorance of our monetary system is showing. In reality, the Fed is an independent entity, and the president has no control over its policy decisions. Do your homework.
“imposing new social programs…”
Interesting choice of words. I’m sure those surviving due to the social safety net feel its such an “imposition” on them.
“So we have a president residing over a collapse on all fronts in his foreign policy.”
Really? So, ending the Iraq war, ridding the world of bin Laden, and winding down Afghanistan… those are foreign policy failures? How’s the weather in your parallel universe?
“Who resides over thee [sic] most divisive years in this country that we can recall.”
That’s due to media outlets like Fox and figures like Limbaugh spouting their hate, bigotry and lies.
“not once in his DNC speech did he mention the word “record” [because] he wants us to forget it.”
Right. That’s why a video highlighting Obama’s accomplishments (including healthcare reform, the auto industry bailout, killing bin Laden, etc.) was played right before his acceptance speech.
With regard to polls, they ALL are a farce. Their ONLY purpose is to gauge how influential/successful the mainstream media has been in their attempts to propagandize the masses.
House: Republican: 81 yes 15 No 75% support
Senate 16 Yes 5 No 4 no vote 56% support. Fact: Majority of Republicans supported Social Security.
Same with the democrats. That is all Joe Friday wants, all we want are the facts.