January 04 ,2010

The Lie: "They[the delegation of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh] were part of a secure package [during their White House State Dinner in late November."

The Liar: Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said. referring to Indian Prime Minister Singh.

What Kind of Lie is It? : Standard bureaucratese designed to mute a major embarrassment.

Why is it a Lie?: Tareq Salahi, a vintner and polo player, and his wife Michaele, a self-proclaimed former model and an aspiring star of Real Housewives of DC, famously crashed the White House state dinner as uninvited guests late last year--raising serious questions about the competence of the Secret Service star.

 Augmented Reality: President Obama shakes hands with reality TV wannabe, Michaele Salahi.

 The Latest Development: It turns out the Salahis were not the only gate crashers that evening. As posted on Talking Points Memo, the Secret Service has fessed up, announcing "that a third individual, who was not on the White House guest list, entered the State Dinner." So far, it has declined to say who that person might be.

January 04 ,2010

Last Big Lie of the Year: "I didn't campaign on a public option."

The Liar: President Barack Obama. 

 

What Kind of a Lie is It?: Veteran political cynics may regard it as a garden variety campaign lie. Conservatives may be delighted with the reality and progressives may be irate. However, in view of Obama's promise to deliver "change we can believe in," and in view of Obama's campaign literature, it constitutes a major breach on a monumental policy issue that will effect tens of millions of people. None of which should come as a surprise to close observers of his September 9 speech on health care-- which was rousing rhetorically but nonetheless backed off this key aspect of health reform.

The Context: As the health care bill passed the Senate just before Christmas--and the public option fell by the wayside--Obama was asked specifically about it.

He responded:

"Every single criteria for reform that I put forward is in this bill. It is true that the Senate version does not have a public option....But I   didn't campaign on a public option. I think it is a good idea. But as I said in that speech on Sept. 9 (on health care), it is just one small element of a broader reform effort. And so we don't feel that the core elements to help the American people that I campaigned on and that we've been fighting for all year have been compromised in any significant way."

The Reality: It is true, as Obama argued, that the term "public option" was rarely used on the campaign trail in 2008. But it was part of his campaign literature and watchdog sites such as Politifact.com rated it among his top ten campaign promises.  the health care plan posted on Obama's site specifically called for a public option and it was taken seriously enough that watchdog sites such as Politifact.com rated it among his top ten campaign promises. In fact, it is still posted on Obama's site:

The Obama-Biden plan will create a National Health Insurance Exchange to help individuals purchase new affordable health care options if they are uninsured or want new health insurance. Through the Exchange, any American will have the opportunity to enroll in the new public plan or an approved private plan, and income-based sliding scale tax credits will be AFFORDABLE, ACCESSIBLE COVERAGE OPTIONS FOR ALL provided for people and families who need it. Insurers would have to issue every applicant a policy and charge fair and stable premiums that will not depend upon health status. The Exchange will require that all the plans offered are at least as generous as the new public plan and meet the same standards for quality and efficiency. Insurers would be required to justify an above-average premium increase to the Exchange. The Exchange would evaluate plans and make the differences among the plans, including cost of services, transparent.

 

 

 

December 29 ,2009

Specifically: A 1995 statement by New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger asserting that "The people who created...the Internet more or less up until now are frontiers people...And behind those frontiers people are the barbarians like me.... We're their worst nightmare, but we're coming.... and we are going to push the frontiers people somewhere else because that's what happens."

Type of Lie:  A relatively benign sort. Perhaps not so much a lie as wishful thinking. 

Why It's Untrue: You may or may not have noticed, but approximately 1400 magazines that have shut down since 2007. And the newspaper industry alone has shed 45 percent of its employees since its peak in 2001. That's according to Editor & Publisher, which really, really should know--because, ahem, they are being shut down by their parent company after the January issue (though some hope remains that outsiders will come to the rescue.)

The Big But: More than 275 magazines were launched in the U.S. in 2009 with regional, health and food industry magazines leading the way.

But let's put that in context for those who fear that the demise of Fourth Estate will leave our republic bereft of investigative reporting to root out evildoers. Of those new publications, at least one goes where others fear to tread: Girls and Corpses.

Once again, the great taste of the American public has triumphed!

 

 

 

September 15 ,2009

The Lie:  As many as 2 million demonstrators showed up over the weekend at the DC "Tea Party" demonstrations.

Malkin: Inflated crowd estimates.

 

The Liars: Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks, other rightwing bloggers, the Daily Mail in London.

Specifically, as Politifact points out, on 9/12 right wing blogger Michelle Malkin wrote:

12:34pm Eastern: Police estimate 1.2 million in attendance. ABC News reporting crowd at 2 million ‚ tweets Tabitha Hale from D.C.

Teeny, tiny fringe, huh?

Why It's a Lie: First, ABC, as Malkin later conceded, never reported such a figure. In other words, not only was the content itself a lie, but the sourcing, which appeared to give crediblity to her lie, was fraudulent as well.

The network even isssued a statement:

At no time did ABC News, or its affiliates, report a number anywhere near as large. ABCNews.com reported an approximate figure of 60,000 to 70,000 protesters, attributed to the Washington, D.C., fire department. In its reports, ABC News Radio described the crowd as "tens of thousands."

Phony Evidence: Fraudulent sourcing wasn't enough. To bolster inflated claims about crowd size, many conservative bloggers circulated this photo that was purportedly of the demonstration:

How We Know It's Phony: If the photo were really taken during the Tea Party, we would be able to see the National Museum of the American Indian, on Fourth Street and Independence, which opened in September 2004.But it is nowhere to be found so the photo must have been taken before the museum was built. Other reports suggest the photo was actually taken of the 1997 rally for Promise Keepers, a group of Christian men.

The Real Crowd Size: Crowd sizes are notoriously hard to estimate at DC demonstrations. According to Pete Piringer of the DC Fire and Emergency Department, the city of Washington no longer gives official estimates. Unofficially, however, Piringer told one reporter that he thought between 60,000 and 75,000 people showed up.

 

 

 

September 10 ,2009

The Premise: President Obama, elected on the promise of change and health care reform, has been committed to a public option that would pose real competition to private health insurance companies and is now backing off.

Has Obama lied? Kind of.

Stirring as President Obama's speech was last night, ultimately one of the key questions was how committed is to the public option.

With thanks to Firedoglake, Obama's speech had at least three qualifying sentences suggesting that his committment is less than full:

--"The public option is only a means to that end--and we should remain open to other ideas that accomplish our ultimate goal."

--"For example, some have suggested that the public option go into effect only in those markets where insurance companies are not providing affordable policies."

--"Others propose a co-op or another non-profit entity to administer the plan. These are all constructive ideas worth exploring."

What keeps Obama's wobbliness from being a major 180 is the fact that even though Obama campaigned for "change you can believe in," he was always fuzzy when it came to his position on the public option. According to a Huffington Post report by Sam Stein, an examination of 200 articles published during the campaign shows that Obama spoke quite infrequently about a government-run public option.

Yet as candidate Obama did sign a statement supporting the public option written by Health Care for America Now, a reform group, and on various issues forms he filled out he pledge to "create a new public health plan for those currently without coverage." 

We think that counts as a lie--but the larger lesson may be that Obama campaigned as a bit of a blank slate and that progressives chose to see the public option as a a major commitment him, when it is not.

Prognosis: Watch for an attempt to craft a compromise health care bill that will allow the public option to go into effect after certain conditions--high premiums for insurance policies, for example-- trigger the option. The likely outcome is that he will back off the public option to get the health bill through Congress--even if it means the bill is considerably weaker than many of his supporters had hoped.

 

September 03 ,2009

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September 03 ,2009

On August 31, we asked whether or not Peter Fleckenstein, a Phoenix, Arizona-based former Marine who blogs and twitters against the administration's healthcare plan under the name Fleckman, was the man behind an extraordinary right wing disinformation campaign that put out a widely distributed email that was highly critical of the Democrat's health care bill. The problem with the email, according to factcheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, was that the email was full of lies--at least 26 of them.

According to Factcheck, the email contains 48 claims of which 26 are outright falsehoods, 18 are at least somewhat misleading, and only four are true.

At the time we posted, we were unable to reach Fleckenstein and ascertain his exact relationship to the email.

Now we have--and his response only raises more questions.

In our first report, we noted that Fleckenstein both disclaimed responsibility for the mass email, saying he "never wrote it," and, on another page of his site claimed credit for it: "I've done this analysis and provided the fruit of my efforts here for free. I want all of you who read this to share it with as many people as possible. I have now come across sites that have advertising or services that generate income. No biggie, I love capitalism, but some have been using my work as their own. So I'm requiring that if any person or entity uses my work in any form then they must link to my blog and attribute my hard work to me. It's still free but please give credit where credit is due."

So what's the real story?

With the inestimable help of Twitter, we finally reached Fleckstein, and asked him if he was behind the email.

His reply?

"Oh my @craigunger Ur ignorance precedes you - Educate thyself - http://bit.ly/HlKeo."

Finding Fleckenstein's reply a bit cryptic, we asked again: "But you won't answer if you started that campaign. Yes or no?"

This time, Fleckenstein answered, "Oh my @craigunger ur ignorance STILL precedes you - Educate Thyself - http://bit.ly/9d75Y"

When we asked for the third time, however, Fleckenstein went further: "Veteran psychiatrist calls @craigunger mentally ill - http://bit.ly/lWMlM."The message went out to the many thousands of people who follow Fleckenstein on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Fleckenstein still has not answered whether or not he is behind the massive email campaign which has spread so much disinformation about health carel.

The impact of such disinformation should not be underestimated. A few days ago, we googled the statement--demonstrably false-- that "The 'Health Choices Commissioner' will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice." Then, it was posted on about 18,000 websites.

Today, September 3, less than a week later, the result is 46,100. No wonder the public has turned against health care.

 

 

September 02 ,2009

The Lie: "President Obama....wants to mandate circumcision."

The Liar: Rush Limbaugh

The Context: On his August 25 show, Limbaugh responded to a song by hip hop superstar Jay-Z which told Limbaugh to "get off my balls."

 Limbaugh: Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Why It's a Lie: House Bill 3200 does not mandate circumcision. In his public statements, as either a candidate or as president, Barack Obama has not used the word circumcision.

The Context: "As far as I know I have never been mentioned in a rap song by anybody. I guess it means I've made it. I'm now in a rap tune by the famous rapper Jay-Z. (The song says) '[T]ell Bill O'Reilly to fall back. Tell Rush Limbaugh to get off my balls.' I would remind the rapper Jay-Z: Mr. Z, it is President Obama who wants to mandate circumcision. We had that story yesterday; and that means if we need to save our penises from anybody, it's Obama. I did not know I was on anybody's balls, either. I'm happy to know that they think I am, though! But I didn't actually know that I was."

Is There a Grain of Truth?: Not really. The only remote tie to White House policies regarding circumcision, Politifacts points out, is a series of HIV/AIDs discussions between the White House and the Center on Disease Control. But discussions about circumcision recommendations to prevent AIDS has been a topic with the CDC since 2007--when George Bush was president.

 

 

August 31 ,2009

Today's Big Lies: This one is plural. Really plural. It concerns a widely circulated email that is making its way through the Internet.

The only problem with it, according to factcheck.org , a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, is that it is full of lies--at least 26 of them. According to the article, the email contains 48 claims of which 26 are outright falsehoods, 18 are at least somewhat misleading, and only four are true.

Likewise, Jennifer Tolbert, an independent health care analyst from the Kaiser Family Foundation, told Politifact, a fact checking website run by the St. Petersburg Times, "It's flat-out, blatant lies. It's unbelievable to me how they can claim to reference the legislation and then make claims that are blatantly false."

The bill is available in its entirety, in searchable form, at one of the House websites.

The Liar: The originator of an anonymous email that has become source material for right wing bloggers, congressman and talk show hosts.

The Context: It's worth looking at this email in the context of the broader disinformation campaign from the right asserting that Obamacare will cause more breast cancer, that Obama is a Nazi who wants to kill your Granny,and that Obama's plan would have kiled Sarah Palin's Down Syndrome son.

Liar, Liar: Politifacts rated some of the lies as "Pants on Fire," its rating for telling the biggest whoppers.

 

Some specifics: The e-mail asserts that "non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services." Actually, the bill says exactly the opposite,and explicitly prohibits "federal payment for undocumented aliens."

The email also claims that on page 42 of the bill it says that "The 'Health Choices Commissioner' will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None."

But that's not true. Under the new bill, everyone in the country will be required to have health insurance, but those who don't already have it will go through a health care exchange. The point behind that new health care exchange is to make sure insurers clearly explain what they offer and refrain from refusing service to people with pre-existing conditions. "This is designed to protect consumers from plans that have outrageous cost-sharing or really limited benefits," says Tolbert. "It's to ensure that they're actually getting coverage and not a junk policy."

Likewise, the email asserts that page 469 of the bill says that "Community-based Home Medical Services....(mean) more payoffs for ACORN." ACORN(the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), of course, is the liberal community organizing group with which right wingers contend Obama worked during his community organizing years. But it is nowhere mentioned in the bill and it does not even provide home medical services. (It is also worth noting that, according to its website, Obama never worked for ACORN, though the group did endorse him.)

And so forth. For more itemized lies, check out factcheck.org'ssand Politifact's evisceration of the email in question.

The Impact of Disinformation: But who cares about crank emails? What is its real impact? For starters, just take one assertion-- for example, the fabrication that the Health Commission will decide all benefits for you and you will have no choice. That alone appears on over 18,000 websites.

Who is Behind the Email? The email itself is unsigned, but it appears to be based in large part on the work of Peter Fleckenstein, a Phoenix, Arizona-based former Marine who blogs and twitters against the healthcare plan under the name Fleckman. Fleckenstein's website, Flecks of Life, specifically disclaims responsibility for the email--"Factcheck....cannot and never will be able to trace the email back to me.  I never wrote it."

But on another page of the same site, the author writes: "Folks, I've done this analysis and provided the fruit of my efforts here for free. I want all of you who read this to share it with as many people as possible. I've now come across sites that have advertising or services that generate income. No biggie, I love capitalism, but some have been using my work as their own. So I'm requiring that if any person or entity uses my work in any form then they must link to my blog and attribute my hard work to me. It's still free but please give credit where credit is due."

His Twitter page shows him to have done nearly 16,000 Tweets, many about health care.In addition, on his website, he devotes a substantial amount of space to countering the attacks from Factcheck and Politifact.

Fleckenstein could not be reached for comment, but according to the Denver Post, he said by email that he is not affiliated with any group or lobbyists and he tweeted about the bill "as a personal project from a regular American citizen."

Card carriers: The Liberty Counsel proudly proclaims its right wing stance.

 

Nevertheless, even such overtly Christian right groups such as the Liberty Counsel, a self-described "right-wing extremist" group makes a point of distributing tracts against Obamacare based on Fleckenstein's work.

August 27 ,2009

The Lie: I am Ben Bernanke.

The Liar: A member of Cannon to the Wiz, a 200 person identity theft ring run by Clyde Austin Gray Jr. of Waldorf, Md., who went by the names "Big Head" and, as Wired reports, "Poochie" (our favorite).

According to CBS News, Gray pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and his group is supected of stealing more than $2.1 million. Other alleged members of the ring include Leonard Darnell Zanders and George L. Reid.

For those of you who are not urban hipsters, the term "cannon," according to Urban Dictionaryis an "old school term for a skilled pickpocket." As in, "Stumpy is a real class cannon--he can clean out a vic's pockets faster than a flatfoot can eat a donut!" (Granted, we had to go to the entry number 12 to get that.)

We Bank on Who is Bernanke?: At left, the chairman of the Fed. To his right, Leonardo Darnell Zanders (courtesy of the Wayne County Sheriff's Department), who was arrested by Detroit police in April and is a lead defendant in a federal conspiracy case against Cannon to the Wiz.

 

What Happened: On August 7, 2008, Anna Bernanke, wife of Federal Reserve Bank chairman Ben Bernanke, had her purse stolen from a Washington Starbucks. Inside the purse was her social security card, credit cards, her driver's license and a checkbook that she shared with her husband. Not long afterwards, the couple found that someone was cashing checks on their account.

Six days later, according to the affidavit filed by a postal inspector who investigated the case, a man named George Lee Reid entered a Bank of America in Hyattsville, Maryland and proceeded to make what is known as "a split deposit transaction." As reported in Information Week: "The split deposit transaction is a transaction where the co-conspirator first makes a deposit into one victim's account by writing a personal check to that victim's account from another identity theft victim's bank account," explains U.S. Postal Inspector William J. Aiello in his affidavit. "The purpose of this deposit is to falsely inflate the victim's account balance and/or identify the specific account number. This deposit would then be followed by a series of counter withdrawals, check-cashing, or electronic withdrawals."

What Bernanke Did About It: He followed his own advice. As Fed chairman, he had issued a brochure advising, "If you fall victim to identity theft, act immediately to protect yourself. Alert your financial institution." That's what he did.