Is it really true that...?

[Lisabob]

Yeah, I thought I'd throw these out there for kicks and giggles. Both of these sites are well-regarded for investigating rumors and claims made by candidates, their staffs, and their supporters. Factcheck.org is sponsored by the Annenberg foundation, which tends to be more conservative/Republican. Politifact is a joint effort of the St Petersburg (FL) Times and Congressional Quarterly (an inside-the-beltway newspaper covering Capitol Hill's doings). But again, both play things pretty evenly and are considered to be reliable sources.

 

Next time you hear something too horrible to be true, or you get blitzed with ads making one of the candidates seem like the devil incarnate, before passing it along or swallowing it whole, I encourage you to check out the veracity of the claims on one, or both, of these sites.

 

http://www.factcheck.org/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/

[scottteng]

http://www.patterico.com/2008/09/25/the-obama-ayers-connection-at-the-chicago-annenberg-challenge-comes-into-a-little-better-focus-in-spite-of-the-efforts-of-the-obama-campaign-to-obscure-it/

 

A Republican group when their ex employee is the Demonrat candidate for president. I think not.

[Apache Bob]

Lisabob - thanks.

 

What I would also like to see at local, state, and the national level is each candidate explaining where the information in their ads on TV comes from.

At the local and state level where I live one candidate says the state budget was balanced by her (no one else helped I guess). The other candidate states that the budget was balanced but not before 800 million dollars was borrowed to balance it. Someone (both) are using half truths. It would be great to make each person own up to what they are putting out.

If that happen I think the ads in elections would be a lot less and would stick to the issues.

 

[AlFansome]

 

"ex-employee"? Sounds like you need a fact check.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annenberg_Foundation

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Annenberg_Challenge

 

http://www.factcheck.org/about/

[scottteng]

" Barack Obama, elected by the Board of Directors as founding chairman and president of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (19951999), resigned as chairman and president in September 1999 to run as a candidate in the 2000 Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District of Illinois, and was succeeded by Edward Bottum (19992001)."

 

So the chairman of the board of directors is not considered an employee oh that's right he's the boss. This quote is right from the wiki article you posted a link too. Sorry in my book he's an employee. Barak Hussain Obama, William Ayers(of Black Panther fame), et al blew through 100 million dollars of foundation money with no significant accomplishments.

[AlFansome]

 

Of course, Obama was on the payroll of the CAC since he was on the Board.

 

However, your original post implies that he was somehow an employee of the Annenberg Foundation. This is not the case at all.

 

The Annenberg Foundation makes grants just like the United Way, the Gates Foundation or any of a number of other philanthropic foundations do. The organizations to which it makes grants are not in any way employees of the Annenberg Foundation...they are recipients of the grants that in many cases use the name "Annenberg" in their names (perhaps as a condition of the grant).

 

FactCheck.org is run by the University of Pennsylvania, not the Annenberg Foundation, although (again) the name Annenberg is associated with the organization because of the original (and maybe ongoing) grants that established the program at the U. of Penn.

 

Doing a quick look to whom the Annenberg Foundation gives money turns up some real liberal names:

 

Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation -- http://www.annenbergfoundation.org/news/news_show.htm?doc_id=539921

 

Gerald and Betty Ford Scholarship Endowment --

http://www.annenbergfoundation.org/news/news_show.htm?doc_id=620299

 

Eisenhower Medical Center --

http://www.annenbergfoundation.org/news/news_show.htm?doc_id=621335

 

 

Maybe the Ronald Reagan Presidential Founation also supports Obama!!

 

 

If you feel that FactCheck.org (because of it's association with Annenberg) is biased toward Obama, please let me know where you feel that someone can get unbiased information and analysis about the charges and counter-charges being made in the current presidential campaign. Cutting through the mud that gets slung by both sides to get to the real truth is probably one of the hardest things that we voters need to do lately, it seems.

 

 

[scoutingagain]

"William Ayers(of Black Panther fame), '

 

You may want to factcheck this one too.

[scottteng]

Yeah its weather underground tried to go back but the edit button is off on that post (now back on??). There are no magic truth filters out there especially in the muddiest election it seems we have ever had. Both parties seem to pick the worst possible people to be their respective nominee. You can bet though if McPain had associations with say David Duke that Obama has had with Ayers that the pot would be boiling over with outrage.(This message has been edited by scottteng)

[CalicoPenn]

Barack Obama was never on the payroll of either the Annenberg Foundation or the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

 

Obama was the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the non-profit Chicago Annenberg Challenge, and by Illinois Law, board members of non-profit agencies are not allowed to accept payment for their services to the agencie, except for reasonable reimbursement of certain expenses.

 

Ayers was not a member of the Board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. He was, however, a member of another non-profit organization that did consulting work for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

 

Obama and Ayers did serve together on the Board of the Woods Fund of Chicago - a board that met four times per year.

 

I don't feel threatened by that at all.

 

Calico