Screaming Penguin

The PBS program NOW (with Bill Moyers) did an interview with one of the guys from the Annenberg Political FactCheck website FactCheck.org the other day. Really interesting stuff, they pointed out that in fact most political ads and even much of the rhetoric is/are lacking in facts. They called committees and PACs and parties that did ads and asked where they got this or that information and basically got the old "uh, hmmm, ummm, yeah, hmmm". They also look into debates and interviews and basically whatever political information candidates and parties are espousing. And they call out the BS from ALL political parties. From the NOW site: The project calls itself a nonpartisan, nonprofit, consumer advocate for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. Monitoring 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, FactCheck.org strives to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding. Very impressive stuff, nice to see somebody bothering with those pesky little facts. Hopefully more and more voters will catch on and will do so by tuning in to efforts like those of FactCheck.org. Thanks go out to FactCheck and to NOW.   http://www.factcheck.org/