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mhughes0021
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- Aug 1, 2011
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There's an old saying that a lie can go halfway around the world while the truth is putting its boots on -- and in politics, a steady drumbeat of misinformation and mischaracterization can too often shape the national debate.
So we wanted to set up a regular online column to confront fear-mongering with the facts, whether it comes from the right or the left during the 2012 campaign. Working with the CNN research team, we'll investigate candidate claims and call bull when necessary. At a time when partisan spin can disproportionately dominate our democracy, this is an attempt to be an independent voice and an honest broker.
Tuesday night's CNN national security debate offered plenty of red meat along with principled policy disagreement. But one candidate in particular kept playing fast and loose with the facts: Michele Bachmann. It's part of her usual schtick: playing politics by talk radio rules, where impact is far more important than accuracy.
Here's one of my favorite Bachmann howlers from last night:
"This is one thing we know about Barack Obama. He has essentially handed over our interrogation of terrorists to the ACLU. He's outsourced it to them. Our CIA has no ability to have any form of interrogation for terrorists."
Sounds scary -- and what I love about this particular riff is that it hits so many paranoid-style themes all in one place.
There is the image of President Obama as the na
So we wanted to set up a regular online column to confront fear-mongering with the facts, whether it comes from the right or the left during the 2012 campaign. Working with the CNN research team, we'll investigate candidate claims and call bull when necessary. At a time when partisan spin can disproportionately dominate our democracy, this is an attempt to be an independent voice and an honest broker.
Tuesday night's CNN national security debate offered plenty of red meat along with principled policy disagreement. But one candidate in particular kept playing fast and loose with the facts: Michele Bachmann. It's part of her usual schtick: playing politics by talk radio rules, where impact is far more important than accuracy.
Here's one of my favorite Bachmann howlers from last night:
"This is one thing we know about Barack Obama. He has essentially handed over our interrogation of terrorists to the ACLU. He's outsourced it to them. Our CIA has no ability to have any form of interrogation for terrorists."
Sounds scary -- and what I love about this particular riff is that it hits so many paranoid-style themes all in one place.
There is the image of President Obama as the na
