Fact-Checkers Set Sights on Campaign Fibs

Internet, 24-hour news make embellishments harder for hopefuls
By Dustin Lushing,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 31, 2007 6:11 PM CST
Fact-Checkers Set Sights on Campaign Fibs
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama D-Ill., hugs Sen. Kent Conrad, D-S.D., before he speaks at a campaign stop Sunday, Dec. 30, 2007 in Knoxville, Iowa. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)   (Associated Press)

Did Mitt Romney really see his father march with Martin Luther King Jr.? Did the US Constitution truly spark a "Christian nation," as John McCain asserts? Is Barack Obama right when he says more young black males are in prison than college? The answer is no to all three, and many more campaign-trail assertions, reports the Washington Post. Thanks to the Internet, candidates are finding it harder to stretch the truth.

Presidential hopefuls have spent more than $110,000 on Lexis-Nexis subscriptions this year, and blogs, YouTube, and the 24-hour news cycle make it easier to catch hopefuls in acts of truthiness. Not that fibs are anything new on the campaign trail, one activist notes: "Political candidates have been misleading voters for more than 2,000 years." (More Election 2008 stories.)

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