An independent experimental fact-checking site, exploring and advocating ways to make fact-checking better.
“We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.” —Neil Newhouse, Mitt Romney campaign pollster, Aug. 28, 2012 Overview A media myth surrounds an oft-repeated quotation. The Facts On Aug. 28, 2012 the campaign pollster for the Mitt Romney presidential campaign, Neil Newhouse, participated in a media breakfast event sponsored by Yahoo! and ABC News….
Read more
“If you watch any great coach, what they try to do is ‘work the refs.’” —Richard N. Bond, reported in the Washington Post, Aug. 20, 1992 Overview Do Republicans only complain about media bias as a strategy to “work the refs”? Some use an accurate quotation out of context to suggest a former chairman of the National Republican Committee…
Read more
Quote Check Attributed to Thomas Jefferson: “Laws that forbid the carrying of arms … only disarm those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes … Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they are serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence…
Read more
“As Winston Churchill reputedly said, ‘Americans always do the right thing eventually—after they’ve exhausted all other alternatives.’” —Robert Reich, Sept. 16, 2013 on “The Daily Show” Overview Churchill probably didn’t say it, but Reich uses an acceptable method for handling the uncertainty. The Facts A Facebook post led us to investigate Robert Reich’s recent appearance on “The Daily…
Read more
We ran across a quotation attributed to noted Supreme Court justice Louis D. Brandeis. Curious about the context more than suspicious of its authenticity, we tried to find the source. The quotation ended up having a number of variants. “We may have a democracy or we may have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot…
Read more
Attributed to Mark Twain on Facebook and elsewhere: “Religion was invented when the first con man met the first fool.” The Facts: Mark Twain was the pen name of American author Samuel Clemens (1835-1910). Quite a few quotations disparaging religion came from Twain, though he was apparently a Presbyterian. So what about the above quotation that often accompanies a picture…
Read more
Attributed to Thomas Jefferson on Twitter: “Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not.” Attributed to Benjamin Franklin on Twitter: “Never trust a government that doesn’t trust its own citizens with guns.” A massacre at a Connecticut elementary school last week has led to a great deal of news about gun control proposals along…
Read more