politics

NBC: Facts Check In, But They Don’t Check Out

April 7, 2004

Yesterday, we gave a failing grade to NBC News’ attempt to “fact check” political ads attacking President Bush. Last night, NBC turned to the Bush campaign’s anti-John Kerry ads. NBC’s coverage was better, but it still raised the question of why the network (and the press generally) relies on outside experts to debunk those ads rather than having their reporters do it themselves.

On “NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw,” reporter Brian Williams led off by showing a clip from a Bush campaign ad, which says of Kerry, “He opposed tax relief for married couples 22 times, opposed increasing the child tax credit 18 times. He even supported increasing taxes on Social Security benefits.”

Williams then asked resident expert Brooks Jackson of Factcheck.org whether the claims are true. Jackson replied, “Well, what’s troubling, of course, is that it’s not all true. What’s troubling to me are ads like this one. It tends to be shades of gray, twisting things, subjective use of facts, selective use of facts.” Jackson offered no specifics about what was “not all true,” nor did Williams press him for any. (Although Kerry voted against various tax cut bills that included the child tax credit and the tax break for married couples, he’s said that as president he would extend those two tax breaks.)

Things pick up from those vague criticisms, thankfully. Jackson unequivocally debunks the Bush claim that “Kerry supported higher taxes over 350 times,” telling Williams the figure is “bogus”, and explaining that it refers to “votes he cast that would have made taxes higher than they might have been if some other amendment had passed.” Williams summarizes this as “procedural trickery.”

Jackson then succinctly tells Williams what’s wrong with a second ad’s claim that Kerry “supported a 50-cent-a-gallon gas tax.” Says Jackson: “One quote a decade ago, never voted for it, never sponsored a bill, doesn’t support it now. And they would have you believe he still favors it.”

Wrapping things up, Jackson tells viewers, “When you see these ads, ask yourself, ‘Does that really make sense?’ Ask yourself, ‘Who says that? Is that really so?’ Ask yourself, ‘Where can I go to check some of this stuff out?'” Sadly, viewers were left to their own devices to figure out where exactly they should go.

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Both print and TV outlets seem to be waking up to the concept of “fact-checking” campaign ads. That’s an encouraging trend, but is it going too far to suggest that the media should be “fact-checking” the campaigns in its regular reporting, not just in special TV news segments that come off as “the campaign says this, but someone else says that”?

After all, isn’t that their job?

–Zachary Roth

Zachary Roth is a contributing editor to The Washington Monthly. He also has written for The Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, Slate, Salon, The Daily Beast, and Talking Points Memo, among other outlets.