There has been much
speculation about the validity of information provided by
self-proclaimed "urban legend" debunkers Snopes and FactCheck. I decided
to take a closer look.
http://www.snopes.com/
David and Barbara Mikkelson are the owners of Snopes and essentially provide much of their own research from their home in California's lush San Fernando Valley. About 2 hours of searching Snopes' site on political issues reveals that, their articles reflect a disturbingly left tilt, while frequently distorting or eliminating contradictory information.
For example, Snopes has a puzzling article on "Obama's 50 Lies." The authors proceed to list 50 innocuous and rather obscure charges, none of which I have ever heard. They then set about debunking most of the benign non-issues. But, try to fact find something relevant such as Mr. Obama's broken promise of healthcare transparency and you will get, "Sorry, no matches were found."
Mr. Obama and those in his adminstration made several references to his desire to eliminate both employer insurance and private insurers. If true, these are serious agenda items with massive consequences. After numerous searches, Snopes repeatedly responded with "Sorry, no matches." Yet, here is a montage of the actual comments on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk
The Mikkelson's, it turns out, are big Obama supporters and in favor of much of his tranformational agenda.
http://www.factcheck.org/
Factcheck is a similar resource, but appears to have a more fact-based approach. It too is owned by a now liberal group, the Annenberg Foundation. Originally, founder Walter Annenberg was a conservative Reagan backing Republican. The family's views have changed dramatically over the years, which may or may not seep into the site's reporting. So, again I spent an interesting hour snooping around the site.
Read the entire article - which includes Wikipedia - at ClearGov.com
http://www.snopes.com/
David and Barbara Mikkelson are the owners of Snopes and essentially provide much of their own research from their home in California's lush San Fernando Valley. About 2 hours of searching Snopes' site on political issues reveals that, their articles reflect a disturbingly left tilt, while frequently distorting or eliminating contradictory information.
For example, Snopes has a puzzling article on "Obama's 50 Lies." The authors proceed to list 50 innocuous and rather obscure charges, none of which I have ever heard. They then set about debunking most of the benign non-issues. But, try to fact find something relevant such as Mr. Obama's broken promise of healthcare transparency and you will get, "Sorry, no matches were found."
Mr. Obama and those in his adminstration made several references to his desire to eliminate both employer insurance and private insurers. If true, these are serious agenda items with massive consequences. After numerous searches, Snopes repeatedly responded with "Sorry, no matches." Yet, here is a montage of the actual comments on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-bY92mcOdk
The Mikkelson's, it turns out, are big Obama supporters and in favor of much of his tranformational agenda.
http://www.factcheck.org/
Factcheck is a similar resource, but appears to have a more fact-based approach. It too is owned by a now liberal group, the Annenberg Foundation. Originally, founder Walter Annenberg was a conservative Reagan backing Republican. The family's views have changed dramatically over the years, which may or may not seep into the site's reporting. So, again I spent an interesting hour snooping around the site.
Read the entire article - which includes Wikipedia - at ClearGov.com
