Fact Checking Anti- Gingrich Ad from Romney Group
EmailIn our first installment of Spinners and Winners, we take a look at the fair, the unfair and the outrageous in the latest political ads. As get closer to the critical Florida primary on Jan. 31, the rhetoric and spin among the Republican hopefuls Florida is just plain vicious. Take the anti-Newt Gingrich ad from Mitt Romney’s supporters meant to blunt the former Speaker’s momentum. The pro-Romney Super PAC is spending $5 million on ads in Florida. But is the ad fair?
The ad has some elements of truth — the former Speaker was indeed fined for ethics violations and he did earn a large sum of money from the troubled mortgage giant Freddie Mac. Fair enough. But the ad goes way over the line when it says that Gingrich co-sponsored a bill in Congress with Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi that would give $60 million a year to a UN program supporting China’s brutal one-child policy.
That’s a lot of spin, but it’s just not true.
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Money is speech, even if it’s BS. Thank you Citizen’s United ruling of the SCOTUS.
Posted by: sameagain | January 25, 2012, 8:30 am 8:30 am
Thanks, ABC, for fact checking the campaign ads from both parties. Please do the same with regard to debates and stump speeches of candidates from BOTH parties. As well, please double check the ads sponsored by the Super Pacs. The American public is sick and tired of all the venom. Already most voters are tuning out when the ads are broadcast so each candidate is actually preaching to his individual choir.
Posted by: amn | January 25, 2012, 8:50 am 8:50 am
Hey SAMEAGAIN, you can’t tax corporations and then not allow them to speak.
Our country got started because of taxation without representation.
You might not like the ruling but it was correct.
Also keep in mind that the Supreme Court rules on principal not on some guess of what the outcome would do. In other words “The end justifies the means” is gibberish to the court.
Posted by: Noz | January 25, 2012, 8:52 am 8:52 am
Noz, corporations aren’t people. People work there, or own stock in the company but they aren’t even the ones who are deciding what that corporation spends its political donations on.
Either the ceo or the board of directors makes the decision to donate to a super pac or a candidate without any input from the stock holders or workers who might have strong objections to spending for that purpose. So what the Supreme Court ruling really does is give an unfair amount of free speech to ceos and board of directors by letting them spend money that isn’t theirs to help get their favorite candidate elected.
Posted by: Librarian53 | January 25, 2012, 9:17 am 9:17 am
“Noz, corporations aren’t people” – LIBRARIAN53
That’s right, but the government treats them as a separate entity and taxes them, so they get the right to free speech.
All of the problems of who decides what money gets spent on what speech is an internal problem of each corporation. Whether it’s messy or not is not the Supreme Court’s concern.
Posted by: Noz | January 25, 2012, 9:50 am 9:50 am
Romney’s attack ads are mostly dishonest, totally misleading, and show his utter desperation, since the voters do not relate to him at all.
He was the darling of the GOP establishment, and he is failing to resonate with the voters, at all, so now he has nothing left, but dishonest attacks on any rivals who might get ahead of him, in the polls.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | January 25, 2012, 10:17 am 10:17 am
Where are the fact check lies regarding Obama’s SOTU speech last night? His economic claims as well as several other areas of his speech recieved the dreaded 4 star lie rating from several sources.
Posted by: ANDY | January 25, 2012, 10:30 am 10:30 am
I think the Republican party has forgot that someone is running for presdient. These two candidates are and have strayed away from the issues at hand. They need to focus on Obamas bad traits and while they have the lime light call on Obama to explain his radical views and teachings. Being an Independent and listening to these two of late is wearing on my choices.
Posted by: Jim Rod | January 25, 2012, 12:55 pm 12:55 pm
The Republican Party has entered fantasyland. They have four candidates that shouldn’t even be running for President let alone elected.
Romney and Gingrich are elitist megalomaniacs who think because their rich their smarter than us poor folks.
Santorum is like a little kid who didn’t get invited to the picnic and blames his mother (President Obama).
Ron Paul is mostly ignored since he wants this country to go back to the 1850s.
The republicans are in for a reality bomb come November.
Posted by: tmferretti | January 25, 2012, 2:26 pm 2:26 pm
Don’t you guys recognize these well used tactics? The late former Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) used them shamelessly for at least a decade against his political opponents which were always Democrats, “liberals’ or minorities. The operatives that did the leg work for Helms was a fellow named Carter Wrenn and The Congressional Club. The half true negative ads were aimed away from the GOP. Now, this method has become so much a part of the GOP mentality that they are using it within the party against each other. I’d call it poetic justice. Do a little quick Google research and you can confirm every word I’ve posted about this ( if the truth is of any interest to you).
Posted by: Cloteasboy | January 26, 2012, 12:58 am 12:58 am
Since the Supreme Court has LOST all it’s credibility in my mind over the past 12 years, I wish they could be impeached but I know they won’t. This ruling is already proving itself to be very wrong and DESTRUCTIVE to our nation. CLOTEASBOY: Correct: It IS Poetic Justice. Negative ads are horrible but I guess for the UNINFORMED and STUPID which seems to be a lot of voters, it’s all the info they get. May the least SLEEZIEST man win!! Hint: Newt is way BELOW sleezy!
Posted by: demNme5 | January 26, 2012, 1:01 pm 1:01 pm