MEDIA WATCH - PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES: HOW TO SEPARATE SPIN FROM FACTS

By Miriam Raftery

October 1, 2008 (San Diego's East County) -Sorting
out truth from fiction in political races is challenging.   If
you didn’t watch the first presidential debate, for example, you might
get a radically different perspective on how the candidates fared if you’re
listening to a right-wing or left-wing media commentator—or the campaigns
themselves. (If you missed it, you can view a video of the full debate, narrated
by Jim Lehrer of PBS, on YouTube.

The McCain campaign aired ads declaring “McCain won the debate” on
the Washington Journal’s website.  The problem?

The ads ran Friday morning—before the debates were held. (details
here)

While some newspaper polls and conservative political outlets did declare
McCain the winner, an Internet search reveals that all major national polls
listed in a Google news search found the majority of voters believe that Obama
won the debate:

CNN:
Obama "did better" 51%, McCain "did better" 38%

USA Today/Gallup:  Obama “did
a better job” 46% ; McCain 34%.  Asked
which candidate offered the best proposals for change to solve the country’s
problems, 52% chose Obama, 35% chose McCain. 

CBS
News: Obama won 39%, McCain won 25%, Draw 36%

During the debate itself,
both candidates leveled criticisms at each other – often
citing conflicting “facts.”  So how can you tell what’s
accurate – and what’s not?

An excellent source of accurate information
that appears not to favor either political camp is www.factcheck.org,  a
nonpartisan organization dedicated to “holding politicians responsible” by
revealing misstatements, exaggerations, distortions and outright whoppers.

Here
are excerpts from Fact Check’s artitle on the debate, titled Facts
muddled in Mississippi McCain-Obama meeting.

Summary

McCain and Obama contradicted each other repeatedly during their first debate,
and each volunteered some factual misstatements as well. Here’s how we
sort them out:

• Obama said McCain adviser Henry Kissinger backs talks with Iran “without
  preconditions,” but McCain disputed that. In fact, Kissinger did recently
  call for “high level” talks with Iran starting at the secretary
  of state level and said, “I do not believe that we can make conditions.” After
  the debate the McCain campaign issued a statement quoting Kissinger as saying
  he didn’t favor presidential talks with Iran.

• Obama denied voting for a bill that called for increased taxes on “people” making
  as little as $42,000 a year, as McCain accused him of doing. McCain was right,
  though only for single taxpayers. A married couple would have had to make
  $83,000 to be affected by the vote, and anyway no such increase is in Obama’s
  tax plan.

• McCain and Obama contradicted each other on what Joint Chiefs of Staff
  Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen said about troop withdrawals. Mullen said a
  time line for withdrawal could be “very dangerous” but was not
  talking specifically about “Obama’s plan,” as McCain maintained.

• McCain tripped up on one of his signature issues – special appropriation “earmarks.” He
  said they had “tripled in the last five years,” when in fact
  they have decreased sharply.

• Obama claimed Iraq “has” a $79 billion surplus. It once was
  projected to be as high as that. It’s now down to less than $60 billion.

• McCain repeated his overstated claim that the U.S. pays $700 billion a
  year for oil to hostile nations. Imports are running at about $536 billion
  this year, and a third of it comes from Canada, Mexico and the U.K.

• Obama said 95 percent of “the American people” would see
  a tax cut under his proposal. The actual figure is 81 percent of households.

• Obama mischaracterized an aspect of McCain’s health care plan, saying “employers” would
  be taxed on the value of health benefits provided to workers. Employers wouldn’t,
  but the workers would. McCain also would grant workers up to a $5,000 tax
  credit per family to cover health insurance.

• McCain misrepresented Obama's plan by claiming he'd be "handing the
  health care system over to the federal government." Obama would expand
  some government programs but would allow people to keep their current plans
  or chose from private ones, as well.

• McCain claimed Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had drafted a letter of resignation
  from the Army to be sent in case the 1944 D-Day landing at Normandy turned
  out to be a failure. Ike prepared a letter taking responsibility, but he
  didn’t mention resigning.

For full details, read Fact Check’s analysis section at the link above.  For
info on earlier campaign trail statements, check these related articles:

The
Whoppers of 2008
Where McCain and Obama have misled voters. A partial tally.

FactChecking
McCain
He made some flubs in accepting the nomination.

FactChecking
Obama
He stuck to the facts, except when he stretched them.

Next up, the Vice Presidential debate between Governor Sarah Palin and Senator
Joe Biden is slated for Thursday, October 2nd at 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.  The
VP debate will be moderated by Gwen Ifill of PBS News Hour at Washington University
in St. Louis.

Miriam Raftery is a national award-winning journalist who has
headed up media watch committees for various local organizations and attended
a National Media Reform Conference covering issues of media bias, media
justice and media reform.