Comments on: Fact Checking Mayor Mike’s Ads since USA Today Won’t

By: Targeting Pennsylvania’s Mayors Against Guns - PAFOA Blog

Targeting Pennsylvania’s Mayors Against Guns - PAFOA Blog — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:06:21 +0000

[...] policies. Mayors from South Dakota, Texas, and Florida have publicly confirmed that Mike Bloomberg never sought their permission when signing their names to advertisements condemning concealed carry [...]

By: SayUncle » Mayors Against Guns Trouble

SayUncle » Mayors Against Guns Trouble — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:25:54 +0000

[...] Also, fact-checking their ads. [...]

By: B Smith

B Smith — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:36:53 +0000

Feh. USA Today isn’t even suitable for wrapping fish.

By: blato

blato — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:29:29 +0000

It is working. It keeps dropping every day. I looked at their site last week and it was 397. Today its 393. That is a 12.6% drop off their 450.

I wonder how long before they remove the counter.

By: Thirdpower

Thirdpower — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:48:14 +0000

Reminds me of when the Brady Campaign sent a petition w/ the names of several LEO’s who never signed it.

By: Bitter

Bitter — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:59:04 +0000

Often political ads are held to a different standard than commercial advertising. It would be unreasonable to expect they would fact check every technical claim that Ford makes about its own product. But when a politician is signing someone else’s name to a public policy statement, it’s a reasonable question to whether they should at least spot check some of them. I mean the mayor of Houston is running for Senate in Texas. That should have raised questions about him denouncing concealed carry holders. If they were to call him in a spot check, then they would have had their first alarm bell go off that maybe all was not well on the list.

By: Jeff the Baptist

Jeff the Baptist — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:51:13 +0000

“Two dozen errors on one page is not acceptable in any newsroom, why would USA Today publish such falsehoods as part of an advertisement?”

Because it’s an advertisement. Are they going to fact check Ford’s claims about the F150 before they run it? No, they’re going to take the money and run the ad. If you want to criticize someone for running false ads, you criticize the advertiser not the paper. Considering how poorly they fact check their articles that are supposed to be true, I have no expectation that they would fact check their advertising copy.