December 09, 2011 5:05 pm ET filed under Blog
Karl Rove Group Slams Elizabeth Warren As A Shill For Corporate America
November 22, 2011 3:45 pm ET filed under Blog
How Lying About The Financial Crisis Enables The GOP's Misunderstanding Of The Occupy Movement
November 10, 2011 11:15 am ET filed under Blog
Rove Group Smears Warren With Caricature Of Occupy Wall Street As Violent Druggies
November 08, 2011 12:04 pm ET filed under Blog
Gov. Barbour And American Crossroads Rewrite Economic History
June 27, 2011 12:35 pm ET filed under Ad Check
Crossroads GPS Ad Uses Cheap Tricks To Mislead On President Obama's Economic Record
In a new ad titled "Shovel Ready," the misinformation mechanics at Crossroads GPS use an edited video of President Obama and a basic statistical swindle to support the claim that "Obama's $830 billion stimulus failed." The ad opens with President Obama speaking last summer at the 10,000th road project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and it snips out 11 crucial words from his statement about the economy, thereby erasing the catastrophic recession that President Bush and supply-side, deregulatory economics left for Obama to clean up. Crossroads GPS follows up the editing tricks with a trio of claims about debt, unemployment and gas prices spiking during Obama's tenure, but that only holds water if you make Obama responsible for the months he held office before his policies could impact the economy. Economists and fact-checkers agree that that's dishonest.
May 19, 2011 2:48 pm ET filed under Ad Check
Crossroads GPS Misleads Viewers On Health Care Waivers
The Karl Rove-backed group, Crossroads GPS, is out with a new misleading ad attacking unions and the Affordable Care Act. This time Crossroads GPS is claiming political cronyism is why the administration has granted unions waivers for the health care law. The ad makes it seem that unions are the only employers that have received waivers and that they received the waivers because of their ties to the White House. This could not be further from the truth. Waivers have been granted to all types of employers — including small and large businesses, health insurance companies, and city and state governments — not just unions. There are clear standards set up by the Department of Health and Human Services for reviewing waiver applications, and administrators have testified that the waiver process is administered fairly regardless of what organization is applying. Additionally, the waivers only temporarily exempt companies from just one provision of the health care law. This is done as a stop-gap measure so that individuals will not lose their health coverage while the Affordable Care Act is being fully implemented.
March 09, 2011 4:37 pm ET filed under Blog
Fact Checking Crossroads GPS' Anti-Union Ad
March 09, 2011 4:08 pm ET filed under Fact Check
Ad Check: Crossroads GPS Uses Misleading Video Clips To Vilify Public Employee Unions
The latest ad from Crossroads GPS — backed with $750,000 from the right-wing billionaires who fund Karl Rove's brainchild — smears public employee unions with out-of-context video clips and a statistic so misleading even the conservative scholar the ad cites to back it up condemns the ad as a misrepresentation of his work. With GOP efforts to bust public worker unions in Wisconsin seemingly on the ropes, this ad attempts to reframe the debate by painting union workers as violent, selfish, and overpaid shills of the Democratic Party. In the process, Crossroads GPS tells some whoppers.
November 18, 2010 10:03 am ET filed under Blog
How Many Anonymously-Funded Campaign Ads Does It Take To Sweep Republicans Into A House Majority?
November 09, 2010 10:03 am ET filed under Blog
Astroturfing The Airwaves: 20 Largest Right-Wing Groups Bought 144,000 TV Ads, 77% Anonymously Funded
November 01, 2010 5:09 pm ET filed under Ad Check
American Crossroads Ad Is "Baloney"
Repeatedly using footage of Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) saying "shut up," American Crossroads tries to suggest that Hinchey is belligerent and out-of-touch with the opinions of his constituents. The ad cites "job-killing taxes," the "stimulus," and "devastating Medicare cuts," but manages to distort the truth about all of its claims. Hinchey's votes in favor of the Recovery Act and health care reform will actually create jobs, boost the economy, and strengthen Medicare without cutting benefits.
November 01, 2010 3:55 pm ET filed under Ad Check
American Crossroads' Anti-Health Care Ad Is In Bad "Condition"
An American Crossroads advertisement attacking Rep. Scott Murphy (D-NY) focuses on the health care reform bill, misleading voters throughout. The ad claims that "Pelosi's government takeover" added $1 trillion in new spending, made $500 billion in Medicare cuts, and leads to more debt. In fact, the Affordable Care Act strengthens Medicare without cutting seniors' benefits and ultimately reduces the deficit. Moreover, there is no "government takeover" — the law leaves in place the private health care system.
October 31, 2010 2:37 pm ET filed under Ad Check
American Crossroads Once Again Says "So Long" To The Truth
American Crossroads in on the air in Georgia with a new ad attacking Rep. Sanford Bishop (D) for having "made things worse" for the economy and unemployment. Crossroads blames Bishop for the "trillion dollar deficit" because of his vote for the FY2010 budget proposed by President Obama — though the blame for the huge increase in debt and deficit lies with the fiscal policies pushed by the Bush administration. Crossroads also hits Bishop for supporting the Recovery Act, specifically targeting the legislation for sending Social Security checks to the deceased and the incarcerated, as well as for spending "a billion dollars to create jobs overseas." In fact, Recovery Act spending is limited to U.S.-based projects, and most of the inaccurate Social Security payments that were made were re-collected.
October 29, 2010 7:12 pm ET filed under Blog
Astroturfing The Airwaves: 10,000 Right-Wing TV Ads In 5 Days Push Total To Nearly 110,000
October 29, 2010 6:32 pm ET filed under Ad Check
Despite American Crossroads' Claims, Shuler's Clean Energy Vote Was Job Friendly
The Rove-linked American Crossroads is out with an ad blasting Rep. Heath Shuler (D-NC) over his vote in favor of clean energy legislation, claiming that cap-and-trade would kill over 60,000 jobs in North Carolina. In reality, clean energy legislation would create over 50,000 jobs in North Carolina and millions across the nation. In addition, it would boost the economy while costing only about a postage stamp per day, to boot.
October 29, 2010 6:21 pm ET filed under Ad Check
Crossroads GPS Targets 8 Congressmen With The Same Deceptive Ad
The Rove-associated Crossroads GPS and its anonymous funders are at it again with an attack ad that misleads voters and disparages Democratic-supported economic policies. This time, however, GPS targets not one, but eight Congressmen — Reps. Jim Oberstar (MN), Russ Carnahan (MO), Joe Donnelly (IN), Earl Pomeroy (ND), Lincoln Davis (TN), John Boccieri (OH), Ciro Rodriguez (TX), and Jim Costa (CA) — associating them with Nancy Pelosi and her "failed agenda." The ad specifically targets these members' support of the Recovery Act, repeating the oft-cited claim that the bill was "wasteful" and also suggesting that it included "sweetheart deals" for special interests. In fact, the Recovery Act created millions of jobs and staved off higher unemployment, while also providing billions of dollars worth of tax cuts and limiting bonuses for executives of companies receiving TARP money — so much for those "handouts to special interests."
October 27, 2010 1:21 pm ET filed under Blog
Major American Crossroads Donors Ignore Interests Of Their Clientele
October 26, 2010 9:21 am ET filed under Blog
Former Gov. Huckabee Adds To The Confusion About Disclosure
October 25, 2010 8:11 pm ET filed under Ad Check
Crossroads GPS Stretches The Truth, Outright Lies To Smear Giannoulias
The Karl Rove-associated Crossroads GPS has released yet another deceptive campaign ad, this time targeting Illinois Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias (D) over his involvement with Illinois' Bright Start program and his family's Broadway Bank. The ad omits important details to accuse Giannoulias of a "fishy tax dodge" and "squandering money families saved for college" while overseeing the Bright Start program, and pushes the misleading claim that Giannoulias made loans to "criminals, felons, and mob figures." In reality, there was no evidence that Giannoulias took an improper tax break, and Bright Start's losses were the result of an investment by the program's manager, OppenheimerFunds, that went awry. Furthermore, there is no evidence that Giannoulias personally approved any loans to criminals.
October 25, 2010 4:42 pm ET filed under Blog
California Ad-Quake: Right-Wing Groups Have Aired Nearly 7,000 Ads in California Since August 1
October 25, 2010 2:48 pm ET filed under Ad Check
American Crossroads' Stimulus Claims Continue To Deceive
American Crossroads frequently attacks the Recovery Act and a variety of projects funded by the legislation. In its latest attack on Missouri Senate candidate Robin Carnahan, before criticizing the "failed stimulus" as a whole, Crossroads goes after a grant received by Carnahan's brother, claiming that "his family name helped" him obtain funding for his company. In reality though, the grant that Carnahan's brother's company received was from a non-competitive program that has provided payments to over 1,300 alternative energy companies in lieu of tax credits — tax credits that Carnahan's opponent, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) has supported numerous times in Congress.
October 25, 2010 12:03 pm ET filed under Blog
Astroturfing The Airwaves: Anonymous Donor Groups Drive Total Right-Wing TV Ads Above 100,000 Since Aug. 1
October 25, 2010 11:47 am ET filed under Ad Check
American Crossroads Smears Rep. Edwards With Tired Falsehoods
American Crossroads is out with a new, unsurprisingly disingenuous ad, attacking the Democratic policies supported by Rep. Chet Edwards (D-TX). In addition to claiming the stimulus "failed," the ad laments "trillions of dollars in new taxes, reckless spending, and massive debt," and suggests that Edwards has failed to help lower unemployment. In reality, the Recovery Act — which Edwards supported — created millions of jobs and brought the economy back from the brink of disaster, and that "massive debt" is the result of Bush policies and the economic downturn. Additionally, under Obama, federal taxes are historically low and 95 percent of families actually received a tax cut in the stimulus bill.
October 25, 2010 10:03 am ET filed under Blog
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - October 24, 2010
October 25, 2010 10:01 am ET filed under Fact Check
Fact Checking The Sunday Shows - October 24, 2010
Sunday's political talk shows featured former RNC chairman Ed Gillespie lying to ABC viewers about voter attitudes toward outside groups like his brainchild, American Crossroads, and then misleading about jobs and the economy. In fact, over 70 percent of respondents in this month's NBC/Wall Street Journal poll are concerned about outside spending making lawmakers "beholden" to outside groups. On Face the Nation, Gillespie's colleague Karl Rove claimed conservatives are only just catching up to liberals in outside spending, when it's been a dead heat for a couple cycles now, and studies show conservative groups are less likely to disclose donors than their liberal counterparts. Meanwhile, on Fox News Sunday, Republican senate candidate Pat Toomey (PA) forgot that American companies pay less tax than our statutory corporate tax rates, and forgot that President Reagan raised taxes 11 times between the famous 1981 tax cut and the rampant economic growth for which Reagan is remembered.
October 21, 2010 5:49 pm ET filed under Blog
Crossroads Decries "Negative Political Ads" In Negative Political Ad Attacking Sen. Reid
October 21, 2010 4:07 pm ET filed under Ad Check
Crossroads GPS May Change Its Tone, But The Falsehoods Remain The Same
The Karl Rove-affiliated group Crossroads GPS may be "tired of all these negative political ads" (an overwhelming number of which actually come from, you guessed it, Crossroads GPS), but they certainly haven't seemed to tire of lying to Nevada's voters. The group's latest ad, though different in tone from their many other attacks on Harry Reid, contains the same basic falsehoods — that legislation Senator Reid supports has made things worse for Nevadans. However, Reid's support of programs such as the Affordable Care Act has actually made things better, especially for Nevada's seniors and the uninsured. In addition, Crossroads GPS dishonestly places blame on Harry Reid for policies that were actually pushed by the Bush administration.
October 20, 2010 4:11 pm ET filed under Blog
Nearly Half Of Crossroads' 22,000 Ads Target — And Lie About — Health Care Reform
October 18, 2010 1:48 pm ET filed under Blog
Astroturfing The Airwaves: 81,000 Right-Wing TV Ads Since August 1
October 18, 2010 11:36 am ET filed under Ad Check
American Crossroads Continues Shameful Attack On Health Care Reform
American Crossroads has released a new attack ad aimed at Rep. Scott Murphy (D-NY) over his support of the Affordable Care Act. The Karl Rove-associated group attempts to scare voters into believing that health care reform adds billions to the debt, increases premiums, and cuts seniors' Medicare benefits. In reality, the Affordable Care Act will increase Medicare coverage for seniors while reducing the deficit — which ballooned as a result of Bush policies and the recession — and premiums will go down or stay the same for the majority of Americans.
