Trump's big bad border speechIt was his first Oval Office address to the nation. And it was loaded with spin about a so-called "security crisis" at the U.S.-Mexico border.In a...
| |  | | Democracy Dies in Darkness | | | | | | | | | | The truth behind the rhetoric | | | | | | Trump's big bad border speech It was his first Oval Office address to the nation. And it was loaded with spin about a so-called "security crisis" at the U.S.-Mexico border. In a nine-minute address broadcast nationwide, President Trump pumped up numbers, exaggerated the public safety risks of immigration and repeated false claims regarding how to fund a border wall. This was not the freewheeling, fact-free Trump you would see in a looser setting like a campaign rally. The president omitted a deceptive talking point his administration had been using in the days leading up to the speech: that terrorists have been caught at the southern border. Trump followed a closely tailored script and cited up-to-date government statistics. But the overall picture he painted, and the slippery way he switched from one number to another, left a misleading impression of a security crisis at the border. We documented six false or misleading claims, including a Four Pinocchio statement that a reworking of NAFTA would pay for a border wall. (That's not how trade works.) |  | | | Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this e-mail was forwarded to you, sign up here, for the weekly newsletter. Hear something fact-checkable? Send it here, we'll check it out. Elizabeth Warren on the minimum wage It's barely 2019. But the 2020 presidential jockeying has already kicked off. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told supporters in Iowa: "When I was a kid, a minimum-wage job would support a family of three," covering a mortgage, utilities and food. But today, "a minimum-wage job in America, full-time, will not keep a mama and a baby out of poverty." President John F. Kennedy raised and extended the minimum wage in 1961, setting different rates for interstate commerce and retail employees. Depending on which wage Warren's mother earned, the family would have fallen above or below the poverty line. However, by 1965, when Warren was 16, any employee with a minimum-wage job and a family of three was above the poverty line. Fast forward to this decade. The year 2010 was the last time a "mama and a baby" making minimum wage were near the poverty threshold — and even then, their annual earnings were just $50 above it. In other words, Warren's overall point is correct: the minimum wage has not kept pace with inflation. |  | | | Who shares fake news on Facebook? A new study from researchers at Princeton and New York University found that people older than 65 share on average seven times as many articles from fake news domains as the youngest age group. However, researchers are quick to point out this may be because older users came to social media later and lack the same digital literacy as younger users. For example, about a third of those over 65 believe news articles that appear on Facebook are curated by journalists. (They're not.) We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can also reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP, @mmkelly22, @rizzoTK or use #FactCheckThis), or Facebook (Fact Checker). Read about our rating scale here, and sign up here for our weekly Fact Checker newsletter. Scroll down for this week's Pinocchio roundup. — Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Twitter
Facebook
No comments:
Post a Comment