Naomi Wolf, in her book The Beauty Myth, claimed that 150,000 die annually from anorexia, almost 5 times the number who died from Aids. The correct number is closer to 1,000.

In 2001 Bush was accused of trying to put more arsenic in drinking water. The DNC even ran an ad in which a little girl asked for more arsenic to be put in her water. Clinton had passed a last minute regulation to lower acceptable aresenic levels from 50 parts per billion (ppb) to 10 ppb. It had been at 50 ppb since 1942. Bush wanted to review the costs on smaller communities where such a compliance would have been quite expensive for very little improvement in public health. He had suggested lowering it to 20 ppb, twice what Clinton proposed (but never had to fund) but still 60% less than before. Bush eventually accepted the 10 ppb level.

The above are two samples of misinformation from unSpun: Finding Facts in A World of Misinformation by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson. It lists numerous examples of such fact twisting and lying from the left and the right.

Our popular media does a horrible job questioning outrageous claims and clarifying partisan fact twisting.

print