Palm Coast Mayor Eddie Branquinho’s sarcasm can be difficult to detect behind a Portuguese accent. When he used it today to ridicule a fellow-council member’s bogus claims, opponents took it as an opportunity to deflect from the lie and attack Branquinho instead.
lies
Danko-Lowe Campaign Fabrications: Governor’s Office Refutes Incendiary Claims About Holland “Criminal Charges”
Ed Danko, the Palm Coast City Council member working on behalf of Alan Lowe to get him elected mayor, has been making misleading or baseless statements, including outright lies, and leveling false and potentially defamatory accusations about former Mayor Milissa Holland, her ailing daughter and to some extent former City Manager Matt Morton, a FlaglerLive investigation found.
The Odious Victor Barbosa
An examination of Palm Coast Councilman Victor Barbosa’s accusation of “corruption” against Manager Matt Morton reveals it to be baseless and defamatory, while Barbosa’s own methods, from trying to get city employees fired, meddling in administrative business, blindsiding the council and shaming of residents in the city’s name, raise questions about his own understanding of, or fitness for, the job.
Joe Mullins Falsehoods, Mischaracterizations, Misleading and Baseless Statements: A Fact-Check
Joe Mullins’s problem with facts is not new, pre-dating his election. We fact-checked his latest statements from that March 25 appearance point by point as he discussed Flagler schools’ transgender students, local Republicans allegiances, the massage parlor murders, immigration, why people move to Flagler, guns and other matters.
American Carnage: How Donald Trump Is Killing Us
The coronavirus has mutated into ideological variants. We are moving from a natural disaster to a man-made one, from statistically unavoidable deaths to deaths willed by indifference, ignorance, selfishness, and the political calculations of a single man. The consequences will compound rather than mitigate the pandemic.
Lawmakers’ Letters to Constituents on Health Care Are Full of Lies and Misinformation
As the GOP tries to rewrite–or “repeal and replace–the Affordable Care Act, lawmakers in both parties are incorrectly citing statistics, making false claims and leaving out important context in letters to constituents.
President Fake
We’ve been worried about fake news from all the wrong places. The most promiscuous peddler of fake news is the president himself, Donald J. Trump. That’s dangerous for media, for America and for democracy.
How Journalists Should Go Beyond Fact-Checking Trump’s Routine Lies and Conspiracy Theories
The story is that the president-elect is more factually irresponsible than any political leader in the United States in memory. Chasing it will be just one challenge of the next four years.
Ransom Rubbish
Oliver North would have you believe that the Obama Administration paid a $400 million ransom to Iran in exchange for three Americans. His history and compass are off. Here’s a little reminder.
Brian Williams and Baghdad Bob
When Brian Williams lied about being shot in a helicopter, it was part of a broader pattern of bogus stories the American media were too happy to broadcast about the war in Iraq as it sped to George W. Bush’s Mission Accomplished moment on the USS Abraham Lincoln.
When Lies Are Elevated to a Campaign Strategy
The lies of presidents could re-carve Rushmore by audacity alone, yet the lies of the Romney-Ryan campaign have taken the art of lying to new lows, but not without the complicity of voters, who, in the golden age of fact-checking, have no excuse to be misinformed.
Offshoring War: How Obama—and Those Moments of Silence—Insult Military Sacrifice
When a president sends soldiers to die in a war that long ago ceased having a claim to being just or to being won, those Americans are no longer being sacrificed by their nation. They’re being murdered. The complicity is national.
Election Primer: Amendment 4, “Hometown Democracy” and Sprawling Misinformation
Amendment 4, Florida’s so-called “Hometown Democracy” amendment, is an attempt to give voters a voice in major local development initiatives. It’s also rife in misinformation.
In School Board Race, a Clash of Clarity And Fact Between Fischer and Sword
John Fischer makes wild, often incoherent claims and exaggerations, betting, correctly, that his audiences won’t verify what he says. Sword is about clarity and rational analysis.
Neo-Supremacy Chic: Glenn Beck
And Sarah Palin’s Tea-Scalding of MLK
Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin’s biggest “tea party” rally on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s most famous speech signals the arrival of a neo-supremacist political movement in god’s clothing.
Socialism, Capitalism, and Other Fallen Stock
We can rail about socialism’s evil and worship capitalism all we like. It won’t get us out of the hole we spent the last 30 years digging. History and Adam Smith are better guides.
McCain Claims He’s No Maverick
John McCain is repudiating the branding he brandished for years on every campaign trail he doddered through.
Rubio’s Health Care “Model” Isn’t Functioning
Marco Rubio says the nation should adopt his Florida Health Choices, claiming its market approach is “happening right now.” He’s wrong. Florida Health Choices has yet to insure anyone.