1. Provide the title of your story or series and the names of the journalists involved.
Fact-Checking the Health Care Debate This year-long series of articles on the health care law was also written and reported by Director Brooks Jackson, Philadelphia Director Eugene Kiely and Staff Writers Justin Bank and D'Angelo Gore.
2. List date(s) this work was published or aired.
Feb. 22, 2010; Feb. 25, 2010; March 19, 2010; April 19, 2010; Sept. 17, 2010; Oct. 6, 2010; Oct. 28, 2010; and Nov. 19, 2010.
3. Provide a brief synopsis of the story or stories, including any significant findings.
These eight articles are the major stories we published during our year-long look at false claims being made by politicians and political groups about the health care law. We also published several shorter items, which we have not included here. We found that this piece of legislation — both before and after it was passed — has been the subject of the biggest falsehoods over the past two years. From the bogus assertion that the law institutes government-run health care to President Obama's over-reaching promise that everyone can keep their health insurance to hysterical Internet claims that patients will be required to get implanted microchips, we've seen it all when it comes to the health care law. The midterm elections also brought false and hyperbolic claims from outside groups that targeted seniors with scary messages saying the law "threatens [seniors'] lives" or could cause them to "lose their doctors." We also tackled more sober claims about the impact on Medicare, insurance premiums and abortion coverage, giving our readers detailed information on what the law said and what it would likely do.
4. Explain types of documents, data or Internet resources used. Were FOI or public records act requests required? How did this affect the work?
To fact-check claims made by politicians and political organizations, we asked them to back up their assertions and then dug into the support they presented. In addition, we examined the health care law itself, government reports and analyses, watchdog groups' findings and independent reports.
5. Explain types of human sources used.
We interviewed experts in health care, health care policy and economics, and we spoke with congressional staffers about the details of the legislation. We also spoke with the White House and the groups behind various claims.
6. Results (if any).
It's tough to quantify the impact of our articles. But we aim to help people see through the spin, and we hope to keep the debate honest. We do know our articles received a lot of attention, and our work led to appearances by our staff on cable news channels and radio.
7. Follow-up (if any). Have you run a correction or clarification on the report or has anyone come forward to challenge its accuracy? If so, please explain.
We didn't issue any corrections. We did post one update to a story in which we cited a scholarly article, after the lead author of that article gave us new information.
8. Advice to other journalists planning a similar story or project.
One of our goals at FactCheck.org is to spark more fact-checking of politicians by journalists. Our advice: Be skeptical, ask politicians and others to back up their assertions, keep an open mind, and aggressively expose falsehoods.