From ThinkProgress:
According to a new analysis from the Annenberg Public Policy Center, 85 percent of spending on presidential ads by the top spending conservative 501(c)(4) organizations went toward spots labeled “deceptive” by fact checkers. Third-party 501(c)(4) groups, commonly referred to as political action committees, do not have to disclose their donors.
As of June 1st, no Democratic 501(c)(4) organizations had spent any money on the presidential race.
And who are these miscreants of misinformation? The American Energy Alliance, the Koch-linked Americans for Prosperity, and Karl Rove’s Crossroads GPS, for starters. And the ads themselves have a common theme: energy. As ThinkProgress notes, “Bloomberg analysis found that 81 percent attack ads against President Obama were related to energy in the first quarter of this year.”
That’s the commercials. What about the shows they surround? Media Matters analyzed cable news networks last year as the Environmental Protection Agency was considering regulations on greenhouse gasses. (These regulations.)
Driven largely by Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, results show that in 76 percent of those appearances, the guest was opposed to EPA regulations while 18 percent were in favor. Of the appearances by elected officials, 86 percent were Republican. Only one guest in 17 months of coverage across nine news outlets was a climate scientist — industry-funded Patrick Michaels.
Granted, this was way back in 2011. We can certainly assume that things have gotten better. (The previous sentence is not intended to be taken seriously.)
Spin sandwiched with lies. It’s like the deli from Hell.