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Media Matters: FactCheck Got It Wrong on “Vest” Ad

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A major left-wing media watchdog group slammed a recent analysis by a nonpartisan watchdog group for their assertion that an attack ad against Sen. George Allen was “just plain wrong.”

“FactCheck’s broad assertion that ‘Allen did not vote against giving troops modern body armor’ is simply false,” stated Media Matters in a report posted Thursday evening. The spot in question, produced by the left-leaning veterans’ PAC, VoteVets.org, charges that Allen voted against a 2003 proposal to buy much-needed body armor for troops in Iraq.

Specifically, the group took issue with FactCheck’s interpretation of the vote in question — Allen’s “nay” vote on an April 2003 amendment from Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) to appropriate approximately $1 billion for “National Guard and Reserve Equipment.”

Landrieu’s one-sentence proposal did not specifically mention body armor, and she did not mention body armor in her floor comments about the amendment, the group noted. A press release from her office about the amendment mentioned a need for “bullet-proof inserts, and tactical vests,” but FactCheck concluded that was not enough to assert that Allen’s vote was against buying body armor.

In an editorial, the Arizona Republic followed similar logic, which Media Matters also challenged.

“[T]hat Landrieu did not use the words ‘body armor’ in her speech on the legislation — does not undermine the ad’s assertion that Allen voted against legislation that would have increased funding for ‘helmets’ and ‘bullet-proof inserts,’ as the press release made clear,” Media Matters wrote of the Republic‘s editorial.

“Further. . . Landrieu did refer in her floor statements to the need for ‘helmets’ and other ‘force protection’ equipment intended to ‘minimize causalities.'”

In support of its argument, Media Matters cited a second “nay” vote from Allen, against an October 2003 amendment to spend $322 million on “small arms protection inserts (SAPI) body armor and battlefield cleanup.” That vote was not cited in the VoteVets ad.

Earlier, questions had been raised about the ad’s claim that a vest it depicted was “left over” from the Vietnam War, as were vests given to reservists serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. FactCheck determined that the claim was false; Media Matters did not address the question.

In a written statement, VoteVets.org spokesman Eric Schmeltzer applauded the work of Media Matters. “The record is as clear as day on this vote, and MediaMatters has exposed FactCheck’s sloppy and false work for what it is.

“It is unfortunate that TPMMuckraker printed it all without any scrutiny. We would have expected Muckraker to live up to the high standard it always has adhered to in the past.”

TPMmuckraker will be doing its own analysis of the ad in a follow-up post.

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