Newsweek: Barletta’s Ads are “Wrong”

Wilkes-Barre, PA – Ads by Lou Barletta are just plain “wrong” according to a report by factcheck.org and published in online editions of Newsweek magazine.

The story highlights Barletta’s ad which tries to link Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (PA-11) to the Federal National Mortgage Association, or "Fannie Mae", and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, or "Freddie Mac". The ad’s false claims include: “Kanjorski sponsored a bill to slash oversight on the banking industry. His friends at the banks made millions. Now, after they've sucked up all of the money, Kanjorski wants you to bail his rich friends out.”

But factcheck.org points out that “Banks may have made money, but not with any help from Kanjorski's bill.” The bill in question “didn’t even make it out of Committee.” In describing the bill’s uniform national standards aimed at curbing abusive lending practices, the factcheck.org review also finds that the independent experts at the Congressional Research Service summarized the bill as setting “new ‘requirements for higher-cost mortgages’ among other provisions” and that these national lending standards would have “increased” regulation in some states. Moreover, factcheck.org concludes its review of the faulty Barletta ad by stating “the implication that a bill that never passed helped banks ‘suck up all the money’ is wrong.”

Adam Benson, a spokesman for the Kanjorski campaign said: “Mayor Barletta has a history on this front. You will remember that in 2002, his campaign had to pull another ad down because it was inaccurate. Barletta says he is an ‘independent Republican’, but his campaign is looking more like a typical Republican campaign every day – he is relying on smear tactics to win a seat in Congress. America is rejecting that in the Presidential race, and I think Northeastern Pennsylvania will reject it too.”

According to the description on their website, factcheck.org is a “nonpartisan, nonprofit ‘consumer advocate’ for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics.” It is “a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg in 1994 to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state and federal levels.” Lastly, factcheck.org “accepts NO funding from business corporations, labor unions, political parties, lobbying organizations or individuals. It is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation.”