1frankenlies.com
#2a: Frankenflier
In a ridiculous chapter called "Fun with Racism," (on page 257 (paperback, p. 266)) Franken reprints the text of this flier supposedly found in "black neighborhoods" shortly before the hotly contested 2002 Maryland gubernatorial election (Republican Bob Ehrlich vs. Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend).
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Franken decries the flier as an effort to prevent people (blacks) from coming out to vote, being in part that the election was scheduled for November 5th. The message: See how racist those Republicans are!
The truth, as reported in the Baltimore Sun, was that the flier was found by Democratic campaign volunteers.2 Neither Democratic officials nor the Sun brought forward even one regular citizen to say that he or she had found the offending flier.3 In fact, officials could only show that a whopping total of four of these fliers had been found4, and all of them at a single place5, a school.6 When pressed for evidence that Republicans had anything to do with this mysterious flier, a Democratic spokesman had to admit, "In a sense, we have no proof."7
Republicans, along with other clear-thinking people, questioned the flier's authenticity.
Franken, however, found this item to meet his "impossibly high standard" and include it in his book. What a nice example to set for his young Harvard researchers, eh?
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Notes:
1 The displayed flier is from www.talkingpointsmemo.com.
2 Howard Libit and Tim Craig, "Allegations Fly as Election Day Nears," Baltimore Sun, November 4, 2002.
3 Ibid.
4 Joel Mowbray, "The Color of Election Day," National Review, November 5, 2002. [See also Jonathan V. Last, "The Floridazation of American Politics," The Weekly Standard, November 5, 2002.]
5 Ibid.
6 Libit and Craig, "Allegations Fly as Election Day Nears" and Mowbray, "The Color of Election Day."
7 Mowbray, "The Color of Election Day."