Introduction

In the U.S. vice presidential debate in 2004, Dick Cheney attempted to defend himself against allegations made by his opponent John Edwards regarding his alleged misconduct as former CEO of Halliburton by referring the audience “to FactCheck.com [sic], an independent website sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania, [where] you can get the specific details with respect to Halliburton”. Cheney not only got the domain wrong—it is FactCheck.org—but also the fact-check itself, which refuted a claim made in a political advertisement that he gained financially from contracts given to the company in his time as vice president. Readers of the website, many new ones among them thanks to Cheney, could find the facts about the Halliburton issue and the most critical claims raised during the debate the next day in a long piece titled “Cheney & Edwards Mangle Facts”.