The pundits, 0 for 3

By Bill Adair
Published on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 9:59 a.m.

Related rulings:

When White House communications director Anita Dunn said that Mao Tse-tung was "one of her favorite philosophers, only Fox News picked that up."

Bill O'Reilly, Friday, October 23rd, 2009.

Ruling: False | Details

"For the last decade the climate has been cooling."

Mary Matalin, Thursday, October 22nd, 2009.

Ruling: False | Details

"President Bush never did one interview with the New York Times during his entire presidency."

Rachel Maddow, Thursday, October 22nd, 2009.

Ruling: False | Details

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Rachel Maddow claimed President Bush never gave an interview to the New York Times.

As part of our new emphasis on checking pundits and talk show hosts, we've done three checks on some recent claims by Rachel Maddow, Bill O'Reilly and Mary Matalin.

* Maddow claimed that President George W. Bush never gave an interview to the New York Times . We found three. Maddow earned a False.

* Matalin claimed that the Earth has been cooling the last 10 years. We checked the climate data and found that's not the case. Another False.

* O'Reilly claimed that the tale of White House adviser Anita Dunn's remarks about Mao Tse-tung was only covered by Fox. But we found plenty of coverage by other outlets. False again.

To check all our ratings on pundits and talk show hosts, see our Pundit page .