Sliming Pelosi

Internet rumormongers spread misinformation about her husband, her tax plans, her plane rides and a "mental deficiency."


Summary

Pelosi has taken her place with Obama and Palin as a favorite target of false claims in chain e-mails, judging by the examples our readers send us.

Here's the truth about some of the bunk being thrown at her by anonymous Internet rumormongers:

Her husband does not own a $17 million stake in the parent of a company whose American Samoa plant she tried to exempt from minimum wage laws. That claim stems from a Wikipedia hoax.

She does not routinely fly about in a 757-size jet that she demanded from the Air Force. She normally flies on the same type of executive jet as her Republican predecessor.

It's untrue that she's calling for a 100 percent "windfall" profits tax on stock profits or retirement savings. That malicious hoax has been going around for at least two years but has recently been revived in a slightly different form.

And it's not true that she couldn't figure out that the voyage on which Captain Cook died was his last. That one – the most recent example – tries to pass off a joke lifted from a 48-year-old gag book as a true story about Pelosi.

The anti-Pelosi attacks increased after Democrats won a bigger majority in the House in last year's election. In earlier articles, we debunked waves of anonymous Internet misinformation about the Democratic presidential contender and the Republican vice presidential pick. Now, it is the speaker's turn.

Note: This is a summary only. The full article with analysis, images and citations may be viewed at FactCheck.org