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"Truth Squad" Crying Foul On Political Ads

In three weeks, Michigan voters will elect a new governor. Between now and then, voters will continue to be bombarded with political advertisements.

Rick Haglund, a veteran business journalist is a member of the "Michigan Truth Squad" which separates truth from fiction in the political ads.

Haglund says the Truth Squad has cried "foul" on democrat Virg Bernero's camp for an ad accusing republican Rick Snyder of outsourcing jobs at Gateway, and a Bernero ad accusing Snyder of sending jobs to China as "misleading". 

"[Snyder] was a member of the board of directors, but he was not actively involved in management decisions," Haglund said.

But the specious ads don't end with the democrats.

Haglund says the Snyder camp's ad accusing Bernero of being a wasteful "Tax and spender" is also misleading. 

"We found that to be pretty inaccurate. Lansing, actually, has been doing fairly well compared to some of the older industrial cities in this state while Bernero has been mayor," Haglund said.

Haglund, a veteran business journalist, said there's a troubling aspect to quite a few of these political spots.

"So many of the ads are being run by the parties as opposed to the candidates themselves.  And, in the primary, we saw a lot of ads run by these anonymous issue groups. You have no idea who these people really are or where their money is coming from," he said.

(Copyright, 2010. WWJ Newsradio 950, All Rights Reserved.)

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