Faking News in the Illinois Governor Race
Oberweis uses made-up headlines against a rival in the GOP primary.

Summary

A Republican candidate in Illinois is running TV ads using fake
headlines.

Jim Oberweis launched the ads against the frontrunner in the state's
GOP gubernatorial primary, Judy Baar Topinka. He accuses her of being part
of a "culture of political corruption." Besides Oberweis's fakery, he
misleads by resurrecting decade-old allegations that came to nothing.


Analysis



Oberweis launched two ads March 1 attacking Topinka, saying "I want

end this culture of political corruption in the state of Illinois." But

the Chicago Tribune first reported (and we confirmed for ourselves) all

newspaper headlines shown in Oberweis's ad are fake, and never appeared in
the newspapers pictured.

False Implications

One ad that the Oberweis campaign simply calls "Ad 'A,'" uses a
made-up headline that exaggerates a decade-old allegation.

Fake: The ad shows a St. Louis Post Dispatch masthead with the
headline "Ordered to Destroy Document" while the announcer says,
"[Topinka's] top aides ordered documents shredded." The Post Dispatch

ran such a headline.

Real: The ad refers to a story from nearly 11 years ago, a June 27,
1995 article that appeared on page 4A. The real headline reads: "Illinois
Treasurer Aide is Accused; Loans, Hotel Investor' List are Involved."

The ad also misleads by claiming Topinka's "aides" ordered the
destruction of "documents," when in fact only a single aide and a single
document were involved. The document was not destroyed. Topinka made it
public.

According to the very news article the ad cites, Topinka's spokesman
at the time said his superior, Topinka's deputy, had ordered him to

a list of investors in a hotel project. But Topinka made it public after
being told of the alleged destruction order.

Fake: The ad also shows the Chicago Tribune masthead with the
headline, "Investigation Into Topinka." The Tribune ran no such headline.

Real: The article in question was a June 2003 piece in the Tribune
with a headline that reads: "Campaign probe of Topinka launched; U.S.
subpoenas workers' records."

Oberweis's ad also misleads by saying "Topinka is under

by federal agents, her top aide ordered documents shredded." That falsely
implies that she is currently under investigation on the old
document-destruction matter, which is false. In fact, it is doubtful that
any investigation is still open. Topinka, the Illinois State Treasurer,

come under federal scrutiny in 2003 after allegations were made that state
employees had worked on state time for her successful re-election campaign
the year before. Topinka's campaign told FactCheck.org that all

documents were provided to the FBI and they have yet, three years later,

hear back from investigators. An internal investigation into the matter

completed in 2003 but state law bars it from being publicly released

misconduct is found.

A "rotten" deal?

Oberweis's second ad, simply called "Ad 'B,'" inaccurately portrays

real estate deal between the state of Illinois and several businessmen

can be traced back 12 years before Topinka was even in office.

In 1982, the state made a loan to the businessmen to develop several
commercial properties, notably a pair of hotels. By 1995, the debt had

been paid back and the hotels had become unprofitable according to several
news reports from the time. Topinka, in her first year in office, made an
offer to settle the $40 million debt for $10 million based on an appraisal
done by Real Estate Analysis Corp. of Chicago that valued the state's

in the hotels at $11.7 million.

Fake: The Oberweis ad claims that Topinka "tried to give away

of taxpayer dollars to insider friends," while displaying the masthead of
the Chicago Sun-Times with the banner headline, "$30 Million Sweetheart
Deal." No such headline ever appeared in the newspaper.

Real: The real headline appeared over an editorial (not a news

on page 41 of the May 3, 1995 edition of the Sun-Times. It reads:
"Sweetheart Deal Should Be Jilted." The "insider friends," the ad refers

are two of the hotel owners and prominent political activists and
fundraisers, William F. Cellini and Gary Fears. However, the editorial

not draw any connections between Topinka and either Cellini or Fears.
FactCheck.org reviewed other news coverage and campaign finance records

found no connection.

Fake:The ad continues with the fake headline, "Attorney General

Bad Deal," displayed below The State Journal-Register's masthead.

Real: The actual article headline reads, "Hotels' debt deal blocked;
Attorney General cites U of I study."

While the fake headlines appear an announcer says the deal was "so
rotten, the Republican Attorney General ordered it blocked." The

Attorney General at the time, Jim Ryan, did indeed kill the deal offered

Topinka two months after it was made. But he didn't call it "rotten."
Topinka had relied on an appraisal that turned out to be too low. The deal
may be viewed as "bad," as Ryan concluded at the time, but there were no
indications or serious allegations of any foul play.

Ryan blocked the settlement based on a study done by University of
Illinois financial experts which valued the properties at around $19
million -- nearly double the amount of the appraisal Topinka used. The
financial experts from the University of Illinois assigned blame to the
competing auditors - not to Topinka. In a letter to the Chicago Sun Times
they said: "we believe the treasurer has been misled by mistakes in the

appraisal concerning the value of the state's claims on the Springfield
property." Topinka later withdrew her offer. The hotel owners sued, and

years later, in June of 2005, the Supreme Court of Illinois ruled that
Topinka was within her rights to withdraw the offer.

Culture of Deception

Campaigns often use real newspaper headlines in their TV ads to
document their own statements and give them the credibility of a

neutral third party. In our judgment, making up headlines and passing them
off as real is a deception.

Oberweis campaign director Joe Wiegand admitted to us that the
headlines were not real. "Those aren't headlines," he said. "The text is
excerpted from stories that appeared in those publications." However, the
words in the ad don't appear verbatim in the body of the news stories
either. They are the campaign's paraphrases, and furthermore are used in a
misleading way. They made it appear that newspapers were running

news stories about an ongoing investigation of document destruction and
"corruption," when that is far from true.

As these ads demonstrate, some political campaigns see no problem

this sort of deception. As Weigand told the Tribune, "We are not printing

newspaper. We are doing a television advertisement."

Faking News in the Illinois Governor Race
Oberweis uses made-up headlines against a rival in the GOP primary.

Summary

A Republican candidate in Illinois is running TV ads using fake
headlines.

Jim Oberweis launched the ads against the frontrunner in the state's
GOP gubernatorial primary, Judy Baar Topinka. He accuses her of being part
of a "culture of political corruption." Besides Oberweis's fakery, he
misleads by resurrecting decade-old allegations that came to nothing.


Analysis



Oberweis launched two ads March 1 attacking Topinka, saying "I want
to end this culture of political corruption in the state of Illinois."
But as the Chicago Tribune first reported (and we confirmed for ourselves)
all four newspaper headlines shown in Oberweis's ad are fake, and never
appeared in the newspapers pictured.

False Implications

One ad that the Oberweis campaign simply calls "Ad 'A,'" uses a
made-up headline that exaggerates a decade-old allegation.

Fake: The ad shows a St. Louis Post Dispatch masthead with the
headline "Ordered to Destroy Document" while the announcer says,
"[Topinka's] top aides ordered documents shredded." The Post Dispatch
never ran such a headline.

Real: The ad refers to a story from nearly 11 years ago, a June 27,
1995 article that appeared on page 4A. The real headline reads: "Illinois
Treasurer Aide is Accused; Loans, Hotel Investor' List are Involved."

The ad also misleads by claiming Topinka's "aides" ordered the
destruction of "documents," when in fact only a single aide and a single
document were involved. The document was not destroyed. Topinka made it
public.

According to the very news article the ad cites, Topinka's spokesman
at the time said his superior, Topinka's deputy, had ordered him to
destroy a list of investors in a hotel project. But Topinka made it public
after being told of the alleged destruction order.

Fake: The ad also shows the Chicago Tribune masthead with the
headline, "Investigation Into Topinka." The Tribune ran no such headline.

Real: The article in question was a June 2003 piece in the Tribune
with a headline that reads: "Campaign probe of Topinka launched; U.S.
subpoenas workers' records."

Oberweis's ad also misleads by saying "Topinka is under investigation
by federal agents, her top aide ordered documents shredded." That falsely
implies that she is currently under investigation on the old
document-destruction matter, which is false. In fact, it is doubtful that
any investigation is still open. Topinka, the Illinois State Treasurer,
did come under federal scrutiny in 2003 after allegations were made that
state employees had worked on state time for her successful re-election
campaign the year before. Topinka's campaign told FactCheck.org that all
subpoenaed documents were provided to the FBI and they have yet, three
years later, to hear back from investigators. An internal investigation
into the matter was completed in 2003 but state law bars it from being
publicly released unless misconduct is found.

A "rotten" deal?

Oberweis's second ad, simply called "Ad 'B,'" inaccurately portrays a
real estate deal between the state of Illinois and several businessmen
that can be traced back 12 years before Topinka was even in office.

In 1982, the state made a loan to the businessmen to develop several
commercial properties, notably a pair of hotels. By 1995, the debt had
not been paid back and the hotels had become unprofitable according to
several news reports from the time. Topinka, in her first year in office,
made an offer to settle the $40 million debt for $10 million based on an
appraisal done by Real Estate Analysis Corp. of Chicago that valued the
state's stake in the hotels at $11.7 million.

Fake: The Oberweis ad claims that Topinka "tried to give away
millions of taxpayer dollars to insider friends," while displaying the
masthead of the Chicago Sun-Times with the banner headline, "$30 Million
Sweetheart Deal." No such headline ever appeared in the newspaper.

Real: The real headline appeared over an editorial (not a news
story) on page 41 of the May 3, 1995 edition of the Sun-Times. It reads:
"Sweetheart Deal Should Be Jilted." The "insider friends," the ad refers
to are two of the hotel owners and prominent political activists and
fundraisers, William F. Cellini and Gary Fears. However, the editorial
does not draw any connections between Topinka and either Cellini or Fears.
FactCheck.org reviewed other news coverage and campaign finance records
and found no connection.

Fake:The ad continues with the fake headline, "Attorney General
Blocks Bad Deal," displayed below The State Journal-Register's masthead.

Real: The actual article headline reads, "Hotels' debt deal blocked;
Attorney General cites U of I study."

While the fake headlines appear an announcer says the deal was "so
rotten, the Republican Attorney General ordered it blocked." The
Republican Attorney General at the time, Jim Ryan, did indeed kill the
deal offered by Topinka two months after it was made. But he didn't call
it "rotten." Topinka had relied on an appraisal that turned out to be too
low. The deal may be viewed as "bad," as Ryan concluded at the time, but
there were no indications or serious allegations of any foul play.

Ryan blocked the settlement based on a study done by University of
Illinois financial experts which valued the properties at around $19
million -- nearly double the amount of the appraisal Topinka used. The
financial experts from the University of Illinois assigned blame to the
competing auditors - not to Topinka. In a letter to the Chicago Sun Times
they said: "we believe the treasurer has been misled by mistakes in the
1994 appraisal concerning the value of the state's claims on the
Springfield property." Topinka later withdrew her offer. The hotel owners
sued, and ten years later, in June of 2005, the Supreme Court of Illinois
ruled that Topinka was within her rights to withdraw the offer.

Culture of Deception

Campaigns often use real newspaper headlines in their TV ads to
document their own statements and give them the credibility of a
supposedly neutral third party. In our judgment, making up headlines and
passing them off as real is a deception.

Oberweis campaign director Joe Wiegand admitted to us that the
headlines were not real. "Those aren't headlines," he said. "The text is
excerpted from stories that appeared in those publications." However, the
words in the ad don't appear verbatim in the body of the news stories
either. They are the campaign's paraphrases, and furthermore are used in a
misleading way. They made it appear that newspapers were running
front-page news stories about an ongoing investigation of document
destruction and "corruption," when that is far from true.

As these ads demonstrate, some political campaigns see no problem
with this sort of deception. As Weigand told the Tribune, "We are not
printing a newspaper. We are doing a television advertisement."

Faking News in the Illinois Governor Race
Oberweis uses made-up headlines against a rival in the GOP
primary.
Summary

A Republican candidate in Illinois is running TV ads using fake
headlines.