Check the Facts.

JIM LEHRER: Now, a little fact checking of presidential campaign speeches. As most of you know, we regularly run excerpts from the stump speeches of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, and Senators Kerry and Edwards.

Do they always adhere to the accuracy straight and narrow? Media correspondent Terence Smith has some answers.

TERENCE SMITH: To help us with those answers, I'm joined by Brooks Jackson, director of FactCheck.org, a non-profit, non-partisan research project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Brooks, welcome back to the broadcast. Tell us first how you go about the business of checking the accuracy of the assertions made by the different candidates.

BROOKS JACKSON: Well, Terry, when we hear dubious comments, something that sounds fishy, or especially when the candidates contradict each other directly and leave voters bewildered about which one of them is closer to the truth, we go first to the candidates and ask them where are they getting that and can you back that up?

We check their sources. Sometimes that means going to the Bureau of Labor Statistics for jobs figures; sometimes it means going to the Congressional Budget Office for spending figures, that sort of thing.

TERENCE SMITH: Publicly available records and figures.

BROOKS JACKSON: Right to the original sources, whenever we can.

Give FactCheck.org a look. I've never been there before today. It does a good job at taking some sensational claims by both sides and running the numbers against them. They do use the sources that they have available to them. As you know from the CBS memo fiasco, not all sources will check out. Still, a good read to try and clear up the mud being thrown by both sides.