Headquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FlackCheck.org is the political literacy companion site to the award-winning FactCheck.org. The site provides resources designed to help viewers recognize flaws in arguments in general and political ads in particular. Video resources point out deception and incivility in political rhetoric. A special section called Engage features a moderated, online discussion of civics-related current events.

FlackCheck.org is funded by an endowment provided by the Annenberg Foundation to support the Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics and by a grant from the Omidyar Network.

FlackCheck.org Staff

Aous Abbas is the website developer for FlackCheck.org. He joined the Annenberg Public Policy Center in 2006 and built the current FactCheck.org and AnnenbergClassroom.org websites.

Dan Corkery is a writer/producer and content manager for FlackCheck.org. He studies and performs improv with the Philly Improv Theater and Nielsen. Some of his favorite FlackCheck.org videos include “Six Degrees of (Not Kevin Bacon)” and the “They Said What?!” series.

Gary L. Gehman joined the Annenberg Public Policy Center in 2004 as webmaster for the NPR radio show Justice Talking and its Webby Award-winning companion site, Justice Learning. He created a number of the videos in FlackCheck.org’s Campaign Against Lincoln series, including “Train to Nowhere” and “Tax and Spend Abe,” which will be revealed during the course of the election year.

Ellen Iwamoto joined the Annenberg Public Policy Center in 2008 as a writer/editor for the Leonore Annenberg Institute for Civics. She previously worked as a news editor and copy editor for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky.

Jen McCleary is the web graphics designer for FlackCheck.org. She also creates animations for the “They Said What?!” series. Jen joined the Annenberg Public Policy Center in 2006 and designed the current FactCheck.org and AnnenbergClassroom.org websites.

Jeremy Quattlebaum is a writer/animator/producer for They Said What?!, Both Sides Do It, Stinkweeds and Orchids: Monitoring the News Media, and many other FlackCheck.org videos.

Zachary Reese is a new media artist and musician from the south side of Philadelphia. He is the author of several humor books, including the world’s first (and hopefully last) collection of Yo Momma compliments. Zachary’s contributions to FlackCheck.org’s Debate Watch series of videos have made his mother proud.

Dannagal Goldthwaite Young is an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Delaware where she studies the content, audience, and effects of political humor. In 2011, she launched Breaking Boundaries, a website and symposium dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of entertainment and politics, funded by the University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication. Danna is also an improvisational comedian, performing regularly with the improv comedy troupe ComedySportz Philadelphia since 1999.

Past contributors

Eric Cunningham is a comedy writer in New York City on the Upright Citizens Brigade’s house sketch team, Onassis. He is also a founding member of the political comedy group The Full Ginsburg and has created original work for Funny or Die, CNN, and Newsweek.com. Of the video takedowns he has produced for FlackCheck.org, Eric’s two favorites are “Gov. Romney’s State Based Approach to Healthcare (and Hair)” and “Big Clue Attack Ad Response.”

Kel Elkins is an aerospace engineer working for a 3D visualization and analysis software company in the Philadelphia suburbs. Kel’s technical animations have shown up on several major news networks, including CNN, FOX and MSNBC. He has also presented his work on multiple occasions at SIGGRAPH, an international computer graphics and animation conference.

Paul Falzone is a scholar, researcher, and award-winning producer of film and video who specializes in creating short form advocacy video for nonprofits. His productions have been programmed in a number of festivals and his media-related writing has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals and encyclopedias. He is also the founder and director of Peripheral Vision International, a nonprofit that creates and distributes advocacy media in Uganda.

Mario Giorno is a video editor for FlackCheck.org who produced the website’s “Caught by the Conspiracy” video segments.

Marty Johnson is a comedy writer with a background in television production at PBS and CBS. Her two-person sketch show is currently running at the UCB NY theater, and has appeared at festivals across the U.S., including the Friars Club Sketch Competition in 2011 and 2010. Her writing credits include a sitcom pilot for NBC Universal and the short, Strange Faculty, winner of Best Film in the NBC Short Cuts film festival.

John Vettese joined the Annenberg Public Policy Center in 2005 as a staff writer for the Student Voices project, which has since been folded into the Annenberg Classroom civics education website. He also works as a staff photographer and audio specialist for the APPC, and has produced such mercurial videos as “Maxine Waters sends the Tea Party straight to Hell” for FlackCheck.org.