PolitiFact Awards 'Lie Of The Year' To Romney Jeep Ad

Posted: 12/12/2012 1:04 pm EST

Jason Linkins, HuffPost

We have come to the end of another year, and so it is once again time for PolitiFact to tell us what the 2012 "Lie Of The Year" is. For me, it's pretty obvious. The 2012 Lie Of The Year is, "Trust me, this pumpkin ale tastes great."

But that wasn't deemed a serious enough falsehood by the fact check industry, and so PolitiFact has instead chosen a winner from a list of untrue things that politicians and pundits said, with a special emphasis on the 2012 campaign season -- which is why "we are winning/succeeding in/going to win/going to succeed in that War in Afghanistan" did not make the cut.

This year, PolitiFact has singled out Mitt Romney's campaign ad that made an untrue claim about President Barack Obama, Chrysler, and jobs building Jeeps being sent to China. "It was a lie," says PolitiFact, "told in the critical state of Ohio in the final days of a close campaign."

In case you missed the controversy, PolitiFact offers a recap:

It originated with a conservative blogger, who twisted an accurate news story into a falsehood. Then it picked up steam when the Drudge Report ran with it. Even though Jeep's parent company gave a quick and clear denial, Mitt Romney repeated it and his campaign turned it into a TV ad.

(More here.)