Check the Attacks :: Home

Welcome to Check the Attacks, a Northwest Progressive Institute project created to help voters, journalists, and activists track and debunk trashy political advertising in the Pacific Northwest. Check the Attacks is a play on "Check the facts", a phrase that disingenuously appears on a large number of attack mail pieces. Often, "Check the facts" serves as a heading for a list of footnotes in tiny print, deliberately inserted by political consultants to make the mailer's bold, negative statements seem more credible and legitimate.

Check the attacks with Check the Attacks
We built Check the Attacks to provide the context and background that these ads conveniently leave out, as a public service to all who are sick of gutter politics. Feel free to browse our repository of scanned attack mailers, organized by election and office sought, or use the search box to look for a specific ad. Visit the About page for more information about the project.