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The Michael Berry Show
KTRH (KTRH-AM)
Politics and current events from the Czar of Talk Radio.
29 claims · Clear filters
False90% confidence7 sourcesSep 15, 2026James Talarico supported using taxpayer dollars for sex change surgeries on young children.Said by AMultiple authoritative fact-checkers (PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, CNN) rate the claim that Talarico supported taxpayer-funded sex change surgeries for young children as false or misleading: he voted against SB 14, which banned such surgeries and public funding for them, and he opposes surgeries for minors, though he voted for narrowing amendments. The extracted claim matches the ad's wording, which the post repeats.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.False90% confidence3 sourcesSep 15, 2026There are between 601.4 million jobs in Texas.Said by AThe claim that there are 601.4 million jobs in Texas is off by roughly a factor of 40. Primary sources from the Texas Workforce Commission and BLS put Texas nonfarm employment at about 14.4 to 14.5 million in mid-2026, and the claim was checked as of its 2026-09-15 posting date, when the figure was about 14.46 million. The extraction matches the passage's wording, so the claim is graded as the post made it.False60% confidence8 sourcesSep 15, 2026Ken Paxton was down by almost 15 points in one poll.Said by AThe claim's referent is clearly Paxton and the passage's "down by almost 15 points" refers to a poll he trailed in. The sources report no poll showing a deficit anywhere near 15 points: the largest Talarico lead cited is 6 to 7 points (CNN, and Fox registered voters), and one source says Paxton's polling since summer shows him trailing by single digits. Because a single unlisted poll could still exist, confidence is moderate.False80% confidence6 sourcesSep 15, 2026Clayton Williams led Ann Richards by over 30 percentage points in the 1990 Texas gubernatorial race.Said by ANo source reports Williams leading Richards by more than 30 points at any point in the 1990 race. The largest lead cited is about twenty points (Wikipedia, unrated), while the polls reported in the sources show leads of roughly 8 to 11 points.False85% confidence5 sourcesSep 15, 2026Ken Paxton has an artificial eye.Said by AThe claim that Ken Paxton has an artificial eye is contradicted by multiple sources describing his own natural eyes after a childhood injury, including surgeries, a droopy eyelid, and a 'good' left eye. The Nick Lachey page makes contradictory claims and is low credibility, so it does not establish the claim. The extraction matches the post, which states the artificial-eye assertion directly.Mixed60% confidence5 sourcesSep 15, 2026The federal government requires the removal of abandoned pipelines.Said by AThe claim is partly supported: offshore seafloor pipelines are generally required to be removed, per Oceana's summary of federal rules. But the sources also show that federal regulators routinely allow abandoned pipelines to be left in place, with over 97% authorized that way, and the pipeline rule in 49 CFR 192.727 requires only disconnecting, purging, and sealing abandoned pipelines, not removing them. The post's specific Georgia-to-Alabama pipeline case is not addressed by any source.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Mixed60% confidence5 sourcesSep 15, 2026Ken Paxton went from trailing by 20 points in the polls to receiving significant campaign contributions.Said by AThe money half of the claim is well supported: by September 2026 Paxton had raised $18 million in Q3, and outside groups had poured in hundreds of millions, including Musk-linked money. The 20-point deficit is contradicted, since polls cited in the sources show Paxton trailing Talarico by only about 1 to 6 points, and no source reports a 20-point gap. The extraction faithfully reflects the post's wording, so the claim is graded as made.Mixed60% confidence7 sourcesSep 15, 2026James Talarico stated, 'There are not two genders. There are six.'Said by ATalarico did say in a 2021 Texas House hearing that there are "many more than two biological sexes" and "six" of them, and he later said "there are not six sexes, there are two." However, FactCheck.org reports that the ad's line "let there be six genders" includes phrases that weren't part of his statements, so the exact quoted wording and the 'genders' framing are not his, and the post's passage is the host's commentary on the ad rather than a Talarico quote.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Mixed55% confidence7 sourcesSep 15, 2026James Talarico stated, 'We're going to dismantle capitalism.'Said by ATalarico's 2020 remarks described capitalism as an 'oppressive system' he wanted to help dismantle, alongside white supremacy and climate change, so the sentiment is documented. But no source contains the verbatim line 'We're going to dismantle capitalism,' and his 2026 Diary of a CEO interview says he is not proposing a radical economic vision and that 'we don't have capitalism' today, which cuts against a present-tense plan to dismantle it.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.Mixed50% confidence5 sourcesSep 15, 2026Clayton Williams' lead over Ann Richards dropped to 10% by the time of their 1990 debate.Said by ASources show Williams' lead shrinking through 1990, with late-summer polls at roughly 8 to 10 points (D Magazine) and a 46-38 poll after the rape remark (Texas Monthly), so a 10-point lead is within the reported range. However, no source dates the debate or reports the lead at that moment, and the sources conflict on his starting lead (Wikipedia says about 20 points, the post says over 30). Later polls showed a 5-point lead (LA Times, late October), and the lead had evaporated by Election Day.Mixed50% confidence4 sourcesSep 15, 2026In the 1960 presidential election, radio listeners polled as preferring Richard Nixon by five percentage points.The sources support that radio listeners were polled as favoring Nixon after the first 1960 debate, but none gives a five-point margin. The one poll cited, Sindlinger's, reported a 2-to-1 margin, which is a different and larger measure, and later analysis calls that poll biased and its radio-victory finding unreliable.True95% confidence6 sourcesSep 15, 2026James Talarico stated that God is 'nonbinary'.Said by AMultiple tier1 sources confirm that Talarico said "God is nonbinary" during Oct. 14, 2021, Texas House floor remarks opposing HB 25, the transgender youth sports bill. The extraction's attribution to Talarico matches the post's own subject, so the claim is graded as stated.Reported in the post, not stated as its own.