Podcast · iheart.com
The Michael Berry Show
KTRH (KTRH-AM)
Politics and current events from the Czar of Talk Radio.
81 claims
Mixed60% confidence5 sourcesSep 23, 2026The federal government requires the removal of abandoned pipelines.Said by CThe 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% confidence7 sourcesSep 23, 2026CNN reporter Clarissa Ward filmed a staged rescue of a prisoner in a Syrian prison after the regime fell.Said by CThe sources confirm Ward filmed a dramatic prisoner-release segment in a Damascus intelligence prison after Assad's fall, but CNN later said the freed man was apparently a former intelligence officer who gave a false identity, so the 'prisoner rescue' framing was wrong. None of the sources explicitly establishes that the scene was deliberately staged; that word comes from critics and social media, and the post's own wording is not evidence.Mixed60% confidence9 sourcesSep 23, 2026American journalist Austin Tice has been held captive in Syria since 2012.Said by 2ESources confirm Austin Tice was abducted in Syria in August 2012 and that the Syrian government held him, but they conflict on whether he remained in captivity. RSF (2026) found no tangible evidence he was still held after early 2013, and CNN (2025) reported a former general saying he was killed in 2013, while his family still believes he is alive. The post's extraction matches its passage, so the dispute is over the claim's 'held captive since 2012' continuing to the present.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.Mixed50% confidence5 sourcesAug 18, 2026James Talarico claims his mother's home as his own for the purpose of running for office.Said by AProPublica and Texas Tribune records show Talarico listed his parents' address on his voter registration from November 2021 and kept it until September 2024, after buying a home in June 2022, so the 'claims his mother's home as his own' element is supported. The 'for the purpose of running for office' motive and the voter-fraud characterization are disputed: his campaign says he lives in his north Austin home, and documents reviewed by the Current contradict the Federalist's fraud allegation. The extracted claim drops the post's 'which is voter fraud' qualifier, and the claim is graded without it.True95% confidence8 sourcesSep 23, 2026Willie Nelson was born in Abbott, Texas.Said by CMultiple independent sources, including the Wittliff Collections (primary), PBS Ken Burns biography (tier2), and the Statesman (birth record explanation), state Willie Nelson was born in Abbott, Texas. The claim's 'I believe' hedge and doubled word in the passage are casual phrasing, not a departure from the post's content.True90% confidence7 sourcesSep 23, 2026Willie Nelson wrote the song Family Bible in 1957.Said by CMultiple independent sources (Stereogum/Legacy Recordings press material, Genius, American Songwriter, Wide Open Country citing KXRB) state Willie Nelson wrote 'Family Bible' in 1957, matching the claim; the claim's wording matches the passage's 'He wrote that song in 1957' with the referent resolved to Willie Nelson from the post itself.True60% confidence3 sourcesSep 23, 2026Ray Bryers owns a company called The Pipeyard Inc.Said by CSources identify Ray Briers (spelled 'Bryers' in the claim) as President of The Pipe Yard, Incorporated, and a 2026 King Air Magazine profile describes Chris Prause as a minority owner of The Pipe Yard, which implies Ray holds the controlling ownership. No source states his ownership in explicit terms, and the sources are unrated or low-credibility, so confidence is moderate. The claim's 'Pipeyard Inc.' is a minor naming variant of 'The Pipe Yard, Incorporated'.