Podcast · iheart.com
The Michael Berry Show
KTRH (KTRH-AM)
Politics and current events from the Czar of Talk Radio.
81 claims
False85% confidence6 sourcesSep 23, 2026Barack Obama previously removed Fox News from the White House press pool.Said by CThe claim that Obama removed Fox News from the White House press pool is contradicted by fact-checkers. Snopes rated the claim that Obama banned Fox News from briefings Mostly False, and FactCheck.org and Yahoo report the Obama administration only briefly tried to exclude Fox from one pooled interview with Kenneth Feinberg, then backed down after other networks objected, and never excluded Fox from the daily network TV pool. The narrow kernel of truth is that single 2009 interview exclusion, which does not make the broader ban claim mixed.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.False60% confidence6 sourcesAug 18, 202631% of Black children live in poverty.Said by AThe 31% figure matches a 2021 national statement and a Pennsylvania state figure for 2023–2024, not the current national record. The 2025 Census data show a Black official poverty rate of 17.3% and a child poverty rate of 13.4% overall, so a national Black child rate of 31% is roughly double what the record supports. The sources do not give the 2025 Black child official rate directly, which limits confidence. The claim was made on 2026-08-18, and the 2025 data was released later, but the national figures it contradicts describe 2025 and earlier years.False70% confidence5 sourcesAug 18, 2026The national average for child poverty is 18%.Said by AThe claim that the current national child poverty rate is 18% is contradicted by 2024–2025 Census data showing 14.4% (2024) and 13.4% (2025) on the official measure, and 15.5% and 14.8% in the ACS. The 18% figure matches the national child poverty rate for 2018 in an NCES report, so it was a real but outdated statistic when the claim was made on 2026-08-18.False85% confidence7 sourcesAug 18, 2026The Biden administration left between fifty and eighty billion dollars in American assets in Afghanistan during the withdrawal.Said by AThe claim's $50–80 billion figure is roughly seven to ten times the amount the Pentagon reported as US-provided equipment left in Afghanistan, which was about $7.12 billion according to the DoD report. PolitiFact rated the closely related '$80 billion-plus' claim False, and FactCheck.org called the $83 billion figure a debunked claim. The extracted claim matches the post's wording, so this is a grading of the post's own figure.False90% confidence9 sourcesAug 18, 2026The Biden administration left 85 billion dollars in American military equipment behind for the Taliban.Said by AThe claim that the Biden administration left $85 billion in American military equipment for the Taliban is contradicted by multiple authoritative fact-checks and by the Pentagon's own report. The $85 billion figure traces to total Afghan security-force funding over two decades, most of which was salaries and training rather than equipment, and the Pentagon's congressionally reported figure for equipment left behind is about $7.12 billion, of which it said most was Afghan-government property rather than U.S. military gear.False80% confidence7 sourcesAug 18, 2026John Bolton has pleaded guilty to taking guidance from foreign governments.Bolton pleaded guilty on June 26, 2026 to one count of retaining national defense information, and the plea resolved all 18 counts. No source says he pleaded guilty to taking guidance from foreign governments. The claim also departs from the passage, which was about officials beholden to financial interests, and the sources show the Iran link only as a hacker who obtained his classified material, not as guidance he took.Mixed55% confidence8 sourcesSep 23, 2026Insurance companies will pay for testosterone therapy if a patient's testosterone level is below 350.Said by CThe claim that insurers will pay for testosterone therapy when levels are below 350 ng/dL is partly supported: sources say insurance coverage for TRT depends on a low-level threshold that some plans set at 350 ng/dL (lowtcenter.com), but most insurers and the FDA/Endocrine Society framework use 300 ng/dL, and coverage also requires symptoms, two morning labs, and prior authorization, so a 350 cutoff guaranteeing coverage is not established. The claim also departs slightly from the passage, which said 'very good chance' rather than a guarantee.