From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

Here's John McCain in Wednesday's presidential debate.

We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama's relationship with ACORN, who is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country,

maybe destroying a fabric of democracy.

Stinging, but as fact checkers quickly demonstrated, not true.

The fraud was probably against ACORN by some low-wage employees,

apparently trying to avoid the tedious job of canvassing for actual

prospective voters.

Now, here's Barack Obama.

And 100%, John, of your ads, 100% of them have been negative.

It's not true.

It absolutely is true.

No, sir.

As fact checkers reported, in one recent week, McCain's ads were 100% negative,

but not over the entire campaign. Yes, among other historic aspects, this is the most fact-checked

presidential race ever, yet by no means the most factual. Writing for Politico.com this week, Daniel Libet sees facts, facts everywhere and nary a drop to drink.

You have a proliferation of organizations now in websites,

factual assertion or rhetorical statement that is being said in this campaign.

And the question is whether or not this is creating somewhat of a white noise effect.

That it all becomes a bunch of blather to the voter.

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