Spotlight: Lies, truth in U.S. political party conventions

The national conventions of both major U.S. political parties are finally over, with Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both bagging nominations despite opposition from their own parties.

Scores of speeches from politicians, celebrities or ordinary party members were delievered at the conventions to a mix of boos and cheers, but according to U.S. news website politifact, a lot of what has been said in one of the world's most watched races were dodgy at best.

Clinton first came under scrutiny for making untrue statements regarding the emails that she improperly handled while being secretary of state.

According to Clinton, all of the work-related emails that were saved on her private server have been sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), but as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pointed out, she held back thousands of emails.

Mishandling work-related emails has been a major liability for Clinton during her campaign, for which she was grilled by the Congress and investigated by the FBI on suspicions of putting classified intelligence at risk.

On Trump's part, misleading information was used to help paint a gloomy United States under President Barack Obama.

"Homicide last year increased by 17 percent in America's 50 largest cities. That's the largest increase in 25 years," he said, leaving out the fact that homicides actually went down in some of the 50 cities, while the crime rates in the United States have been heading down since 1993, according to criminologists.

Clinton made equally distorting statements regarding job increases. She said the country has nearly 15 million more private-sector jobs than when Obama took office, but the difference is actually between now and the lowest point of the recession, about one year into Obama's term.

Compared with when Obama was sworn in, about 10 million jobs were added.

Trump's accusation fit the GOP's narrative that two terms of Democrat rule has wrecked the United States, which now suffers from a faltering economy and is vulnerable to security risks at home and abroad.

The picture is starkly different in the Democratic Party Convention, where Hillary and her supporters cheered the success of the Obama administration, selling the idea that her presidency would keep the United States on the right track.

Ultimately it was a team GOP member that made the most far-fetched statement, according to politifact.

Actor Antonio Sabato Jr. told the GOP convention that Obama is "absolutely" a muslim, while the website said the suspicion, though reoccuring, is wrong.

The website also touched on tax, foreign policy, social security, rating claims made during the conventions as "Pants on fire," mostly false, half true, mostly true and true.

According to Politifact, which earned the Pulitzer prize in 2009 for its fact-based reporting, both major political parties habitually make misleading or untrue claims to woo voters. Endi