Fact Check: Obama Ad Attacks Romney's Bain Capital Record - 8 News NOW

Claim: A new advertisement endorsed by President Barack Obama that is airing on KLAS-TV Channel 8 states that "Mitt Romney's companies were pioneers in outsourcing U.S. jobs to low-wage countries. He supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas."

Verdict: Misleading. The claim, taken from a June 21 Washington Post story, is central to Democrat Obama's attacks against Republican presidential contender Romney's business background when the latter ran private equity firm Bain Capital. The Post provided numerous examples of Bain-backed companies that reportedly engaged in the outsourcing of U.S. jobs overseas during Romney's tenure. Forget the fact that Romney's campaign demanded a retraction, something the newspaper refused to do, according to the Associated Press. Candidates frequently seek retractions after receiving negative press.

But the Post declared that Bain-owned companies were pioneers in outsourcing jobs overseas without backing that claim. The newspaper reported that Bain began supporting outsourcing in 1993. U.S. companies, particularly clothing manufacturers, began replacing American jobs with cheap foreign labor decades earlier. The International Ladies Garment Workers Union ran TV ads in the 1970s urging Americans to "look for the union label," a high-profile campaign intended to stem the flow of apparel jobs overseas. The claim that Romney supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas also is misleading because he favors lowering the tax rate for all U.S. corporations from 35 percent to 25 percent.