Politifact: Revealing fact from fiction

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) - Our news partners at the Providence Journal continue to put public officials to the test, using the truth-o-meter.

The Politifact team helps you see through the spin, rating statements made by political candidates from true to false, to pants on fire.

The team looked at a press release issued by First District Congressional Candidate Republican Brendan Doherty.

In it Doherty said his opponent Congressman David Cicilline was, "required to provide key information about city finances to an independent outside auditor.  The deadlines were clear, yet he intentionally missed them by months until after the November 2010 election."

Tim Murphy of the Providence Journal, ruled that release mostly false.

"Well, Mr. Doherty was right, that deadlines were missed.  There's no evidence, and he presented none, that the missing of the deadlines was intentional.  The bottom line is, even if all the deadlines were made, the audits wouldn't have been out until election day anyway," said Murphy.

Cicilline touched on the same topic in a debate.  He said the auditor for the city of Providence was locked out of access to the city's finances.

Again, the Politifact team ruled the statement mostly false.

"In the physical sense, he wasn't locked out, but in fact he couldn't get the records for months.  He had to go as far as filing an open records request to get the records.  That's almost the same as being locked out," said Murphy.

Finally, the group looked at a radio ad quote from Second District Congressional Candidate Michael Riley. 

The Republican said his Democratic opponent Jim Langevin has received almost 20-million dollars from taxpayers and special interests to use at his own discretion to supposedly champion Rhode Island's needs.

"What Mr. Riley is counting is campaign donations, Mr. Langevin's own salary and the salary pays his staff.  All of those things, every congressman accepts and pays out.  There's no evidence that there's anything wrong here or that he's a shark devouring taxpayers money, so again mostly false," said Murphy.

You can see the complete list of Politifact statements and ratings on the Providence Journal's website .