Our Truth-O-Meter rulings sometimes provoke strong reactions, especially when they involve pants aflame. One Rhode Island legislator recently took to the floor of the House of Representatives to respond to a Pants on Fire ruling she received.
There's a match being lit, but it's not being used to set someone's pants on fire.
It's to light three birthday candles.
PolitiFact Rhode Island is now three years old.
We think it's a cause for celebration and, from what our readers have told us, they have reason to celebrate as well.
Over the last 12 months, PolitiFact Rhode Island issued 117 Truth-O-Meter rulings, on claims ranging from Obamacare to school prayer to foreign aid.
All had some Rhode Island connection, but many of the most-read items -- based on traffic on our PolitiFact Rhode Island website -- focused on issues far beyond the state’s borders.
Thanks to the reach of the Internet, many have remained popular long after publication, in part because PolitiFact, with affiliates in 11 states, has become a go-to reference for people seeking to separate fact from fiction.
So as a farewell to the year, we thought we’d share with you the PolitiFact Rhode Island Top Ten Most Widely Read rulings for 2012:
Over the last several months, candidates have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to build themselves up and knock their opponents down.
There have been attacks and counterattacks, scary TV ads, robo-calls and oversized campaign fliers clogging our mailboxes -- in other words, the fuel that sent our Truth-O-Meter into overdrive.
Just in the weeks since the September primary, we issued two dozen rulings on claims made by candidates for federal and statewide offices. Not surprisingly, many were way off base. And -- perhaps surprisingly -- many were true.
With the election just two days away, we decided to take a look back at some of our campaign rulings to help voters make up their minds. Here’s a sampling from key races:
Believe it or not, it's been two years since we published our first PolitiFact Rhode Island Truth-O-Meter ruling.
On June 25, 2010, we joined a partnership with PolitiFact.com that has grown to include eleven states.
Since then, we’ve published 230 Truth-O-Meter rulings, checking claims from politicians, talk-show hosts, bloggers, e-mailers, labor leaders and even a billboard. Our goal remains the same: to help readers separate fact from fiction in the public discourse.
For the record, here’s our scorecard so far: True: 44. Mostly True: 30. Half True: 37. Mostly False: 32. False: 55. Pants on Fire: 32.
Remember, If you see or hear a claim you’d like us to check, please send it to politifact@providencejournal.com.
As the debate over Rhode Island’s pension crisis intensified in recent months, PolitiFact Rhode Island was paying close attention to what public figures were saying about it. More often than not, we found misstatements, misinterpretations and outright falsehoods.
We examined 11 statements related to pensions, dating to August 2010. The Truth-O-Meter scorecard: one True, one Mostly True, two Half True, three Mostly Falses and four Falses.
As a service for readers –– and the legislators who will vote on the pension overhaul legislation Thursday –– we’ve assembled all our pension-related rulings. Here’s what you need to know about COLAs, hybrid plans, annuity charts, life expectancy and more.
Readers had plenty to say about our item about an Occupy Providence protest sign. Let's just say on this ruling, we were the 1 percent and the readers were the 99 percent.
It's been one year since we joined the growing PolitiFact family. Since then, we've revved up the Truth-O-Meter 121 times. But the fibs, half truths, exaggerations and, yes, the ridiculous Pants on Fire claims keep coming.
We've covered a lot of topics since last November's elections, from estate taxes to immigration to sex offenders to welfare.
Despite predictions that we might struggle in the post-election lull, we knew that in Rhode Island, we'd never have a shortage of claims to run through the Truth-O-Meter.
We've told you what we think. Now it's time to share what readers think of our work. (Hint: Not all of them agreed with our rulings.)
Every politician makes dozens of promises throughout a campaign and Lincoln Chafee is no exception.
From the day he announced his candidacy in January, Chafee made promises to voters on issues as diverse as illegal immigration and state pension plans.
But will he keep them?
Today, PolitiFact Rhode Island launches a new feature designed to answer that question.
Since we launched PolitiFact Rhode Island June 25, we've powered up the Truth-O-Meter 74 times, fact-checking statements from politicians, party bosses, bloggers, talk radio hosts, interest groups and anonymous chain e-mailers. As we close 2010 after six months with the growing national PolitiFact team, we thought we"d look back on the items that were most popular with our readers, based on our daily Web traffic reports.