And the winner of Hampton Roads' lie of the year is...

The job of any newspaper is to distinguish fact from fiction, to hungrily rip hyperbole and partisan rhetoric from the sturdy bone of truth.

News organizations have built an entire cottage industry out of fact-checking. These truth-seekers take oft-repeated quotes and paraphrased studies and double-check to make sure they say what the sources think they say. Then, the studious news organizations come up with sophisticated titles like "Pants on fire" to show when the rhetoric is patently false.

Recently, you may have read about a partisan dispute concerning PolitiFact's announcement of its 2011 Lie of the Year. The organization said that when Democrats claimed "Republicans voted to end Medicare" it was a false charge. Democrats countered, saying the argument was now one over semantics and that Republicans had voted to end Medicare as it's commonly known. Much confusion ensued.

These same challenges in truth-parsing exist locally. And to help you through the end-of-the-year slog, I sanctimoniously have chosen my Biggest Lie in Hampton Roads for 2011.

Let's start with the nominees:

Claim: If you're a workplace supervisor, it's a fine idea to make and then circulate videos that use homophobic slurs or that mimic masturbation.

Verdict: Go ahead and ask Navy Capt. Owen Honors, who was relieved of his duties after making such videos to help boost morale of his crew on the aircraft carrier Enterprise.

Oh sure, many people backed the captain by saying, "boys will be boys." Others insisted that, unless you're in the Navy, you're not qualified to question what happens there. But videos like this in the modern workplace are cause to question anyone's leadership, no matter their qualifications.

I give this claim a ruling of "You can look it up. Not a fact!"

Claim: Saudi Arabia is not all that far from Virginia Beach.

Verdict: Saudi Arabia is more than a hop, skip and jump from Virginia's largest city. But that didn't stop Sandra Smith-Jones from claiming that she could work there and perform her Virginia Beach School board duties via Skype. She resigned from the board, then rescinded her resignation before resigning again. But many residents came to her support, apparently believing that living in Saudi Arabia is not that different from commuting from Emporia.

Stamp "False!" on this one. Saudi Arabia is super far away.

Claim: Simply calling your government agency "transparent" makes it transparent.

Verdict: Leaders from across Hampton Roads this year vowed to be open, honest and transparent. Just ask them. They'll tell you how transparent they are. But recently, Norfolk Superintendent Richard Bentley reportedly left his job by mutual agreement when in fact documents showed it was an involuntary separation. Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms said it was disappointing when details about a new city-supported hotel were made public earlier than expected. This spring, former ODU President Roseann Runte had to be ordered to testify in a bribery trial.

I give this claim the prestigious "Just the obfuscation, ma'am" ruling. The best way to be more transparent, is by, you know, being more transparent (SEAL Team 6 exempted).

Claim: With the addition of tolls on its surrounding bridges and tunnels in the near future, Portsmouth will become an island.

Verdict: According to the most basic geographical definitions, an island is a body of land surrounded by water on all sides. But only in the case of some sort of severe weather event, or a tremendous feat of manual labor from Sheriff Bill Watson's inmates, could Portsmouth be surrounded by water on all sides. To be fair, either is possible. Even likely.

That's why, despite being in the running for Lie of the Year, I must give this claim the ranking of "Not a lie, but an admirable rhetorical flourish."

And finally, cue the drum machine please:

The biggest lie of 2011: light rail will be a first-class ticket to a fiery, anarchial, crime-ridden, spend-crazy hell.

Verdict: Since its start this summer, HRT's light rail did not instantly speed off the tracks into a preschool, did not require a special kind of gasoline only found 50 miles off Virginia Beach's shoreline and did not prove itself to require substantial and expensive repairs like, say any of the bridges or tunnels in this area.

Instead, the system has already carried more than 500,000 riders, significantly more than expected, created a trademark image for Norfolk, prevented drunken driving, and inspired an important debate about the future of the region. Not bad for a starter line. But because state and federal dollars were not spent entirely on roads (or perhaps because they were spent at all), some believe every empty seat symbolizes bloat and failure and every full seat is filled by a freeloader.

Too bad. The train's doing OK. It's off to a good start, and that's fact enough to make it the Hampton Roads Lie of the Year.

Mike Gruss, (757) 446-2277, mike.gruss@pilotonline.com, PilotOnline.com/gruss