With public officials at both the town and state levels pointing fingers at Channel 10 as the reason Tiverton Maintenance Foreman Robert Martin got away with apparently working on his own projects during the workday, as well as utilizing town resources and employees, I asked the news network for a comment.  The following is from Chris Lanni, News Director:

No Tiverton town official has ever reached out NBC 10 News regarding the I-Team investigation into the former Tiverton maintenance manager’s misuse of town time and resources.  If they had, they would have been granted access to the same information we shared with our viewers and with Rhode Island State Police.  Our role as journalists is to be a watchdog for the communities we serve.  In this capacity, we shed light on a clear abuse of taxpayer dollars and helped save Tiverton residents from future financial waste.  While we will always be an advocate for our viewers, we can never become an agent of government.  We are not here to do their jobs.  We are here to make sure they are doing theirs.

It bears additional mention that the town and the state police are not without options if they needed information that Channel 10 wouldn’t share.  Ten years ago, Channel 10 reporter Jim Taricani defied a court order to reveal an anonymous source, but it’s very likely that the network would comply with requests and subpoenas for information short of revealing sources, like time records of when reporter Parker Gavigan was tracking Martin, to check against Martin’s employment records.

As I’ve already written, though, it isn’t the journalists’ job to do the work of the police.  Nobody has yet explained why investigators for the town or the state couldn’t put the pieces together independently of Channel 10, especially with the assistance of a known whistleblower.