Gossip Cop Getting Tired of Death Hoax Gymnastics
10:03 am, September 11th, 2009
(GettyImages.com)
Earlier this week, ghastly rumors circulated that Matt Damon had been found dead. They weren’t true, of course. We decided at the time to ignore the story because celebrity death hoaxes have become sadly common this summer and commenting on them – even to prove them wrong – seems to add fuel to the fire.
But this morning Gossip Cop saw something on Twitter that captures precisely what makes these rumors so dangerous. A celebrity news aggregator posted the following about Shawn Johnson, the Olympic gold medal gymnast and Dancing with the Stars champ: “Shawn Johnson/Is Shawn Johnson Dead/Shawn Johnson Death …,” followed by a link. Then, moments later, “Breaking News: Shawn Johnson Dead … NOT!”
Here’s what makes Gossip Cop steam: In the rush to be sensational, to be shocking, to win cheap traffic, to be “first,” etc., TipTopCelebrity – and countless others – went IMMEDIATELY with the baseless rumor that Johnson was dead. That there was absolutely no truth to it didn’t matter, of course, because the site could just say that she wasn’t dead in almost the same breath – as they did with the second Tweet.
Shawn Johnson is 17. She has young fans, many of whom get their news from blogs and Twitter and will (understandably) pass along a horrifying link announcing, “Shawn Johnson Death” before seeing the correction. Gossip Cop doesn’t think throwing everything against the wall and then pleading innocence because the “truth” is somewhere in the mess should count as responsible journalism. We hope outlets will start doing their filtering BEFORE going public with information rather than after.
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Saras
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