On Publishing Rumours
Should I publish rumours? I occasionally receive tips–mostly about the technology industry–which are generally unprovable (and not disprovable) rumours.
I recently received one which is fairly unremarkable and predictable. If I didn’t apparently have an ‘exclusive’ on this information, I’d probably pass on it. Still, it would be of interest to a significant portion of you, my dear readers, as well as the larger Web 2.0 crowd.
In the case of this rumour, I’ve emailed the parties involved to ask for comment. I didn’t receive any replies that were on the record–that is, I have no confirmation. Of course, working in PR, I know that ‘no comment’ often speaks volumes.
I’m conflicted:
- As a blogger/citizen journalist/whatever-you-want-to-call-me, there’s a cachet in reporting scoops, as small as they may be. Of course, it’s not like I do that very often, so my readers probably don’t come here for scoops.
- As a marketing professional, I don’t want to spoil anybody’s announcement by beating them to the punch.
I guess I’m not so conflicted. Reporting this rumour wouldn’t really serve my readers, and there’s no good reason to steal a company’s thunder. I suppose if I was reporting some nefarious activity, then it might be worth discussing a rumour.
I reported the Dan Cloutier accident rumour, but that was hardly the same thing. I specifically wrote about it because it already seemed to ubiquitous to me.
richgold 
JohnB 
darren 
Neal