Heads or Tails #128 -- "rumor"

Gosh, it's Tuesday again already and our mysterious meme-mistress Barb challenges us to write about "rumor" in today's Heads or Tails. That doesn't mean we have to spread rumors, though I suppose that might be seen as tempting for an anonymous blogger like myself. But, truth be told, I don't care much for rumors. Usually.

Unfounded rumors can do a lot of unnecessary damage. I suppose all of us can recall a time when we were ourselves victims of a rumor -- nasty whisperings -- sidelong glances -- people avoiding us. Maybe you can recall a situation where someone has tried to pour some verbal poison in your ear -- someone tried telling you something you knew to be false. I hope you squelched that rumor right there.

But there are places in this world where "rumor" is the only way real news can spread. People passing along what they've heard, person to person, in person, or (now) by text or tweet. Iran comes to mind. Or any place where there is no free press that can ferret out true facts and report them.

Sadly, in modern America, where our press is surely free to report what it wants to, I begin to suspect, more and more, that the press fails to report on things of real interest to people -- and rumors crop up in the vacuum. This is one of the reasons why I am so attracted to blogging: Many times blogs report on things of interest to me that the press ignores. Bloggers may not be trained journalists (though some are), but many seem to have more regard for the truth than some of the members of the Fourth Estate.

The problem, as in so many things, is figuring out which is which.