So I recently made a post about a rumour that I heard students discussing. I posted the rumour and flagged it as such, as I felt that it was something that students were talking about, and felt that it was something to be discussed. I feel that part of covering elections includes posting things that I feel students are discussing, and that may be raised as issues. However, there was a potential to substantiate the rumour despite any disclaimers, which was not the purpose of the post, so it’s been taken down. As someone rightly pointed out, sometimes informing people of a rumour causes the information to be taken seriously, and the false information is remembered as truth. This is something that I do not like, and the purpose of the post was to inform students of the fact that this specific rumour did not have evidence to support it. As such, the post, and all comments relating to it, have been removed in order to prevent adding fuel to the fire. I am sorry if the post offended anyone- it was not intended to do so, nor was it intended to hurt any of the candidates. Please consider this an open thread about the role of rumour in student politics (the goal of the original discussion). Thank you.
Here is a link to the article I read about rumours- take a look, it’s quite interesting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/opinion/27aamodt.html?_r=1