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.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
You are such a tease.
Yes. I agree with richgold. (Insert winking emoticon here)
I’m reading the post to the end and it’s like ‘I have a secret, I have secret…maybe I will tell you. On second thought, maybe not’
Ah well. I’m sure it will come out in time.
Rats! Richgold beat me to it!
Heh, sorry about that. The most was more about working out whether I should write about rumours–not the particular rumour. And trust me, the secret is pretty mundane.
I hear that the secret is (and don’t tell anybody)…
…
Darren Barefoot publishes juicy rumours under a pseudonym! Really!!!
But you didn’t hear it from me.
I’ve thought about this issue also lately, and you are probably right not to publish.
There are different kinds of secrets. There are some secrets that should be exposed because the public (or someone) has a “right” to know. They have that right because the information affects them. Political secrets fall into this catagory, as do secrets about criminal behavior.
Then there are secrets that, although interesting, are really not anybody’s business. The obvious examples involve the paparazzi, but corporate marketing schemes and trade secrets are also in this catagory.
So let’s say you found out that hockey team X was going to trade away half their players tomorrow? Would you publish that?
It’s tough to keep a secret that might be interesting. I’m not very good at keeping them myself.