unconfirmed rumor
I got a breaking news email today that the first sentence had me laughing:
What used to be an unconfirmed rumor is now a confirmed one.
So it’s officially gone from a rumor that we don’t know is true to a rumor that we know is actually a rumor.
Makes me wonder what the stages of news are. Does it go:
unconfirmed rumor - confirmed rumor - anonymous source - breaking news - confirmed statement - history
I think it’s hilarious. It just shows how we as a society have lost the ability to distinguish fact from fiction. Isn’t “unconfirmed” rumor, redundant? That’s what a rumor is; unconfirmed information?
Unless of course, an “unconfirmed rumor” is information that might be a rumor, but we haven’t confirmed that yet. In which case, a “confirmed rumor” is a story that is definitely “unconfirmed.”
Comment by Jim — February 28, 2007 @ 2:41 pm