Sessler’s Soapbox Questions Internet Rumor Mill

It happens every day: someone out there on the internet posts a juicy tidbit of information without really any concrete evidence to back it up. Pretty soon that information — which is false half the time — ends up all over various news sites as a possible fact. This is true for all news sites on the web and video game sites are certainly not excluded from this (hell, just scroll down GT for awhile, and you’re sure to find at least one rumor). In this newest episode of Sessler’s Soapbox, Adam Sessler turns his questioning eye towards the cycle of internet rumors. The whole discussion is sparked by one false rumor concerning X-Play that swirled around for a couple days before G4 squashed it, and he implores people to do a little fact-checking of their own.

I can understand where Sessler’s coming from; he does have a valid point in saying that websites should put more effort into confirming these rumors with the people they involve before publishing them. Unfortunately, the general video game industry and net culture doesn’t exactly encourage this practice. He points out himself two things that make members of the press often skip over fact-checking: companies will usually just give a stern “no comment” in response, or they’ll notify the press themselves that a rumor is false. Because of this — and the fact that online writers are constantly trying to churn out content — it’s much simpler to slap a “rumor” tag on a post and see what comes out of it. Besides which, this being the internet and all, a large chunk of the information out there usually comes from rumors. Things move so fast that these rumors will often spring up and then get knocked down in a matter of hours.

So, dear readers, just a word of caution: always consider just where some online information is coming from and take any rumors with a very large grain of salt.