Rumors are mercurial beasts.
Here's an example from yesterday morning (2/12):
We got several concerned calls from readers about an incident at the Mormon Church on Sinaloa Road in Simi Valley.
First someone called saying there was massive police presence there. That was true, but when I called early in the morning, the Simi Valley police watch commander didn't yet have any reports from investigators.
Later I learned from police a person had died what appeared to be a natural death. (Police were initially concerned there might have been foul play in this case, but they later determined there was none.)
We don't generally report natural deaths, so that's where my reporting stopped.
Later we heard a rumor was circulating about a naked woman found dead at the church.
That was far from the truth. Police told my breaking news colleague that a janitor was in the bathroom when he apparently had some kind of heart problem that killed him.
The rumor we heard was not an extremely outlandish one, but it shows how quickly details passed from one person to another can be twisted and misconstrued. One more good reason to check facts.
This incident also reminds me of one strange thing about news itself: Death is a big story when it's intentional or accidental (or if the person who died was a public figure), but otherwise it's no story at all for a newspaper.
That doesn't mean it's any less important. This one incident that barely made our radar (and then only because of curiosity and rumor), but it was the end of someone's life, and that's significant by any standard.
Here's an example from yesterday morning (2/12):
We got several concerned calls from readers about an incident at the Mormon Church on Sinaloa Road in Simi Valley.
First someone called saying there was massive police presence there. That was true, but when I called early in the morning, the Simi Valley police watch commander didn't yet have any reports from investigators.
Later I learned from police a person had died what appeared to be a natural death. (Police were initially concerned there might have been foul play in this case, but they later determined there was none.)
We don't generally report natural deaths, so that's where my reporting stopped.
Later we heard a rumor was circulating about a naked woman found dead at the church.
That was far from the truth. Police told my breaking news colleague that a janitor was in the bathroom when he apparently had some kind of heart problem that killed him.
The rumor we heard was not an extremely outlandish one, but it shows how quickly details passed from one person to another can be twisted and misconstrued. One more good reason to check facts.
This incident also reminds me of one strange thing about news itself: Death is a big story when it's intentional or accidental (or if the person who died was a public figure), but otherwise it's no story at all for a newspaper.
That doesn't mean it's any less important. This one incident that barely made our radar (and then only because of curiosity and rumor), but it was the end of someone's life, and that's significant by any standard.
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