HE WAS having depression. So wrote a single line in a news story about the findings of the Board of Inquiry (BOI).
Then last Friday, the rumor mills were on overdrive. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte had to counter these through a radio station.
It wasn’t true, she said, that PNoy collapsed last Friday. On the contrary, he even attended an event in Kawit, Cavite that same day, and remains in good health.
Then social media offers ten reasons why PNoy will not resign despite sinking ratings, protests from various groups, and stinging remarks in the investigation results from Sen. Grace Poe and the BOI.
Some reasons are believably predictable; others, downright absurd such as Pnoy is currently dating newly-crowned Miss Philippines Universe Pia Wurtzbach. Without his title, he believes he has no other qualification to merit Wurtzbach’s eye.
This is as ridiculous as that fake news last year about the “no visa” policy announced by the United States for Filipinos travelling to the United States.
Or that other fake news circulated right after Pope Francis’ visit to the Philippines—that Social Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman was excommunicated for hiding homeless people and street children in Manila throughout the Pope’s five-day visit.
Despite the ridiculousness, these did not stop Filipinos from lining up by the hundreds at the US Embassy the days after. Or saying that the Pope erred in judgment or displayed arrogance.
What makes rumors and why do they spread? They fly on fears and anxieties, stress psychologists.
Also, people will likely pass on a rumor about something they are “already anxious about.” In passing on the rumor, they assure themselves that they understand what is troubling them.
Some rumors about death always target celebrities such as American actors Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Macauley Culkin, and singers Justin Bieber, Usher and Miley Cyrus. They’ve been rumored dead a number of times.
So, before passing it on and being mistaken for a rumormonger, ask your source where they heard about it. It could be spread by a competitor, a disgruntled person, or a “contra-partido,” especially if quite damaging.
It also helps to know that some websites have been put up simply to churn out fake news, or are meant to satirize.
If the US has such sites as The Borrowitz Report, CallTheCops.com, LightlyBraisedTurnip.com, WeeklyWorldNews.com and TheOnion.com, the UK has TheSpoof.com, and Tel Aviv has WorldNewsDailyReport.com.
The Philippines cannot be outdone. It has the Adobo Chronicles, Abril Uno, Professional Heckler, and So What’s News?
Of course, we can continue to visit these websites. Just remember that they are satire organizations and even give their disclosures upfront.
So, What’s News?, set up in 2011, describes itself as “a satirical & fictional news website” with aim “to inject humor into everyday news to provide respite to readers who have grown weary with mainstream news organization’s partisan, biased and depressing way of presenting the news.”
Adobo Chronicles simply warns it is our source of “up-to-date, unbelievable news” and wrote Pope Francis and Dinky Soliman, and about PNoy and Pia Wurtzbach.
So, go slow on the spiced reads.