> > > M2, you're on campus, right? Heard anything about any > > > suicides? I haven't, and there hasn't been anything > > > in the papers either. Would definitely be front-page > > > news in a town this size. > > > > I think this rumor may have been started by > > Knapp on his blog: > > > > Sad News: Possible MUM Suicide > > > > Posted by John M. Knapp, LMSW at 1/19/2007 10:36:00 AM > > Doug's post to FFL containing the rumor is dated earlier > than that blog entry: > > Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:42 am > > I'm more inclined to believe he reposted on his blog the > rumor he read on FFL.
I noticed this, too, just as I did my research after reading the first mention of the rumor here by searching the online version of the Fairfield Ledger. I couldn't find anything there or on Google or in any of the neighboring Iowa papers, so I chalked it up as a rumor, and didn't bother to comment on it here. Especially because a few others had already done so, asking for validation of the rumor. Compare and contrast to (what appears to be) John Knapp reading the rumor here, wanting to believe it were true and thus *not* doing his research, and printing it on his blog as truth. Also compare and contrast to one person here, reading John Knapp's blog and finding his version of the rumor, wanting to believe it was the source and thus *not* doing her research by checking the timestamps, and starting her own rumor that John was the original source of the first rumor. It seems to me that in both of those cases what is going on is a person who 1) has an agenda, and 2) is willing to forward or start rumors that *further* that agenda, without bothering to verify their validity. Fanatics "against," fanatics "for." Same modus operandi.
