Responsible rumor-mongering

If you read any internet gaming message boards on the week leading up to Nov. 15, you probably read quite a few rumors about possible events by Microsoft and/or Bungie to celebrate the anniversary of the U.S. release of the XBox and Halo, respectively. You could also read these rumors on at least one respected video game news site, The Digital Gaming Network (TheDGN).



Between Nov. 8 and Nov. 12, TheDGN posted eight seperate stories about potential Nov. 15 surprises. All of these stories (except for one refutation: Bungie's Speaks Out) were rumors based on questionable, if not totally baseless, evidence. The stories discussed such possibilities as a secret release of Halo 2, the shipping of Halo 2 promotional materials, and the release of "Halo Deluxe featuring online play."



Every one of the stories ended up being false. According to TheDGN Deputy Editor David Allen said the whole thing was a hoax, "deliberately created by several people, although they did not neccessarily work together."



TheDGN Editor Mark Milian said that he does not regret posting the rumors. "Rumors are part of the entertainment industry, and I am confident that our educated readers understand that rumors are nothing more than unconfirmed buzz."



Believe it or not, I agree with him.



Usually, this would be an open-and-shut case for an intrepid ombudsman like me. I would shame the site for reporting on rumors without doing adequete reporting. say they deserved what they got and call it a day. But TheDGN's rumor-mongering is unusual for a few reasons. Consider this quote from a DGN story:



"we cannot confirm the following"



and this one: "this information should be taken with a grain of salt"



and this: "TheDGN strongly believes these pictures are fake."



and this: "we cannot guarentee that these images are genuine"



Quotes like these are part of what puts TheDGN's articles into the realm of responsible rumor-mongering.



Milian explained in an e-mail that he is fully aware of the dubious nature of many of TheDGN's stories, and he wants the audience to be aware of it too. "If a rumor is posted, it is always tagged as such; we never try to pass something that hasn't been confirmed as truth," he said. "We will always tell our readers up front whether a story is unconfirmed right away in the article." You'd be surprised how often this bit of basic journalism gets ignored by major video game news sites



Milian also noted that TheDGN actively tried to verify the rumors, rather than just forgetting about them after the post. "David Allan, one of our writers, was actually the first to expose that the [Nov. 15 commerical] pictures were doctored. I had contacted two Microsoft representatives and Microsoft's marketing representative, and all reports of the commercial's existance came back inconclusive." TheDGN posted numerous updates to stories when new information revealed them to be false, another important responsibility for any news site that wants to post rumors.



The staff at TheDGN also used their common sense to guide their editorial judgment, Allen said. "We noticed immediately, before posting the screens of the hoax commercial, that certain things looked wrong, such as the ESRB logo looked out of place and that the '11.05' numbers were clearly ripped from a poster for the Matrix Revolutions. As such we mentioned in the news post that we strongly believed the screens to be fakes." Filtering rumors through your own perception like this is an excellent way to give the readers some added value over simply being a rumor-passing mouthpiece.



So, to quickly review, there are three main things a news site has to do to responsbily post a story based on a rumor:

• Clearly tell the audience that the story is unconfirmed.
  
  
  
  
• Keep reporting on the story and post updates when new facts come to light and...
  
  
  
  
• Use your editorial judgment to determine whether the story seems credible or not.

"Reporting on rumors is one of the aspects TheDGN is known for," Millain said, and if they continue to do so is a responsbile manner, then I say more power to them.



Posts may slow down a bit as we head into the holiday (and final exam) season. I'll try to make it up to you readers in January, when winter break will free up my schedule.