# How does one make a rumour into a news story?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-make-a-rumour-into-a-news-story/421681
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 5, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-make-a-rumour-into-a-news-story/421681 "2007-10-05T20:25:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2007, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-make-a-rumour-into-a-news-story/421681/1 "2007-10-05T20:25:40Z")
A guy says he has a tape of him and Britney Spears having sex. I am sure you can hear such stories at the pub every day. But how does this get to the news?
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### Author:  [@J\_Cubed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/J_Cubed)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-make-a-rumour-into-a-news-story/421681/2 "2007-10-05T22:25:39Z")
Get someone to report it on the news. Or have such a tape.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2007, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-make-a-rumour-into-a-news-story/421681/3 "2007-10-05T22:29:40Z")
In this case, proof of the claim.
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2007, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-make-a-rumour-into-a-news-story/421681/4 "2007-10-06T00:38:46Z")
[QUOTE=blinkingblinking]
A guy says he has a tape of him and Britney Spears having sex. I am sure you can hear such stories at the pub every day. But how does this get to the news?
[/QUOTE]
That’s nothing.
I have a video of an alien using a rectal probe on Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan. 🆒
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### Author:  [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2007, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-make-a-rumour-into-a-news-story/421681/5 "2007-10-06T00:41:09Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck]
In this case, proof of the claim.
[/QUOTE]
It should only be news if the journalist has actually seen the tape surely?
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### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2007, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-make-a-rumour-into-a-news-story/421681/6 "2007-10-06T02:29:24Z")
Nay, if you can pitch it properly the rumor is sufficient, in this case, to become newsworthy. I ain’t saying it’s right…just that it’s real.
We’d all eb better off if bloggers and such insisted on seeing the facts or evidence prior to running with such but they don’t so we’re not better off.
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2007, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-does-one-make-a-rumour-into-a-news-story/421681/7 "2007-10-06T08:41:22Z")
More seriously, if you make a (preposterous) claim about someone and they react, **then you can report the claim and the denial as news**.