I am not writing about the story that was retracted. Many far smarter than I have done that. The brunt of my subject are those who wrote the story and those who believed it.

You see, they wrote the story with an anonymous source. That for me is more than enough reason to dismiss it unread. Nonetheless, all those people released the story, knowing that millions would believe them, and the gullible millions do. They believe the story because they want it to be true.

More than that, other news agency quoted the story. Hence, the lie went around the world a couple of times before anyone uncovered it.

So, when the lie is uncovered, when the liars are exposed, the news agency retracted the story. However, the story still exist. Somewhere out there in the minds of millions, it remains. They the writers and the readers are glad of it. The news agencies that originated it say, “Oops. Got it wrong.” However Mayor Giuliani is still the brunt of the story. The writers and the readers want it to be true.

And it would appear, no one is responsible for the error. Those who reprinted the story are guiltless because they cited the original story. They quickly and gladly reprinted what they likely knew was false because they want the world to believe the lie. When the lie is revealed, they don’t need to print a retraction as did those who wrote the falsehood. They are protected because they were only repeating the lie.

Worse, no one prints an apology. Why? Because they are not sorry. They would do it again in a minute.

And for those who believed it, I feel sorry for you if you can be so easily misled.

I have said it a fore, and I say it again. I cannot repeat it enough. Don’t believe any story that uses an anonymous source, that is, unless you want to be gullible. I would suspect, truth be known, half of those sources are made up in the author’s mind anyway. I also suspect I will never be proved wrong.