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Debunking Rumors
Wednesday
October 3, 2001
The chilling photo of a tourist atop the World Trade Center seconds before a hijacked jet hits. Something that looks like the face of Satan in the smoke moments after the attack. The story of a survivor surfing his way to safety from 80 stories up aboard a piece of rubble. Find those stories hard to believe? That's because they are the hoaxes and rumors born from this tragedy.
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Barbara Mikkelson, who investigates urban legends and myths on her website Snopes.com, says, “This is part of how people respond to a time of crisis.”
Barbara says of the fake photo of the accidental tourist that spread like wildfire on the Internet, “The emotional impact that it caused in the people that received the photo was so great that it overwhelmed common sense.”
Common sense proves it is false. The tourist is wearing a winter coat and wool cap on what was an 81-degree New York day. In fact, the tower, the first hit, has no observation deck.
From fake photos to false hope, there were also stories of survivors calling out on cell phones from beneath the ruins that led to frantic searches. In fact, no calls came after the collapse.
Then there is Nostradamus' supposed prediction in the year 1654, that World War III would begin with the fall of "2 brothers" - presumably a reference to the towers. The problem with this theory is that Nostradamus was long dead by that date.
A widely circulated e-mail warns people against opening an envelope containing something called the deadly Klingerman virus. Barbara says, “This is not something new. This scare originated in May of 2000.”
In the rush to break news, some of these urban legends have even made their way into respectable media outlets, like the “Today” show.
It seem that when the truth is this tough to take, and a sense of helplessness looms, people will believe just about anything.
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