Who's really responsible for spreading stories, the media or people?

I would say that they go hand in hand; they both need each other to add fuel to the story.

People will often exaggerate a story they've heard on the news and leave out details enough to twist a story around and make it unrecognizable from the original.

Media tends to pick on people's fears and use the buzz around the city to dig deeper into stories and report on them. Whether that report also gets twisted or fabricated is tough to make out.

Take, for example, the recent gas hike scare. I heard murmurs around the office about how all the gas stations were plotting to increase gas prices to up to $2.50 a litre overnight. I guess I wasn't the only one who heard those rumours, because gas stations across the GTA were packed to the limit from mid-afternoon to late night with people trying to fill up every car tank, gas jar and gas-fillable-container they had.

It didn't help matters that throughout television, radio and print news all that was contained in the headlines was the possible gas hike. Where and how these rumours started is completely unknown.

So I guess it's like the chicken and the egg fiasco...which comes first? Medica speculation and reporting, or people speculating and "reporting".

I blame people. There's no other way around it. I mean in some cases media has no way of lying about a situation, like the reports on Hurricaine Katrina (however, their speculation on the death toll apparently was grossly over-estimated). But people do have control on their own minds.

They can use common sense to weed out the truth from within the lies. And with a resource like the Internet, there's no excuse not to. You have access to the world at your fingertips (old saying, but true). If you want to read an African newspaper, you can go to http://www.mg.co.za/ and read Africa's first online newspaper to find out the story from the perspective of someone across the globe. Or, go to www.nst.com.my to read Malaysia's New Straits Times.

People, the nasty people of the world will indefintely attempt to screw with you. And please don't try to rationalize your points by telling me you watch CNN....ugh...don't get me started.

It's up to you, and only you, to find out the real story.

Otherwise, what's the point of you knowing anything, if it's not really something?