Lesson learned: Don't spread rumors

I could kick myself. When I received an e-mail alert last Sunday that Nancy Pelosi would put impeachment back on the table if she received 10,000 hand-written letters, I passed this on in my post after determining that the source was credible by reviewing many previous e-mail alerts from her. I also stated that it might be a rumor but that it was probably a good idea anyway.

Why didn’t I wait until Monday and call Nancy Pelosi’s office to verify the information?

Reason: Since November 6th, I’ve devoted a lot of energy* to alerting people about the need to support H.R. 333, now H. Res. 799, Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s resolution to impeach Cheney, introduced as a privileged motion that day.

The miracle was that it didn’t die an ignoble death; it was referred to the House Judiciary Committee. The committee has been sitting on the resolution for months, but gee whiz, if we could get a huge calling and letter-writing campaign going, maybe the committee will send it back to the House with a recommendation to impeach.

So why wait? I felt a tremendous sense of urgency to do anything I could to support impeaching Cheney.

The result of not checking first: Yesterday I posted that the 10,000 hand-written letters = Pelosi putting impeachment back on the table has been verified as a rumor.

I learned today that on November 15th, Raw Story posted "Speakers office denies 10,000 letter rumor" and gives my blog credit for spreading it. Double gee whiz: I’ve always assumed that only a few people read my posts. I’m not on RSS, Digg, or any other blog feeds. Is this the “viral” spread of information that until now I had only heard about?

Today I also learned that not all people who support impeachment agree with me that we shouldn’t use rumors as a tactic or take advantange of them when they mysteriously appear.

It would have saved me a lot of time and grief to have verified the information first.

*I posted about it on November 5th, 7th, 9th, and 10th.

(graphic of telephone: fvrl.bc.ca)