Word: rumorings
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Dedicated Rumormonger Jean-Noel Kapferer, 38, has heard those spurious stories and some 10,000 other tales. A Parisian academic, Kapferer, in 1984, created the Foundation for the Study of Rumors. His office, not far from the Paris Stock Exchange, runs a 24-hour hotline dedicated to collecting examples of tattle while they are still fresh. "It's very important to hear about them the instant they start," he says. "A rumor is like a fire. You have to be on the spot. Otherwise you find yourself working on hearsay about hearsay...
...rumor mill is a semicovert part of the information media, says Kapferer, who holds an American Ph.D. in social psychology from Northwestern University and teaches at France's School for Advanced Commercial Studies. He believes rumors reveal the desires, fears and obsessions of a society. "They are," he says, "an echo of ourselves...
...teacup story about President Nixon, which Kapferer says was spread by the official Chinese press. Instead of challenging the President, so the story goes, authorities arranged to have a performing magician pull the cup out of Nixon's briefcase and replace it with a cheap imitation. Kapferer thinks this rumor offered folk wisdom on how to deal with foreigners. "It showed the essential traits of the image the Chinese have of themselves," he explains, "the final victory of the resourceful Chinese over the crafty foreigner, and the ability of the Chinese to know how to act without having anyone lose...
...Well, up to this time, the main focus of Democratic debate had been whether Mike Dukakis was going to think of something to argue about or not. But when rumors of a scandal rumor started circulating, the debate shifted. My fellow Democratic candidates turned against me. Some began saying that a rumor of a scandal was not a mere rumor, but a scandal in itself. Others accused me of having sex with a woman to whom I was married...
...dark underbelly of politics, I'm afraid. But to show my honesty I secretly leaked the fact of our involvement in the rumor, and then fired my campaign manager as a show of remorse and desire for fair play...