On Saturday night, another vicious celebrity rumor hit the Net claiming Jonah Hex star Megan Fox aborted a black baby. Earlier in the week, various sites and message boards flared up with a rumor that Justin Bieber has syphilis and/or had broken his neck in a terrible car accident. None of this crap is true, of course.
So how the hell do these crazy bits of gossip get started? Well, one of the parties to blame is the website 4Chan.org. These weirdos spend far too much of their time thinking up insane celebrity rumors and then working to spread them all over the Net.
One 4Chan’s goals is to get the rumor featured as the number one search term on Google, which then plants it in the number one spot on Google Trends. When that happens, pretty much every gossipy site on the Net will pick it up. Kind of like we’re doing right now.
Why? Because they are pretty much rabid attention whores. They like feeling ‘special’ by succeeding in manipulating powerhouses like Google. Every now and then, one of their rumors actually even gets reported as fact by the mainstream press. This makes them feel like their ‘tools’ are actually way, way larger than they really are.
The lesson to be learned here is that any rumor you hear could very well be fake. So when you see a rumor floating out on the Nets saying Russell Crowe is dead, for example, think twice before you start spreading it around. Because somewhere out there, probably at 4Chan.org, people are laughing wildly over their latest prank on unsuspecting Internet surfers.
Update: Although an anoymous poster on 4Chan.org claims they are responsible for the Megan Fox rumor (a claim a number of gossip-fueled sites support), several commenters here claims EbaumsWorld.com is actually to blame. We love it when these people are so desperate to inflate their own sense of self-importance they have to battle it out in snarky comments to make sure they get the credit!
>> Previously:Â Justin Bieber Breaks Neck? Is It True?
blame eBaums
EBAUMES DID IT!!11!!1
Ebaums world claims everything and Eric Baumans gona burn
>The lesson to be learned here is that any rumor you hear could very well be fake.
Wow, excellent article Cameron. You are aware that in writing this, you are in fact publicizing 4chan? What makes this gossip site more reliable then any other?
goddamnit ebaums
Never even heard of 4chan, but ebaumsworld does this kind of stuff all the time.
Everyone on the comment page is the same people.
All trolls.
From 4chan.
Ftw.
Rules 1 & 2.
I heard ebaumsworld did it…
CLIMATE OF HATE is what i call it
4chan had nothing to do with it sirs and mesdammes it wasn’t ebaums either it’s the trilateral commission for one and the black muslims for two they control everything just like the jews are you serious that you didn’t know that? it’s terrible what the public schools do to our children terrible just awful makes me wanna blush for the sake of England