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"Understandably, the Internet is on overdrive right now as the world learns of the passing of Michael Jackson.  Unfortunately, the music icon\u2019s death is also spawning a series of other, ugly false rumors about the demise of other celebs.\nTwo of the more notable rumors going around involve the death of actors Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford.  These are completely untrue, but are being spread rapidly, largely due to how quickly they can be shared on social media sites like Twitter.  \nWhile these rumors, which are often created by obvious spoof sites (the fake Goldblum story is here), are fairly easy to debunk, the urge to \u201Cretweet\u201D huge news without actually investigating the attached link can lead to a proliferation of false information.  And the snowball effect leads people to believe, for at least a short period of time, that the story is true.It\u2019s a pretty ugly situation, but one that is showing that mainstream media still does play a huge role in these types of stories, with each operation working to independently confirm the death of Michael Jackson this afternoon.  Meanwhile, social media eventually filters what\u2019s true and what\u2019s not, but at least today, a few unscrupulous users have been able to gain momentum for patently false stories.  \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2009/06/25/michael-jackson-death/>