My Blackberry buzzed yesterday afternoon with the surprising and sad news that Gordon Lightfoot had died. “Damn”, I thought. “Last I heard he was doing well.”
No sooner had that thought passed through my brain when another news alert came in proclaiming Lightfood “very much alive” and the legendary singer/songwriter the victim of a hoax.
What kind of a lowlife tool would think taking to Twitter and making something up about the death of a legend is fun? Light-hearted Lightfoot got on the phone to major radio stations whose target demo cares about aging folk/pop stars and laughed about the sudden resurgence in the spins of his songs. He had been leaving the dentist when he heard of his untimely demise so he got on the horn to set the record straight.
Apparently someone also took to Twitter recently to claim CTV news anchor Lloyd Robertson was planning to retire next month.
Gord Martineau barely had time to dust off his resume before that little bit of falsehood was put to rest by Lloyd himself.
There are tools among us who think they are powerful because they can inspire emotions among a vast number of people by launching a hoax. But that’s not true. They’re not powerful at all. Their work is undone in just minutes, by the truth. It’s not as if what they’ve done is something to put on a resume or brag about. It’s a useless blip that’s over before you can recite the lyrics to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
It should also be mentioned that this rumour only caught fire because a “journalist” didn’t check it out before taking it to the airwaves. Some don’t understand that it’s no good to be first with a story if it’s not accurate. Being first AND right is what counts!