Published in The Bulletin, October 23, 2001

For seasoned net surfers, the Snopes Urban Legends Reference Pages have long been a critical resource for determining the real story behind the odd tales that circulate in chat rooms and via email. The site covers not only urban legends (such as the perennial "cat in the microwave"), but also "common fallacies, misinformation, old wives' tales, strange news stories, rumours, celebrity gossip, and similar items". Snopes (named after a family of William Faulkner characters) also carefully documents its sources for each story it investigates, giving it a level of credibility rare in the online world.

Since the September 11 attacks in the US, Snopes has increasingly found itself dealing with a different kind of urban legend: the numerous rumours and unsubstantiated stories that have subsequently swept email accounts and the popular press. "Our traffic has increased about 10-fold since the day after the attacks, and it hasn't let up since," says Los Angeles-based David Mikkelson, who runs the site with his wife, Barbara.

In several instances, Snopes has proved false stories that have been given widespread coverage in the media, including the tale that US radio conglomerate Clear Channel circulated a list of "banned" songs to its stations. Others, such as the wild rumour that 4000 Jewish New Yorkers mysteriously failed to show up to work at the World Trade Center on the day of the attack, have circulated more insidiously via email.

Covering the events surrounding the attacks has led to a change in the working method adopted by the Mikkelsons. "We're having to cover up-to-the-minute stories and update them frequently, rather than being able to leisurely research and write up pieces about past events," David Mikkelson says.

Snopes hasn't switched its attention solely to the terrorist war; amid the ongoing discussions of the tragedy, it published a debunking of a widely circulated "missing child" email and other non-terrorist items are expected to follow. "We'll definitely get back to other issues when the attack-related stories die down but as long as terrorist rumours are what people are asking us about, we'll keep writing about them," he says.
www.snopes2.com/info/rumors.htm