Rumor Control

Everyone calm down. The rumor that the crap MTV show is coming to Sea Isle this summer is FALSE. They won't be at the OD anytime soon (though I'm glad at the brush back and how many people point out that those morons wouldn't fit in at Sea Isle. It might be a party-ish town, but it's a cover band party town, not house music).

I'm surprised at how big this exploded, and when. I saw this rumor the end of last year. Some blogger didn't do his homework and mistook "Sea Isle" for "Seaside." As I do with most things related to that crap show, I ignored it.

Then another blog picked up on that mistake and reported it as true, and everything else linked back to the post with the original error. Even worse, websites for what are supposed to be reputable news sources started reporting on the rumor, saying in their headlines that it was true, without making any calls to confirm the rumor.

Citizen journalism at its worst? Possibly, but some mainstream media rushing to get the news out and get hits on their website is partly to blame, too.

That's why I didn't write about it earlier today. I didn't have the time to make the calls, so I was not going to push forward a rumor. This blog, as most of you know, is a volunteer effort, so paying work came first. That shouldn't be the case with newspapers and their websites.

In any case, it wouldn't make sense. Where would they go? There's no house music in Sea Isle. That crowd doesn't hang there. And if they're charging for personal appearances, who in Sea Isle is going to pay for it?

Yes, there are a lot of bars in Sea Isle, but they're mostly clustered in one point. The rest of Sea Isle is a quiet shore town.

Fortunately, the woman at the Star-Ledger who originally reported on the rumor got a statement from the mayor of Sea Isle.

So carry on, Sea Isle. I'll see you at La Costa this spring.

P.S. I love this Katie Dalrymple, Sea Isle spokesperson, quote from a Press of Atlantic City article: "My friend texted me that ‘Jersey Shore is coming. It’s on Facebook.’ Then I came in this morning and had about 10 e-mails and phone calls about it.”

People, come on. Just because it's on Facebook doesn't mean it's true. Same thing with Google. Some commentator on the original post said the rumor must be true because you can Google it. Egads, do people really believe that?

**UPDATE** Press of Atlantic City talked to MTV, who confirms that the rumor is untrue.