While it is funny seeing the low standards of "journalism" these days I would strongly advise against anyone else going out and starting baseless rumours like this. The very fact that they can be picked up and widely disseminated by hack journalists is dangerous in terms of legal consequences (i.e. potential civil actions on behalf of the people nominated in the rumours). Please do not do it.
EDIT: Specifically talking about the one posted on LU not the obviously joking one that McD posted above…
Don't be such a buzz-kill. You really reckon someone is going to go after an anonymous forum poster for a rumour/lie that hits the public domain? Esp if it's not specifically defamatory and/or does not contain allegations of illegal behaviour?
Does this mean people can't write stuff any more about Roosters doing deals in parking lots with brown paper bags?
I can't see what Tacky did being anything different to Ali or Lurker or 5th Tackle or Sports360 or any other of the nuffy nobody online puff social media rumour mongers.
The fact that it's picked up traction and hit even the radios… just pure genius gold. Stryker called BS in LU but it was still realistic enough, dangled just enough juicy carrots and fit Tedesco's MO enough to gain serious traction. And it does such a tremendous job of highlighting just why you can't trust everything in the media, especially the lower you go in the food chain.
Trust the club's official statements, nothing else. Or as the X-Files says, Trust No-one.
Ali/Lurker etc. do not leave clear electronic trails showing that they have just completely made up false rumours for trolling purposes. I'm not sure you appreciate how broad the concept of defamation is. Do you think this rumour would improve the reputation of Tedesco in the eyes of the public?
People do all sorts of things to protect their reputation and there have definitely been cases where people have been pursued for posts made on internet forums in the past. Funny as it may be, it's not worth the risk. You can think I'm a buzz-kill all you like, I'm just trying to warn people away from trouble they may not even appreciate they could be getting themselves into.
I'm no legal expert but truly, you can't go after Lurker if he posts something that is defamatory and becomes bigger news?
The papers publish stuff all the time that is wrong and critical, they obviously have their editors and lawyers to watch over it, but they issue corrections all the time.
You are genuinely telling me that for all the rumours on the Tedesco story to date, Tedesco's team would hunt down an online user on two separate forums, formally and physically connect them, file with his ISP to obtain his IP and then details, that the IP would be compelled by a court to comply and release user info, then they would take the user to court for a lie, spend a few weeks/months trying the case, sue for damages from some internet nobody with average assets?
In that period of time there'd be another 50 rubbish rumours coming up.
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I can appreciate the difference between "I am going to do some trolling" versus "Moley is hearing", but if they are ultimately untrue, why can't you go after Moley for posting defamatory comments?
What's the difference truly between two lies?