(This is rough but heart-felt… and I am going to send this out without smoothing or rephrasing, with the promise to learn from this event and hopefully carry forward as a better barista…  Louise)

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Autumn’s earlier diary explains far better than I could what transpired here a few days ago- but I really have to clarify a few things:

Diaries are just that- diaries. A place to talk, exchange ideas/ information/ thoughts. Many of us have written them and commented on them- a few have been promoted up to “front page” by baristas for further attention and discussion.

That’s where the local (Blend) problem with the Rachel Roo hoax lies– and that’s entirely my fault.

Andrea James quite correctly called out the error, but she misplaced the blame…

More below..With the best of intentions, I promoted a diary the other night that upset me and its author terribly, as it was a horrendous story with triggering details. It had been sent as a tip that morning and I had attempted to verify the details repeatedly throughout the course of the day.

But I could not find any actual media coverage of the story. That absolutely should have been my first big red flag and I should have spoken with more experienced baristas at that point.

By the time it was promoted (10pm on Friday), many other bloggers had covered the story, all linking back to the same primary source where the hoax initiated. Many additional comments had been made on the board and 2 blogs I read; they seemed to reinforce.

In retrospect, they were speculative and based on no real, tangible, substanciated fact.

Why did the person(s) involved do this? I won’t go there; how the heck could any of us know the exact cause or reasoning? Frankly, those questions are at this point a distraction and do not excuse my personal responsibility to ensure that whatever I choose to write about or promote is TRUE.

Again, I am truly sorry, Blenders. Important lessons learned…

Louise  

Related: The Cruelest Of Hoaxes