Editorial: Don't believe everything you read

The shocking news that one of Britain's biggest newspapers would stop publishing at the weekend amid a phone-hacking scandal involving its reporters raises the issue of trust in the media.
It's bad enough that journalists are apparently among the least-trusted professionals in this country, but the actions of British journalists involved in the scandal may have done the global industry irreparable harm.
We say it's our duty to act in an ethical manner in gathering and presenting news to you - but not all media should be trusted, especially when it comes to social media.
Two stories in The Daily Post last week have highlighted the dangers of rumour and speculation.
One concerned a student who became ill after drinking on a cruise ship during a recent school trip. Several people around town heard and passed on the story over the past week or two but the version they'd been spreading was a far cry from that relayed to us by the school's principal, who set the record straight in yesterday's paper.
Unfortunately, too many people are too willing to believe gossip and rumour and whatever they read on Facebook, and reputations and lives can be affected.
The cruise rumour was posted by at least one person on Facebook this week, including one who appears to have many quite influential friends.
He said he heard the rumour from a principal friend who wanted it public and trotted out the familiar line that if it had been his school The Daily Post would have been all over it.
Frankly, we don't have the time or inclination for such vendetta-type behaviour.
And (keep this to yourself) we actually like getting news stories.
But that doesn't mean we'll repeat verbatim whatever lies and speculation are being spread around the community.
Another recent example involved rumours of a particularly vicious crime against a baby. Even though this story had been circulating, no one had contacted the police.
Some dimwits even suggested that the police and The Daily Post had covered the story up, to protect Rotorua's reputation in Rugby World Cup year.
It goes without saying that we would never betray our readers like that and the police certainly have better things to do.
That said, there are plenty of people in Rotorua who would prefer that we played down crime stories.
Thankfully, as noted in this story, through the efforts of police the baby story was exposed as a lie.
But not before the reputations of the Rotorua community and several local institutions, not just the police and newspaper, took a beating themselves.
- Senior staff