It is rumored that Mark Twain once said, “A lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on.” Unfortunately, the claim that Twain actually said this is itself a rumor, one that remains unproven.
In a small community like ours, a rumor can rocket across the village from the Black Cow to Frankie’s to the Croton Colonial Diner, and then splash its away across local Facebook groups and get picked up by Lady Whistledam, before our very small cadre of trained local journalists can wake up and put their slippers on.
Thus has it been with one of the latest rumors, circulating for the past few weeks, that local organizers of “No Kings” events wanted to hold a protest at Croton Landing, but had their permit application rejected by village officials.
This rumor was amplified by social media, mostly in the form of anonymous postings, and also spread via word of mouth. Like most rumors, the sheer repetition made some residents think it had to be true. That’s in part because the rumor had a sharp political edge: The reason the village did not want a No Kings event here, the rumormongers asserted, was that it might prove embarrassing to Mayor Brian Pugh and other Croton Democrats during an election year.
There is just one problem, however. There is no evidence that the rumor is true.
The Chronicle talked to several individuals with direct knowledge of the organization of No Kings events in our local area. They assured us this had never happened.
Then we asked Croton-on-Hudson Village Manager Bryan Healy if it was true. He told us:
“We did not receive a request to hold an event at Croton Landing nor any other park or public location.”
Is it possible that everyone we talked to is engaged in a coordinated coverup to hide the truth? Yes, it is possible; some “conspiracy theories” do actually turn out to be true. Is there any evidence for this, or for the basic claim of the rumor? None that we have been able to find.
What makes us even more skeptical about the rumor is that most of those spreading it were village residents who definitely did not want to see a No Kings event in Croton, or anywhere else for that matter. The idea that local Democrats had to reign in anti-Trump protestors for fear of alienating some voters may have been a fantasy too tempting to disbelieve.
Of course there would have been nothing wrong with a No Kings event being organized in Croton. Millions of people around the country participated in No Kings events in cities, towns, and villages, and there have been few if any reports of violence or other problems. The No Kings events were advertised as peaceful protests, and in this case at least, there seems to have been truth in advertising.
Over the past two years that The Croton Chronicle has been publishing, we have heard dozens of rumors of all kinds. We have investigated many of them. Why? Because while journalistic ethics strongly caution against publication of unsubstantiated rumors, reporters still routinely check them out—and sometimes they do turn out to be true.
That has been the case in the Croton community. Some of our investigative pieces and other news stories began as rumors that actually panned out. We have followed up on many other rumors that turned out not to be true, and did not report on them at all.
In a few cases, such as this one, a rumor becomes so widespread that some kind of Rumor Control needs to be performed. As you can see from the headline of this story, here at the Chronicle we have a whole department for that.
It is likely that some will still believe the rumor is true, and insist that there is evidence to support it. If so, they can get in touch with us in complete confidence at:
TheCrotonChronicle@gmail.com
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This "rumor" borders on the absurd. Anyone who would oppose a No Kings event in Croton is not going to vote for the incumbent Democrats. Anyone who would believe this tall tale, I'm sorry to say, is not thinking logically. Same goes for those who would spread such a ridiculous idea. .