Echo system

Here’s how the news industry works these days: someone overhears a rumor of (questionable) importance. Then s/he tweets it. It gets retweeted hundreds, or thousands of times. It gets picked up by bloggers. Then it’s re-blogged by the legitimate news companies. Now that the rumor is legitimate, it gets retweeted some more. Repeating makes it true. Even when it’s not!

It is like shouting in a deep canyon - echo emphasizes your shout and repeats it so many times that you can’t discern what’s right and what’s wrong any longer.