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The Intersect

Why is everyone posting about Rue McClanahans

death when she died four years ago?
By Caitlin Dewey June 9, 2014

Rue McClanahan, a.k.a. Golden Girls Blanche Devereaux, died four years ago last Tuesday. And yet, Twitter and
Facebook were mysteriously inexplicably! flooded today and over the weekend by variations on the theme
R.I.P. Rue.

khary randolph
@kharyrandolph

Follow

Rue McClanahan, RIP. And then there was one. Hold us down,
Betty White!
11:18 PM - 9 Jun 2014
2
As many a Twitter fact-checker has helpfully pointed out, McClanahan died in 2010 at age 76 after suffering a
stroke. But they havent answered the bigger question here: How the heck does this kind of mass delusion
happen, and how do the natural checks and balances of social media scathing comments from Facebook
friends, ironic Twitter RTs fail to stop them?
The answers, in this case, are pretty simple. On June 3, the anniversary of McClanahans death, a handful of fans
like the popular Golden Girls fan account @Blanche1934 tweeted memorials for Rue. @Blanche1934 has
nearly 15,000 followers and a spot-on understanding of when McClanahan died. But on Twitter, a platform not
exactly long on context, people began to truncate the original messages. RIP Rue 6/3/2010!!! became R.I.P.
Rue. R.I.P. Rue became, predictably, oh my God Blanche died.

Maddie
@Blanche1934

Follow

Today is the exact day Golden Girls fav girl Blanche Devereaux
or Rue McClanahan has passed away, 6/3/2010!!! RIP Rue!!
3:37 AM - 4 Jun 2014
2

Fap'n Crunch
@no_CEElings

Follow

RIP Rue McClanahan.

3:57 AM - 4 Jun 2014
1

Photo: Nooooooo not Blanche, why Lord whyyyyy Jesus RIP Rue McClanahan #TheGoldenGirls
http://t.co/U35zhyW2qD

TL Cool Tre (@TreReal) June 9, 2014

In an additional, interesting twist, many of the R.I.P. Blanche crowd also link to a CBS article about
McClanahans death, dated to 2010. Unlike similar cases, when faulty datelines have caused celebrities to re-die
on Twitter, this seems like a instance of simple misreading: The dates clearly marked at the top of the page,
above the headline, but people fly right over it in their haste to read of Rue.
How does that happen in 2014? Well, for starters, people tend to skim online text you are, statistically
speaking, probably skimming right now.
As far as the rumor-spreading on Twitter is concerned, multiple studies suggest that it all has to do with network
structures: some users have a huge number of followers and can disseminate information to many, quickly; most
users have only a few followers, and thus considerably less influence. All this means that rumors spread unevenly
through the network, and can be hard to dislodge once theyre in place. If someone with 8,000 followers tweets
that McClanahan has died, for instance, it doesnt much matter if three people with 100 followers tweet back
saying he or she was wrong.
Consider this a public service announcement, though: Rue McClanahan definitely didnt die this week. And the

next time you suspect she or any other celebrity did, you might want to try this before you tweet.

Caitlin Dewey is The Posts digital culture critic. Follow her on Twitter @caitlindewey or
subscribe to her daily newsletter on all things Internet. (tinyletter.com/cdewey)