　　Recently, it was reported that Gong Weiguo, mayor of Linxiang City, Yueyang City, has been formally investigated by the public security organs for allegedly taking drugs. Previously, it had been reported in local officialdom and online that this person was arrested for taking drugs, and the official once "rumored" that he was on leave due to illness. First, "dispelling rumors" was confirmed, and the facts severely hit the local official’s face, which was fatal to the government’s credibility ―― what would the government department do to convince the public that what it said was true in the future?

　　Every local government’s similar "dispelling rumors with rumors" will make other local governments "sit together" and affect the overall credibility of the government. Because every time this kind of thing happens, the media will take an inventory and collect all the lies told by local governments and officials in the past. The big lie of "vacation-style treatment" and the "rumor-based rumors" in various places during the licensing restrictions, Xu Gang, the "first tiger" in Fujian, once called the whistleblower a traitor and said angrily, "If my identity is still there, I will fight you one-on-one". Yang Weize once gnashed his teeth before he fell.

　　The collection of these cases strengthens the public’s cognition that rumors are far ahead predictions, and has a strong sense of imbalance about "serious folk songs let go of official rumors".

　　In fact, there should be no distinction between "folk songs" and "official ballads", and the standard of judgment and punishment is the same. No matter whether officials or people make rumors, they should be punished equally according to law. The symbolic opposition of official ballads not only witnessed the tearing of the emotions of officials and people, but also witnessed the difference of punishment standards. Common people were severely punished according to law for rumors, while some official "rumors" did not pay a price. Some cities were still rumoring yesterday that they would never limit the number of cards. Folklores are all rumors, and the number of cards was limited immediately the next day. How different is this from ordinary rumors? It is difficult to convince the public by simply cracking down on rumors without controlling the official lying behavior in some places and "blocking information", the source of rumors.

　　Let’s look at the online buzzword "rumors are far ahead predictions". In fact, this sentence was completely untenable, it was a beautification of rumors, and it was an emotional and retaliatory sophistry. Rumors are rumors, which go against the facts, make things up, and reverse black and white. Where is a "far-ahead prophecy"? Rumors are occasionally proved by later facts, and rumors cannot be beautified as "far-ahead prophecy". However, in some places, officials have repeatedly lied, rumoured rumors, and tried to fight against "smearing" by whitewashing. The actual effect is not only to "senior black"-blacken themselves, but also to "whitewash" rumors, so that many people have a certain trust in rumors that they don’t believe and don’t like. People don’t believe rumors without knowing right and wrong, but express a kind of rebellious mood of "not trusting some officials more"

　　Yes, in the face of Yueyang’s performance in dispelling rumors this time, what can we do to refute the irrational "rumor is a far-ahead prophecy"?

　　Rationally speaking, even if some rumors are proved to be groundless afterwards, they cannot be euphemistically called "predictions" according to individual cases. Here, we need to distinguish several situations. First, it was really a rumor at first, but later, with the development of the facts, the situation changed a year or two later, and something that did not exist before happened afterwards. For example, a person said that there would be an earthquake somewhere tomorrow, but it didn’t happen the next day, but it happened six months later. Can we say that the previous rumor was a prophecy? Of course not. It was rumored that an official was involved in corruption, but it did not exist at that time. It was purely a rumor, but two years later, the official was dismissed and was found to be corrupt, which naturally could not prove that it was not a rumor before.

　　Second, some things are really inappropriate to be disclosed to the public during the investigation and investigation stage. Although there is a requirement to make government affairs public, not every kind of information must be made public. For example, some officials suspected of corruption are still in the investigation stage, and it is not certain whether they are corrupt or not. The Commission for Discipline Inspection needs to keep secrets to prevent the investigation from being affected by the startle, and to prevent the good people from being wronged. At this time, if the information is accidentally leaked, it will lead to many comments on the Internet, and the Commission for Discipline Inspection and the official will not be able to respond. Moreover, even though he was investigated at this time, the results of the investigation have not yet been announced. The official is still performing his duties normally, and naturally he can only say that he is "performing his duties normally". This does not belong to "dispelling rumors with rumors."

　　The biggest problem is that some places clearly hold the truth, but they want to hide the truth from the sky, and even refer to the deer as a horse full of lies, and the public has produced relevant evidence. Punching the face after the event is of course pushing the public to the side that believes in "rumors" more. Of course, there is no need to emotionally beautify rumors because some officials have lied. Rumors are rumors, and there is nothing to whitewash. However, if officials repeatedly senior black and sincerely lie and spread rumors, it is no wonder that ordinary people have become "old unbelievers". (Source: Xinhuanet Thinker Author: Cao Lin)