Column: Chamber Concert Inspires a Look at Second Hand News
The Lexington Area Chamber of Commerce is bringing The Chain, a Fleetwood Mac tribute band, to Alive After Five on Friday, Aug. 14 at 6 p.m at the Breeden Amphitheater.
Fleetwood Mac gave us “The Chain.” They gave us an album called Rumours. And they gave us one of my favorite songs, “Second Hand News.” There is even that wonderfully appropriate little line, “I’m just second hand news.”
Now, before the Fleetwood Mac faithful come for me, I know. I realize “Second Hand News” is really a breakup song. Lindsey Buckingham was writing about the end of a relationship, not journalists chasing Facebook rumors around Lexington. I've learned that my favorite Mac song comes from an album famously fueled by relationships falling apart, complicated feelings and band members trying to keep making music together while their personal lives were unraveling.
It's on brand for me.
But good music has a way of finding new meaning depending on where you are standing when you hear it. And as a journalist in 2026, I simply cannot hear the words today “second hand news” without thinking about Facebook.
Come on now. How could I possibly leave that alone? Especially lately.
Every few days somebody sends me a Facebook post, screenshot or message that starts something like, “Have you heard about this?” “You need to investigate this.” “Everybody is saying...” Or my personal favorite, “Why aren’t you writing about this?” Apparently Facebook has become both the assignment desk and the newsroom. Except that is not quite how journalism works and I am breaking up with that part of life.
We appreciate tips. I have followed plenty of those whispers over the years and sometimes there is a very real story waiting at the end of them. A rumor can point a journalist toward something worth investigating, but the rumor itself is not the story. A Facebook post is not automatically a source. A screenshot does not magically become documentation. And “everybody knows” remains one of my least favorite forms of attribution.
There is a whole lot of work between hearing something and publishing something. We make calls, request documents, check dates, ask uncomfortable questions, talk to more than one person and give people an opportunity to respond. Sometimes we follow a trail for hours or days only to discover there wasn't a story there in the first place. That is reporting too.
I have spent enough years in journalism to know that being first is nowhere near as important as being as factual possible. That matters anywhere, but it matters especially in a community like ours. Davidson County is small enough that the person being discussed on Facebook could be somebody you see at Conrad and Hinkle tomorrow, sit beside at church Sunday or run into at an Alive After Five concert. Once somebody's name gets tangled up in a rumor, the correction almost never travels as fast as the accusation.
And there is another part of this that we don't talk about enough. Sometimes people aren't sending a journalist information because they want the truth uncovered. Sometimes they want a journalist to validate what they already believe. They want us to put our name and credibility behind their Facebook fight. That's not our job either. Journalism isn't supposed to pick up somebody else's rock and throw it for them.
Facebook loves a good rumor. Journalism requires receipts. So yes, keep sending us tips. Send important documents. Tell us when something doesn't add up. Point us toward the public record. Ask me questions and give me something we can actually investigate. Just don't be offended when we refuse to turn every Facebook rumor into a headline. Some things need investigating. We need context. Some things need to sit for a minute. And some things are simply second hand news.
As for Friday night, enjoy the irony. The Chain will be playing Fleetwood Mac at Alive After Five while somebody is probably typing a Facebook post about something they heard from somebody who heard it from somebody else.
And yes, I know Fleetwood Mac was singing about a breakup.
But around here, sometimes Facebook and the truth could use a little relationship counseling too.
Until then, I'll take my “Second Hand News” with a guitar riff, not a screenshot.
