Like the Timex Social Club, I spend a lot of time lamenting the rumors that surround me every day. How do they get started? And where do they get crazy? In Truthmonger, I’ll try to suss out the kernels of truth in the rumors that are taking up airspace in gossip columns, blogs, and our tips inbox.

THE RUMOR: Despite defending the high-strung MC over his weeks-old Video Music Awards outburst, Lady GaGa has had it with Kanye is pulling out of her “Fame Kills” jaunt with Kanye West.

TRUTH THRESHOLD: Well, even Ryan Seacrest is falling for it, so it has to be true, right? UPDATE (6:45 p.m. ET): It’s off.


HOW THIS RUMOR GOT STARTED: The hip-hop gossip site ran an “exclusive” report saying that GaGa was “likely to dump Kanye” yesterday:

MediaTakeOut.com just learned of an EXPLOSIVE REPORT!!! Word is that Kanye West and Lady Gaga’s much anticipated tour may be called off. According to an extremely reliable source who is close to Ye, the tour may be can cancelled – with an announcement as EARLY AS TOMORROW!!!


What happened, you ask? It’s not yet clear – all we know is that it’s LADY GAGA who wants out, not Kanye!!!


Now the final decision to pull out hasn’t yet been made, but we’re told that it’s likely to come down AS EARLY AS TOMORROW!!! We’re gonna have to stay tuned to this to see how it turns out.


But right now NO OTHER NEWS SOURCE in the world is reporting this – not TMZ, not MTV, not E News or People Mag. When the news breaks, and we EXPECT that it will, we hope that the folks over at those mags give MediaTakeOut.com – the most VISITED URBAN WEBSITE IN THE WORLD – the credit for our reporting

Well, no announcement has come “tomorrow” (today) yet, but MediaTakeOut’s report has been Xeroxed by a bunch of other news outlets of varying repute, including the Twitter account of the overemployed Seacrest. The only confirmation of anything is a quote from Live Nation saying that Kanye will be on the tour, which is sort of the definition of a non-denial denial.


KNOCK IT TO ITS KNEES, BABY: There’s something about all this that makes me want to call BS on it. First of all, anyone who regularly pals around with Perez Hilton has a pretty high tolerance for shenanigans. And when was the last time you heard a MediaTakeOut-fueled rumor that was based in anything resembling fact? It’s not like they’re all that stringent when it comes to checking sources, y’know. (Note also that said story isn’t even leading the site anymore—if this was such a huge exclusive, wouldn’t the pixel-pushers over there still be trumpeting it?)


One thing that is important to note: In St. Louis, where tickets go on sale this week, the highet ticket prices have been lowered from $127 to $99.50 (before service charges). Could this be yet another publicity stunt for the jaunt, which might be suffering from recession-depressed sales—and which has as its headliners two music stars who people still care enough to spread rumors about? Pa-pa-pa-possibly.