A rumor fits in one sentence. Clearing it up takes a paragraph. That’s why rumors win the first week.

False things travel light. A single line needs no evidence and no context, while the truth usually requires explaining what actually happened, who was there, and why the short version is misleading. People will listen to a sentence and will not sit through a paragraph, which is why the correction always arrives second and smaller.

If something untrue is going round about you, resist the long defence. Give one flat sentence to a few people who talk to everybody, and then let time do the rest. If it is about someone else, being the person who says that is not what happened costs you nothing.