Join Roland Martin for his weekly sound-off segment on CNN.com Live at 10:30 a.m. ET Wednesday. If you're passionate about politics, he wants to hear from you. Roland Martin says journalists don't serve the public if they push rumors. (CNN) -- Two recent stories are a prime example of how important it is for the media to confront the reality of rumors in the age of the Internet. One week before comedian Bernie Mac passed away, text messages and e-mails were flying all over the country with reports that he had died. I was in New York, and friends and colleagues from Chicago, Illinois, to Dallas, Texas, and Los Angeles, California, were saying they knew for sure that the 50-year-old comedian was dead.
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Mac, Edwards stories point out importance of confronting rumors, Martin says
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Martin says rules are simple: If you have the facts, run with the story
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Martin says journalists should stick to that, no matter what hits the Internet
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That's how journalists keep credibility and integrity, he says
The story exposed @placeholder as a liar for contending for two years that such an affair never happened.