Curious about what you'd do

Not that I'm necessarily looking for advice. I just thought given the times we live in that this was a strange situation. So here goes:

An older facebook friend messages me and asks about a situation that I'm not privy to but that someone in my family would be in a position to know about. Having a lot of respect for the requester, I promise I will ask and follow through on that promise. The answer I get is salacious. In all likelihood, it's true. But having the occupational condition of libel/slander avoidance mode, I'm not comfortable repeating it. It'd be rude not to respond to the request, but I think I need to tread extremely lightly here.

What would you do?

 

Since we don't know the people involved, can you share some details?

 

Novvie:

Tell me, and tell me who your FB friend is. Then I can tell them, and you know I have no shame.

Easy peasy!

 

I guess this was a bit cryptic.

A music minister at a church in my hometown was asked to resign. FB friend wants to know why. Before this person asked me about it, I'd never heard of said music minister (I have visited my hometown maybe twice in the past eight years and have little desire to go there). My family member, on the other hand, is well connected in the church music realm. So I asked. Again, the answer I got was of a salacious nature, which immediately prompted me to proceed with caution. It's the sort of thing that would generate plenty of grist for the rumor mill. Really, the whole thing is none of my business, and I have no inclination whatsoever to go looking for verification, without which I prefer not to repeat it.

 

Yeah, with that backstory, I'd avoid. Tell the person you asked, but you're not comfortable sharing the information. They can ask whomever they'd like, but you're not going to do it. If they're your friend, they won't be an asshole about it.

So....tell us!

 

Go an' tell dat... homeboy!

 

I agree ... Just say you don't know anything...You may be able to say there's a story out there, but you have no idea what's rumor, speculation or fact.

 

Gotta agree with IJAG on this one. (And given how rarely that happens, we must be right.)

 

IJAG, that's exactly what I did. And I got a response where FB friend laid out the details and essentially asked me to confirm. To which I replied I'm simply not close enough to the situation to confirm, that no good can come from me joining the discussion and that I have no inclination to chase verification. Thanks for the feedback guys.

 

Well played.

Now tell us!