After 22 hours of either driving or reporting on polling day, I skipped my nightly rituals of dinner, supper, Facebook and snack, and immediately went to sleep instead even though I had only eaten once that day.

The next morning, I saw on Facebook many black profile pictures and discussions of a mysterious blackout which took place sometime between 9pm and 12am in the Bentong Silver Jubilee Hall counting centre.

How bizarre is this? During my time reporting from that very hall - between 7pm and 2am - covering election results, there had been no blackout or faulty lights at all.

I updated my status to reflect this, adding a slight reprimanded for my friends who believed and shared ‘news’ in the social media without verifying it.

A fellow reporter, who was there, verified my claim, and my friends liked and shared that status and pointed out posts on other pages where people were arguing over who was responsible for an incident that did not happen.

I commented on those pages and my Facebook account figuratively exploded with messages, notifications and friend requests from strangers.

Split opinions

Many people thanked me for clarifying the issue, but many others challenged or flat-out insulted my credentials, claiming that I had been paid off, or alleged to have experienced the blackout.

After two days, none had said they knew someone who knew someone who was there.

I stood firm and identified myself and my employers, offered proof and asked for the identities or contact information of those who had come forward to contradict me. But there are still some who are still in blackout mode, stubbornly believing it did happen.

Arguably, this is due to "selective perception" and "cognitive bias" - both of which are terms you should Google.

What has happened to us as a society where people prefer to believe an unverified rumour from a nameless source on a social media site over an identified reporter with proof and witnesses?

I know many of you have your doubts, but many of us are trying our very best to give you the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, while rumour-mongering on social media makes that very difficult and distracts from real issues and incidents you need to know about.

One thing is for sure, newspaper reporting was recently rated by careercast.com as the worst job in the world, but many of us consider it a calling and a duty, and we love our job.

So please, may we continue?

- The Malay Mail