Should Journalists Report What Bloggers Write?

AN OBSCURE BLOG recently ran a story about one of the Flyers sleeping with the wife of a teammate, thus explaining the tensions in the locker room and the poor start to the season the team suffered.

The rumor was picked up by other websites and message boards despite none of the websites ever speaking to the players or the team.

After ten days of floating in cyberspace, the Philadelphia Inquirer followed up on the story. The Inquirer spoke to the players and team representatives, all of whom denied the rumor. The reporter also tracked down the blogger, a Temple University student.

Should the Inquirer have even bothered with the rumor? By publishing a follow-up to the blog post, aren't they only perpetuating a tale that everyone involved has denied? Isn't the Inquirer only legitimizing the blog and it's rumor?