Is it me, or do people seem not to want to apologize for their "little mistakes" these days? Or going further, do they not think something erroneous they've repeated is "their" mistake?

During the course of a week, I probably get a handful of e-mails with controvertial accusations about the government large corporations, and/or public figures. I always check them out, before either believing them or passing them on to anyone else. Then if I find them to be untrue, I'll let the person know who sent it to me, and leave it up to them to pass the word on forwards and backwards.

Sometimes friends will say that it was passed on dozens of times before it got to them, they don't have time to check things out, or tell me if I don't like it to just delete the e-mail .. but that's not acknowledging or apologizing for continuing the cycle of ethical damage .. is it?!

To draw a parallel, Mary calls you to say that she's heard from "a friend" that he saw Steve in a fancy restaurant with a woman not his wife. And just based on that, Mary goes into a whole scenerio about Steve being a cheater & their marriage being in the toilet. The next day, you find out that it was a business lunch, and the woman is the owner of a business that's now Steve's client. You call Mary & tell her the background .. do you think in a personal situation like this, Mary would dare say that because so many people repeated the rumor of Steve's alleged infidelity .. it was OK for her to do it too? Or that she was too busy to check it out, before repeating it to other people? Or that she didn't think it was necessary to apologize for repeating an unconfirmed & damaging story like that? NO!

So why do people think it is OK to do that with corporations, organizations & public figures we don't personally know?