The Perils of Virality: College Rumors and Their Devastating Impact
In the age of instant information and social media amplification, rumors can spread like wildfire, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. College campuses, with their close-knit communities and active online presence, are particularly vulnerable to the rapid dissemination of unverified information. This article examines the anatomy of a viral rumor, using the case of Mary Kate Cornett, an Ole Miss student, as a stark example of the devastating consequences such rumors can have on individuals and their families.
The Genesis of a Viral Rumor
The ordeal began with a random, unverified rumor posted on the internet about a young woman having an affair with her boyfriend’s dad. The post went viral on X, which attracted the attention of certain high-profile sports commentators, who then amplified the story to their massive audiences. The unverified post also claimed that Cornett’s boyfriend and his mother found out about the so-called affair. The virality of the rumor even inspired some internet users to create a meme coin called the MKC token, using Cornett’s initials.
The rumor about Mary Kate Cornett started on the app YikYak, which is popular with college students. The anonymous message said a sorority sister at the school slept with her boyfriend's father. Cornett, who is a member of the school's Kappa Delta sorority chapter, soon had her name and photo attached to the rumor in posts on X.
The message itself reads like it came from a confused valley girl who’s hearing the story from her friend, who heard it from another friend, who heard it from yet another friend… The message alleges that Mary Kate went home early from school to watch her boyfriend Evan’s sister play basketball. She went with his dad, they had dinner and drinks, and apparently, they hooked up. Evan found out, got upset, and Mary Kate promised she wouldn’t do it again, though she’s been described as a "liar." The mom knows about it but isn’t divorcing because of Mary Kate. The dad has reportedly cheated on her multiple times before. It’s barely coherent and full of secondhand speculation, yet it took off. The phrasing is questionable, too, as it refers to Evan as "Evan the boyfriend," making it sound like the sender doesn’t even know him well. Meanwhile, the tweet containing this message had thousands of likes and shares.
It was so insane. It all happened so fast,” she told NBC News. “I was just in shambles. I just felt so helpless and so alone because so many people were hating on me for something that I had no idea anything about.” The posts went viral in a matter of hours, she said. that day, she was the No. 1 trending topic in the United States on X.
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Amplification by Prominent Figures
ESPN commentator Pat McAfee, as well as Barstool Sports employees, then amplified the rumor. February 26, ESPN commentator Pat McAfee, who has a history of making sexist comments, discussed the rumor at length on his podcast. “Some Ole Miss frat bro, k? Had a K-D (Kappa Delta) girlfriend,” he said, per The Athletic. ”At this exact moment, this is what is being reported by … everybody on the internet: Dad had sex with son’s girlfriend.” Barstool commenter Jack Mac boosted the meme coin on X on February 25, while KFC Barstool (blogger Kevin Clancy of Barstool Sports) also reportedly mentioned the story in his own personal social media accounts, per the New York Post. It is worth mentioning that Barstool Sports and its various hosts have also been known for their misogynistic commentary.
McAfee shared the story on “The Pat McAfee Show.” On Feb. 26, the man who is arguably college football’s most prominent media figure steered an NFL Draft discussion about the Rebels’ outgoing quarterback into two minutes of men giggling at what they acknowledged to be an unverified claim about a previously unknown 18-year-old.
The popular on-air personality and former punter for the Indianapolis Colts, who has nearly 3 million subscribers on YouTube, referenced the viral posts on Feb. 26 in a two-minute segment on "The Pat McAfee Show," which streams online and airs on ESPN. He did not mention Cornett's name but alluded to the rumor during a segment with ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter talking about the NFL draft prospects of Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart. "Have you heard about Ole Miss?" McAfee asked Schefter. "Parents weekend's gonna be lit," one of his co-hosts, Connor Campbell, chimed in. McAfee then continued after Schefter asked him what the story is all about. “Some Ole Miss frat bro, OK? Had a K-D (Kappa Delta) girlfriend - allegedly," McAfee said. “At this exact moment, this is what is being reported by everybody on the internet: Dad had sex with son’s girlfriend.”"And then it was made public," he continued. "That’s the absolute worst-case situation.”"So where is Jaxson Dart in all this?" a bewildered Schefter wondered."Ole Miss dads are slingin' meat right now," Campbell said.
The clip from the show remains on X, where it had been viewed 1.8 million times as of April 3. “I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that an ESPN sports broadcaster would be talking about a 19-year-old girl’s ‘sex scandal’ that was completely false,” Cornett told NBC News. Cornett said McAfee never reached out to her to ask about the rumor or get a statement.
The Devastating Fallout
Cornett told NBC News that the viral rumor devastated her life even after she and her boyfriend posted on Instagram that it was false. Cornett is the victim of a sports media environment that prioritizes salaciousness and seems disinterested in distinguishing between what’s true and what’s false. But as she rightly told NBC News, she’s not a public figure, and McAfee should have never amplified a campus rumor that seems to have originated on YikYak, an anonymous, message-based gossip app popular among the college set, before spreading to X. And no responsible adult, especially not one with an audience of millions, should be mining social media for salacious rumors to discuss nonpublic figures.
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“Having your life ruined by people who have no idea who you are is the worst feeling in the world,” Cornett said. “It makes you feel so alone. She recalled her lowest moment. when I was throwing up while holding the phone with all the texts on it just saying how horrible of a person I was and I should end my life," she said. "All because of an internet rumor that has zero truth to it. Zero." Cornett said she could barely leave her dorm room due to the attention from students on campus and had to switch to online classes. A University of Mississippi freshman says a false rumor that went viral on X left her vomiting from anxiety as her phone was bombarded with calls and texts labeling her "a whore" and urging her to take her own life.
When a phone number for the teenager, who vehemently denies the rumor, circulated online, she began receiving hateful messages, including messages instructing her to kill herself. Not only was Cornett’s phone number released online, but she was also forced to move into emergency housing and switch to online courses for her safety.
She added that someone appeared to swat her mother in Houston by making a fake 911 call that resulted in police coming to her mother's home with guns drawn. NBC News reviewed screenshots shared by Cornett's attorney of security camera footage of the incident that appeared to confirm the swatting incident. In what NBC News confirmed was a “swatting” case, police showed up to Cornett’s mother’s house with their guns drawn.
A day after McAfee mentioned the rumor on his show, Cornett posted on Instagram about being swept up in it. "First of all, this rumor is 100% completely false and it is quite frankly, inexcusable that such disturbing accusations went viral," she wrote. "It is important to note that harassment and bullying of this manner is NEVER okay," she continued. "Cyber attacks based on nothing but lies and misinformation happen all too often." Cornett's boyfriend also posted on Instagram that the rumor was "unequivocally false," according to The Athletic.
Her father described the helplessness of seeing his daughter endure the situation. “The only way I could describe it is it’s like you’re walking with your daughter on the street, holding her hand, and a car mirror snags her shirt and starts dragging her down the road," Justin Cornett told The Athletic. "And all you can do is watch. You can’t catch the car. You can’t stop it from happening. You just have to sit there and watch your kid be destroyed."
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Legal Action and Accountability
Mary Kate Cornett plans to pursue legal action. Cornett has enlisted Houston-based attorney Monica Uddin because she says she intends to take legal action against McAfee and possibly others who amplified the story. Cornett told the Athletic that she plans to take legal action against ESPN, McAfee, and possibly others. “I would like people to be held accountable for what they’ve done,” she said. “You’re ruining my life by talking about it on your show for nothing but attention, but here I am staying up until 5 in the morning, every night, throwing up, not eating because I’m so anxious about what’s going to happen for the rest of my life.”
“Defamation has existed for a long time," Uddin told NBC News. "You can’t lie about someone with impunity - and that’s what has happened to Mary Kate. You can’t lie for money.”“Not using her name is not a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card, saying ‘allegedly’ is not a ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card,” she continued. “These people are responsible for what they have done to her.” "I’m not a public figure that you can go talk about on your show to get more views,” Cornett said.
Cornett’s attorney, Monica Uddin, told The Athletic that they may also look into action against anyone who attempted to profit from the cyberattack through the meme coin. “This is just a Wild West version of a very familiar problem. It’s just that it’s even worse because it’s not a company.
McAfee's Apology
ESPN sports analyst Pat McAfee, who hosts a daily three-hour radio show for the network, has apologized to a University of Mississippi student for breathing life into a false sexual claim that turned the coed’s life upside down.
On the July 23 episode of The Pat McAfee Show, the 38-year-old father of a toddler daughter finally addressed the controversy, saying he had not done so earlier because he had wanted to speak with the Ole Miss student and her family personally before addressing it on his show. "I can now happily share with you that I recently got to meet Mary Kate and her family and I got a chance to sincerely apologize to them," McAfee said.
He continued that as a “girl dad,” he specifically appreciated that he was able to apologize to the teenager's father, concluding of the family, “they’re wonderful people, and I’m very thankful they gave me the opportunity to tell them how sorry I was.”“I deeply regret the pain that was caused. I hated watching what our show was a part of,” McAfee continued, according to Today. “And my hope is that this can be something we all learn from going forward. I know we certainly have.”
McAfee raised the bogus claim on his broadcast on Feb. 26, telling his audience - which includes millions of followers on social media and millions of YouTube subscribers - that the story “has really captivated the internet.” He didn’t, however, mention Cornett by name.
But on his radio show on Wednesday, almost five months after discussing the claims for the first time, McAfee struck an entirely different tone.“I have since learned that the story was not true, and that my show played a role in the anguish caused to a great family, and especially to a young woman, Mary Kate Cornett,” McAfee said. “I can now happily share with you that I recently got to meet Mary Kate and her family, and I got a chance to sincerely apologize to them and acknowledge that what I said about Mary Kate was based solely on what others were saying on the internet or what had previously been reported by others, and that we had no personal knowledge about Mary Kate or her personal life.”
On Wednesday, he said “there was a lot going on behind the scenes,” saying he personally wanted to speak with Cornett and her family before making public remarks.“I can now say that I had the opportunity to meet (Cornett’s family), chat with them, and they’re wonderful people,” the former NFL punter said. “And I’m very thankful that they gave me the opportunity to tell them how sorry I was that this all happened, and that our program was a part of this. I deeply regret all the pain that this caused. I hated watching what our show was a part of, in her interviews and reading about it.
The Broader Context: The "Burnerverse" and Online Culture
Underpinning the entire BV is a complex of white, male fragility intertwined with conservative comfort. The BV represents the men who went through high school during the Biden administration, the men who now perceive wokeness as an attack on their very existence, the men who have flocked to conservatism because they feel left behind. It’s their escape into a virtual, consequenceless world that lets them think the maligned thoughts and say the hateful words they truly want to express, all while being praised for their speech by their peers. This escape into fragility is enhanced by the complicity of social media companies, specifically X, in platforming this content. The rumors targeted at Cornett and other women went viral because the algorithm lauded and boosted them; the proprietary black box that drives our internet consumption actively promotes hate.
The story of the BV is one that’s been distanced from their own misdeeds. In reporting on the Cornett story, the Athletic refers to the allegations as an “internet rumor,” the New York Post only refers to X as the primary perpetrator of the rumors and the aforementioned NBC News story lacks any mention of the BV. Be it irresponsible reporting or simply lacking cultural knowledge, major media outlets have time and again failed to accurately report that the BV is the breeding ground for this conspiratorial hate.
Addressing the Problem: Media Responsibility and Individual Action
Addressing the issues of the BV is a two-fold solution. It’s essential that media coverage first matches the reality of the situation. It is not merely “the internet” or X as a whole that’s spreading these rumors, it’s the Burnerverse. Mainstream media outlets must recognize and report on this fact. It’s also necessary to realize that these posters are sons and brothers, friends and teammates, they’re real people who can really be held accountable. Until we create a media and social environment that is invested in recognizing this dangerous community, it’s an individual responsibility for each of us to purge this hate when we see it. It’s a time not to allow leniency and excuses, but instead to speak out and change hearts and minds.
McAfee’s millions-strong audience (and the credibility of ESPN, which broadcasts McAfee’s show in a hands-washing way) dramatically scaled the story’s reach and, for some people, believability. No responsible adult, especially not one with an audience of millions, should be mining social media for salacious rumors to discuss nonpublic figures.
During the past year, in response to criticisms of McAfee and his apparent allergy to fact-checking, ESPN has said the company does, in fact, “bear some responsibility” for what gets put on its platform. Cornett’s case is a stark example of how being flippant and unconcerned with the truth can hurt people, even if they aren’t named. We can’t continue to give people a pass from the responsibility of their platforms.
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