In reply to tehmarks:
As long as the rumour exists somewhere else, then the tabloid is allowed to report on it, and it’s up to them how much the fact check or massage the truth. The only way they will retract a story if they are sued by named persons for libel.
Essentially any paper can be lax with fact checking or the truth, they simply rely on their reputation to assure their readers that what they’re getting is as close to the truth as possible.
Essentially ‘news’ doesn’t legally have to be true, and we have a duty to only share news from sources we trust, in the same way we wouldn’t share a fact our 6 year old son told us with our friends, we may however share something from a teacher or person of a trustworthy position.