In high school, the rumors don’t spread so fast, and once you leave for college, they’re gone for good.

Have a look at a current Google News search for Verizon iPhone. Currently there are around fifty stories, all from the past few days, pumping the rumor that Apple will ink a deal with a wireless carrier other than AT & T.  Many cite “unnamed sources,” which is journalism for “aonymous leakers.”

But did the anonymous leakers exist?  Did any of these journalists actually speak to any source at Apple or Verizon?  Or were they just repeating the same rumor, sparked by the appearance of a story from September 2008 in a February 2009 RSS feed?

Correction 11:56 a.m. PST: We messed up. The 9 to 5 Mac blog we cited below is in fact from September 2008, so it turns out this is an old rumor. Because it showed up in our RSS feed Saturday, we, like a number of other publications, took it as a recent post and went from there. Apologies for the confusion.

To its credit, CNet has acknowledged the goof (and it’s a serious one, because the date is stamped right under the headline of the old blogpost which started the rumor), but many haven’t.  There are still recent stories floating around citing a five month old rumor, and those “unnamed sources” predicting the imminent arrival of the Verizon iPhone.  Of course it’s anyone’s guess as to whether a source, named or unnamed, was actually interviewed.

More’s the pity.  I’d consider buying an iPhone, but I won’t deal with AT&T.

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