Gossip- you know you do it too!

Here is the question pondering in my mind today....
You hear a good piece of "unsubstantiated information" and know that other people would be very interested in hearing it... When is it ok to tell? Who can you tell? Do you do/say anything to make sure everyone knows it's not proven yet?

I heard a GOOD one this week... from a co-worker, who heard it from a friend "in the know". It was about one of our bosses leaving. This co-worker, she was telling multiple people at the same time, making no effort to stem the conversation.

If it was first heard from a supposedly reliable source, and the second person is telling multiple people, I figure it was ok to be the third person?!?!

I know, gossip is bad, blah, blah, blah... for the record, I only told 2 people and made it very clear that this was gossip, pure unproven speculation. One of those 2 is going to the boss to ask if it is true, she has that kind of relationship with him/her. I'm curious to see if she passes any actual FACT back to me. That I will keep to myself. She's the kind of friend who would tell ONLY me and I can want to be worthy of her trust. I do have standards!

UPDATE: This post was started on Wednesday and never posted. Since then, the boss has announced that he was offered a position in a different school and is leaving.