Assertion: rumor | /r/CapableOf | hit tipping point
Facets:
value: after a hoaxster
type: OTHER
value: in the 1980s
type: TEMPORAL
Source sentences:
text: Like most rumors about celebrities, its origin is unknown, but we do know the rumor hit a tipping point in the 1980s after a hoaxster, claiming to be from the ASPCA, flooded Hollywood fax machines with a bogus press alert about Gere's putative "gerbil abuse.