Now that the Trail-Gazette has officially made this a "thing"
It's important to clarify why the Dr. MacElwee fiasco is NOT a game of "Telephone".
"Telephone" is one of those generationally-defining activities, kind of like Ring around the Rosie or forcing Jews to wear six-pointed stars. I'm relatively young, so I remember playing it once, in kindergarten or first grade, where it was (as I recall) more amusing to the teachers and aides than the children in the chain. It wasn't like we didn't understand the concept, but I think you have to have more life experience (or perhaps more experience with crackling telephones or party lines or balky switchboards and switchboard operators) than were available to 6-year-olds in the 1960s.
I had to look up "telephone" to understand what the hubbub was all about among the oldsters, why so many ancients like MayBilly R.F.D. and Mike Romero and (to go back a few years) Bob Fixter, when he was being denied his wedding venue, were so keen on using it as an analogy for the spreading of rumors/gossip in town (it's always used in a negative fashion, like the people out of the loop or against the proposal are ignorant or dumb). I learned (for the first time, I promise) that it was also frequently called "Chinese whispers", which places it squarely in the context of the early 1900s, when the Chinese language which always was considered gibberish to western ears from first contact, as is any foreign language, was finally directly available to a critical mass of western listeners, through immigration or the availability of cheaper entertainment, and also squarely in the realm of ignorance and dismissal of the unknown.
Phone connections, by and large (unless you have Verizon) are much better these days, and the availability of written communication is still at an all-time high or at least holding steady, given that literacy rates are improving and internet usage has just taken over for tanking newspapers.
So, for example, you can purposefully misinterpret this statement: "Dr. MacElwee was manhandled by Dr. K" if you so choose, and you can claim I wasn't there to see what was going on, so I don't know the context, but you cannot argue, because it is right there in black and white, I somehow claimed "Dr. K was manhandled by Dr. MacElwee". You are right, I wasn't there, but the website (not the Trail-Gazette, it won't touch this with a 10-foot pole) that broke this news was clearly in direct communication with Dr. MacElwee or his immediate family, and there was no confusion about what happened, unless Dr. MacElwee was lying, because again, this information was written down, not passed along through whispers. Unless you are somehow contending that the information as initially typed underwent some form of degradation, or was typed on a defective keyboard where the intention to type the word "hit" was somehow altered to always appear as "hug" (or, through nefarious auto-correct, where "I've been using your wi-fi" gets altered to "I've been using your wife"), the use of "telephone" to chide or criticize or dismiss the behavior of the general public is a false analogy.
Again, when I researched (on a limited basis) the game of "telephone", I learned for the first time that some people purposefully alter the message they hear. These folks have now achieved a meta-understanding of the game, and have realized the game only "works" towards a risible conclusion if you purposefully warp it. Again, if crazy people are spreading nonsense (I hearken back to that strange letter of support from the fentanyl addict), I have no use for them. But this is not who the Trail-Gazette is criticizing: They are criticizing the public at large for being so goddam interested in the treatment or potential mistreatment of another human being by someone who is either a loose cannon or was encouraged/implicitly given the go-ahead to behave in that fashion.
I would put the burden back on our local newspaper, so generous and willing to deflect attention elsewhere. If they had a real interest in reporting real news, they would have covered this story when it broke. They could have defined the narrative, or at least provided a potential road map for how the story could have unfolded. Instead, they sat back and hoped Dr. MacElwee would somehow solve himself. If I take my sputtering car to the auto repair shop, I'm kind of hopeful they will be able to fix the problem, not put up the "closed" sign at 11:00 in the morning on Tuesday when I can clearly see them. Similarly, if the public hospital clearly has a problem, the paper should step in and cover it, not hide behind their advertisers. Unsurprisingly, people who have been raised in an ostensibly just society prefer justice over clumsy mishandling of personnel matters and excuses (e.g., using the "I'm on vacation" defense when clearly you are physically present).
"I'm on vacation" from a supposed leader is not leadership. It's four pretty simple words (three with the contraction), and repetition of four simple words in the same language among people with working ears and proficient tongues doesn't allow much opportunity for these words to be confused, or ambiguous, or somehow degraded during transmission. It is Memorex. It is clear. (Or, as Lieutenant Kaffee might say, crystal.) Stop blaming your citizens for engaging in their first-amendment rights, and utilization of their highly-evolved organs of speech and perception.
Having established those basic human rights, let's all step up to the plate and admit clumsy excuses from $100K+ administrators are reprehensible, If anyone needed to be suspended, or sent to time out, it is the person who first uttered these words, not the person on the receiving end.
Further, if we want to keep the message undiluted, and not add to the potential confusion, why would we bring in outsiders? The Nexflix generation was raised on videos. When will we finally be allowed to see the security footage?
I had to look up "telephone" to understand what the hubbub was all about among the oldsters, why so many ancients like MayBilly R.F.D. and Mike Romero and (to go back a few years) Bob Fixter, when he was being denied his wedding venue, were so keen on using it as an analogy for the spreading of rumors/gossip in town (it's always used in a negative fashion, like the people out of the loop or against the proposal are ignorant or dumb). I learned (for the first time, I promise) that it was also frequently called "Chinese whispers", which places it squarely in the context of the early 1900s, when the Chinese language which always was considered gibberish to western ears from first contact, as is any foreign language, was finally directly available to a critical mass of western listeners, through immigration or the availability of cheaper entertainment, and also squarely in the realm of ignorance and dismissal of the unknown.
Phone connections, by and large (unless you have Verizon) are much better these days, and the availability of written communication is still at an all-time high or at least holding steady, given that literacy rates are improving and internet usage has just taken over for tanking newspapers.
So, for example, you can purposefully misinterpret this statement: "Dr. MacElwee was manhandled by Dr. K" if you so choose, and you can claim I wasn't there to see what was going on, so I don't know the context, but you cannot argue, because it is right there in black and white, I somehow claimed "Dr. K was manhandled by Dr. MacElwee". You are right, I wasn't there, but the website (not the Trail-Gazette, it won't touch this with a 10-foot pole) that broke this news was clearly in direct communication with Dr. MacElwee or his immediate family, and there was no confusion about what happened, unless Dr. MacElwee was lying, because again, this information was written down, not passed along through whispers. Unless you are somehow contending that the information as initially typed underwent some form of degradation, or was typed on a defective keyboard where the intention to type the word "hit" was somehow altered to always appear as "hug" (or, through nefarious auto-correct, where "I've been using your wi-fi" gets altered to "I've been using your wife"), the use of "telephone" to chide or criticize or dismiss the behavior of the general public is a false analogy.
Again, when I researched (on a limited basis) the game of "telephone", I learned for the first time that some people purposefully alter the message they hear. These folks have now achieved a meta-understanding of the game, and have realized the game only "works" towards a risible conclusion if you purposefully warp it. Again, if crazy people are spreading nonsense (I hearken back to that strange letter of support from the fentanyl addict), I have no use for them. But this is not who the Trail-Gazette is criticizing: They are criticizing the public at large for being so goddam interested in the treatment or potential mistreatment of another human being by someone who is either a loose cannon or was encouraged/implicitly given the go-ahead to behave in that fashion.
I would put the burden back on our local newspaper, so generous and willing to deflect attention elsewhere. If they had a real interest in reporting real news, they would have covered this story when it broke. They could have defined the narrative, or at least provided a potential road map for how the story could have unfolded. Instead, they sat back and hoped Dr. MacElwee would somehow solve himself. If I take my sputtering car to the auto repair shop, I'm kind of hopeful they will be able to fix the problem, not put up the "closed" sign at 11:00 in the morning on Tuesday when I can clearly see them. Similarly, if the public hospital clearly has a problem, the paper should step in and cover it, not hide behind their advertisers. Unsurprisingly, people who have been raised in an ostensibly just society prefer justice over clumsy mishandling of personnel matters and excuses (e.g., using the "I'm on vacation" defense when clearly you are physically present).
"I'm on vacation" from a supposed leader is not leadership. It's four pretty simple words (three with the contraction), and repetition of four simple words in the same language among people with working ears and proficient tongues doesn't allow much opportunity for these words to be confused, or ambiguous, or somehow degraded during transmission. It is Memorex. It is clear. (Or, as Lieutenant Kaffee might say, crystal.) Stop blaming your citizens for engaging in their first-amendment rights, and utilization of their highly-evolved organs of speech and perception.
Having established those basic human rights, let's all step up to the plate and admit clumsy excuses from $100K+ administrators are reprehensible, If anyone needed to be suspended, or sent to time out, it is the person who first uttered these words, not the person on the receiving end.
Further, if we want to keep the message undiluted, and not add to the potential confusion, why would we bring in outsiders? The Nexflix generation was raised on videos. When will we finally be allowed to see the security footage?
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