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"We can't allow things that are inaccurate to stand." — The Word of Our Dan, February 19, 2008.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

The buck stops over there

The Word of Our Dan, Monday:

Something's got to happen, things ha- I - y'know - something has got to change. If it's communications issue over there, then, then, they have to be told how to communicate. That's what it comes down to. But, y'know, y'can't, y'can't, y'can't sorta put that totally on communications, because at the end of the day, someone up the line signs off on this, and I don't believe in shufflin' down responsibilities in these situations, because the communications people advise, and ultimately, y'know, people up the line sign off on it, so. Y'know, we're askin' and we're gonna be askin' some tough questions, andwe'regonnabelookin'feranswers.
Maybe He doesn't believe in shufflin' down responsibilities in these situations... but Ross Wiseman does. From the Bow-Wow Parliament on Tuesday:

MR. WISEMAN: Mr. Speaker, as a minister, and as a department, we will make sure that processes are in place, but what I cannot – I have no control over, is when individuals, on an individual incident, make a decision. That is a personal judgement call on an individual’s part; that I have no control over. The people who made that decision to disclose that information in that fashion and not be available for consultation and discussion and not respond to questions, I have no control of that person’s decision that afternoon.

What I want to make sure, Mr. Speaker, that is why I am using the word unequivocal, next week when we map out a process it will be absolutely and abundantly clear, no one will have to make a discretionary call from here on in because it will be clearly mapped out, and no one will have the ability to make that judgement call to do or not to do because it will be mapped out for them very clear.

Those kinds of processes I do have some control over, but individual judgements, when people make the wrong decisions, I cannot be in their heads. I cannot direct them and guide them on every single decision that they make.
At least Wiseman agrees with Him that they have to be told how to communicate. One less heresy on the Minister's part.

So does this mean that the experts from Confederation Hill will be (re)training Eastern Health to issue press releases on a Friday afternoon, following the practice of the communications gurus themselves?

2 Comments:

At 10:23 AM, April 08, 2009 , Blogger Mark said...

There's nothing contradictory here. Government's job is to tell Eastern Haelath how to communicate, and not how to operate. In otherwords, while good publicity is paramount, accountability is "not my department".

 
At 11:45 AM, April 08, 2009 , Blogger Winston Smith said...

"I have no control of that person's decision that afternoon."

I thought he was channeling Rumsfeld, but this sounds positively Clintonian in its verb choice.

Unlike DW, he does not have time-traveling powers; ergo, he *has* no control over what happened that fateful afternoon.

Why didn't he say this: "I had no control of that person’s decision that afternoon"?

This version would be an outright lie, but the other one was just grossly misleading.

A few more sessions with the PR pros and we're likely to witness an exchange like this:
Question -- "Is he a competent minister?"
Answer -- "That depends on your definition of the word 'is'."

 

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