It’s time to call in rumor control over KVH matter

Lou Marzeles
Editor and Publisher

     No doubt you’ve heard of the communication experiment wherein someone whispers something in a person’s ear, and that person whispers it in another person’s ear, and the communication goes on like that for another 10 or 20 people. The last person to hear the message then shares it aloud, and it’s compared to the statement the first person made. The difference is typically marked, such as one exercise in which the first statement was, “Cattle graze on grass during summertime.” What the last person heard was, “Rattlers phase tasks in curly bumper rhymes.”
     That last sentence may have made some sense to somebody, and if it did, that person needs to be in Washington, D.C., deciphering the federal health care plan.
     A similar kind of communication failure seems to be occurring here in regard to the possibility of the hospital outsourcing its ambulance service.
     There are reports in town that the hospital has already decided to outsource its ambulance service, and the people making these reports can and do quote “facts” to prove their point. They do so irrespective of the reality that, at this point in time, it’s simply not true. We’ve run a letter in this week’s paper that demonstrates this phenomenon, and we must point out that the issue with this letter is not with the writer; he’s simply reporting “facts” that were related to him. It’s the facts that others “know” that just aren’t so that are the problem.
     The phenomenon, in this particular case, is quite understandable. The real facts (as opposed to that other kind) are somewhat involved and potentially confusing. But this is also a highly emotional issue to some people, and that’s all the more reason for clarity of understanding and communication.
     We don’t want to see people lose jobs unnecessarily. We also think the hospital, like any public organization, should conduct its business in a financially sound manner. Whatever the decision turns out to be regarding ambulance service, facts need to be accurately represented. What does it serve to sound a call to action based on inaccurate information?