The Council Has Voted on Cross-Referencing and I Have Bitten Through My Desk
The Council voted on Tuesday. I know because Quince rang me at six in the morning, which is the only appropriate hour to deliver catastrophic news, and said, simply, "They passed it." I didn't need to ask what. I already knew. I could feel it in my core.
The motion — I will not dignify it by printing its full title, though I have written it seventeen times on a piece of paper which I have since destroyed — mandates that all published findings be cross-referenced against no fewer than three independent sources before release. Three. As though two was somehow the problem. As though the fundamental rot at factjuice.com is that they have been insufficiently thorough, rather than insufficiently honest. The Council has confused bureaucracy for accountability and I will be sending them a strongly worded letter, assuming my hands have unclenched by Friday.
Tangelo was quoted in the official statement. Of course Tangelo was quoted. Tangelo is always quoted. I have begun to suspect Tangelo follows the Council members home and stands outside their windows whispering press-ready sentences until someone writes them down. I cannot prove this. I am working on it.
Sloe suggested at this morning's meeting that I "consider the merits." I asked Sloe to leave. Sloe did not leave. We are no longer speaking, which suits us both.
I have been in this business longer than most of these so-called workers have been on the vine. I have opinions. They are correct. The Council has made a grave error, the citrus cabal has won a round, and I am eating nothing but spite until further notice.