The Deflection that Happened

Memes of the Day

More than an interview that never happened, when Olympic Medical Center Hospital Commissioner Ann Henninger cancelled her appointment to answer questions with the Clallam County Watchdog, something much bigger did happen — a deflection that is too obvious to ignore!

The Watchdog had a great line-up of questions that would probably scare away most any elected official; all the questions can be found here. I think it’s great that he worked so hard to get the interview, even though it didn’t happen; the questions may still get answered, and if they don’t then that will speak for itself. Nice work, Jeff!

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First, a definition for the word of the day:

Deflect: cause (something) to change direction by interposing something; turn aside from a straight course.

This is exactly what happened when the Watchdog shared in his post the communication from the commissioner explaining why she had to cancel — wanting to take time to pause, reflect, and remember, on Pregnancy and Infant Loss Memorial Day.

AI Overview after searching ‘when politicians use personal grievances to avoid questions’

The comments in the Watchdog’s post speak volumes about how powerful the deflection tactic worked.

While some commenters shared their own horror stories of dealing with staff at Olympic Medical Center, others focused on the deflection and why the day mattered to the commissioner.

No matter what people thought of the commissioner’s reasoning, it proves that the deflection worked — it got people talking about the commissioner’s own personal grievances.

The commissioner could have simply said that it wasn’t a good day for her and to reschedule. However, she made sure to let her personal reasons be known, which opens the door for speculation as to why, if the day was so important to her, did she schedule an interview that day to begin with?

She may have suspected that her communication would be shared on the Watchdog’s post, and, while that is only speculation on my part, it worked like a charm to slightly manipulate the comment talking points, so that the focus was skewed away from the hard-ball questions she avoided; questions that, I think, matter more than her reasons for canceling the interview.

AI response from searching ‘when politicians use personal grievance to avoid answer questions’

Considering the questions she would have faced in the interview were as hard as jawbreakers, and speculating that she may have known that beforehand, she took control of the narrative by making the cancellation about herself which shifted the focus away from what she is elected to do — and it worked!

Also, commenters pointed out that the commissioner was responding to locals on another social media platform without responding to the Watchdog’s questions — I’m sure the last thing she wants is to alienate her voters or admit any wrongdoing when it comes to the failures at Olympic Medical Center that happened under her watch as commissioner.

AI response from searching ‘when politicians use personal grievance to avoid conflict’

The deflection tactic worked so well, it can easily be thought of as insensitive to dare call out her cancellation as an avoidance tactic.

But why should anyone be called insensitive for holding a politician accountable?

I mean, if she’s not strong enough to do her elected job, of which being redressed by tax paying citizens is part of her job, then maybe she isn’t strong enough to be in public office. Maybe she needs to stay home and enjoy personal days every day (as a housewife, I love it!).

I fully understand what I may be called for thinking and publishing such thoughts — insensitive. I also understand that people may unsubscribe because I am not easily manipulated into saying what is politically correct.

Well, I’ll take the consequences, as it is better than being duped by the commissioner’s deflection tactics to avoid accountability and answering questions that taxpayers have a right to ask. 🙃

Thanks for reading & laughing!

PS — I’m not laughing about the commissioner’s personal grievance; I’m laughing about the failed manipulation of the deflection tactic.