Used as analogy for selective sampling of clips creating misleading narratives.
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"We are now getting misleading Techdirt stories secondhand through Slashdot. It's interesting to see how far this game of telephone might go." You know when I was watching President Obama's cover of the hit single "Call me maybe" [1] I was thinking the same thing. Kidding aside though, the two things that the Youtube spoof and this have in common are taking snippets of actual "stuff" and mashing them together into something that the person making the mashup finds useful/amusing/entertaining. As HN and Reddit and slashdot before them seep into the journalistic consciousness there are pretty clear efforts to craft a message based on selective sampling. By drilling into the sources for all the clips (unnecessary of course but bear with me) used to compose the 'call me maybe' video its clear that the President never set out to make this video or even knew the lyrics (probably does now though :-) and this slashdot article appears to be a lesser instance of the same effect. Pull a few bits out of context, wrap them together into a choice sounding narrative and blam! you've got a "story." So to answer your question the 'telephone' you mention is simply 'spin doctoring' (to use the 20th century vernacular) and it will continue as long as people make long enough sound bytes in their communication that they can be re-purposed for spin without setting off too many alarms in the readership. [1] this video