[throwaway48476]

Filtered through the police and then through the media. It's a game of Chinese telephone and a lot gets lost in the translations, which leads to a huge amount of misinformation. Case in point b and t 9.

[soperj]

Since when is it "chinese telephone" and not just "telephone"?

[hinoki]

It’s a mixture of Chinese Whispers and Telephone, two names for the same game.

[throwaway48476]

Pick a common language in a different language family that results stilted translations. It was always Chinese telephone.