Update: cell block tango

So, coming back after a week away, I discovered that my piece (see "The cell block tango," somewhere below) did not go out in the final edited form I'd turned in before I left. Rather, the big boss decided he was still confused by some polysyllaby that I'd left untrimmed, for texture. Finding me absent, he turned the item over to a well-meaning colleague, who obligingly re-cast it in short, declarative S-V-O sentences. But did not know the subject matter, and did not realize that snipping a "despite" here and an "although" there is not merely stylistic. The thing ran, under my name, with an entirely different tone and substance.

Today, an email from near the top of the food chain: how could this go out? Did I not know my subject? What about points a, b, and c?

Ahhh...yep. Right there in the original draft, pretty much in the exact words you just used.

This would be comedic if it resulted in my vindication, but, instead, everyone simply pointed their finger at me as the sole author of the "bad" piece, and, hence, it's tragedy.

Will no one rid me of this turbulent career?