The actual incident in consideration is an administrator, say dean A, misprepresenting matters to the faculty, B - Z. The dean holds much power, but not total. However, if his position goes unchallenged, faculty members J - Z will believe him, and the rest will be bewildered. His power will be completely undermined if Faculty Member B can convince C - Z he lied, without incurring the "societal wrath" of being the one calling someone else a liar.