Lessons learnt from sacking of deputy health minister?

Following the recent well publicised sacking of the Deputy Minister of Health, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge the Health Department spokesperson claimed that at no time did the Health Minister drink alcohol while undergoing a shoulder operation at a Cape Town based private hospital and later retracted his statement by saying she only had a glass of wine with a meal.

*What can we learn as Communication practitioners from this kind of an exercise?
*What should one do when faced with this kind of a smokescreen against one's Boss?