Breaking the chain of gossip

James (to Tom): Pat said he disagreed with me about that issue.
Tom (to Randall): Hey, did you hear? Pat really came down hard in a dispute with James!
Randall (to Kim): Did you hear about Pat? He was insulting James!
Kim (to Jen): Pat is just going around insulting people! He has no feelings at all!
Jen (to Kim): Are you sure that is true? Have you talked to Pat to clarify it? If not, you shouldn't repeat things like that. Where did you hear that? … from Randall? I will talk to Randall and to Pat.
Jen (to Pat): Kim told me that you are going around insulting people. I supposed it was a rumor distorted in the telling, and told Kim as much, but also wanted to hear the story directly from you. Kim said he'd heard it from Randall. Randall said you insulted James. What really happened?
Pat (to Jen): We disagreed about the issue, but discussed it calmly and with no hard feelings on either side.