It's the way with words that convinces them.
They say they hear it, see it, scan it,
And write their own extruded words
Until their way points the way,
And what was convincing becomes contested
In theses and higher texts,
Quoting and seeking drafts and alterations
Until the only way with words is mutations.
On the passing of Shane MacGowan, who I've never heard sing a note, but in obituaries read the occasional hagiographic quote.
(I checked "hagiography" in the dictionary on my MacBook Air and found the following in the definition text - 'the result is not hagiography but a fitting monument to a giant of 20th-century music.'. I call that synchronicity, but venturing there in the same dictionary might be too... well, your choice of word this time.)