When the employees have spoken, the thinking is done

"When our leaders speak,
the thinking has been done."

Critics of the Church often point to an Ward Teaching message in the 1945 Improvement Era that contained this statement:

"When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done.’ 

When asked about the statement, President George Albert Smith repudiated the statement by writing this explanation:

The leaflet to which you refer, and from which you quote in your letter, was not “prepared” by “one of our leaders.” However, one or more of them inadvertently permitted the paragraph to pass uncensored. By their so doing, not a few members of the Church have been upset in their feelings, and General Authorities have been embarrassed.

President Smith went on to explain that "the Church gives to every man his free agency, and admonishes him always to use the reason and good judgment with which God has blessed him."

FairMormon has an excellent explanation of this incident, here:
https://www.fairmormon.org/archive/publications/when-the-prophet-speaks-is-the-thinking-done

Notice two key points:

1. The statement that "the thinking is done" has been continually cited by critics who either (i) are unaware that President Smith specifically repudiated the statement or (ii) don't care and are thereby misleading their readers.

2. The statement was prepared by a Church employee, not by a Church leader, but was permitted to be published anyway. President Smith promptly corrected the mistake, but the damage was done and critics still use the mistake to mislead people today.
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In our day, we have a far more pervasive mistake created by Church employees. This is M2C, the Mesoamerican/two-Cumorahs theory that repudiates the teachings of the prophets.

The New York Cumorah was established by President Cowdery's Letter VII.

http://www.lettervii.com/

Joseph Smith helped write Letter VII, had it copied into his personal history, had it republished in every Church magazine while he was alive, and referred to it in D&C 128:20.

Subsequent Church leaders have reaffirmed the New York Cumorah, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference. Books published by the Church, including Jesus the Christ and Articles of Faith, have also reaffirmed the New York Cumorah.

No member of the Quorum of the Twelve or First Presidency has ever repudiated, challenged, or even questioned this teaching.

But a lot of Church employees have.
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Because of the M2C teachings of certain intellectuals in the Church, employees at CES, BYU, and COB (the Church Office Building, especially the Correlation Department and the Church History Department) have been promoting M2C through the curriculum, visitors centers, media, artwork, and various blogs and publications (the M2C citation cartel of BYU Studies, the Interpreter, Meridian Magazine, Deseret News, Book of Mormon Central, etc.).

These M2C intellectuals want members of the Church to follow this aphorism:

"When the employees have spoken, the thinking is done."

The M2C citation cartel enforces this viewpoint by suppressing Letter VII and the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah.

You won't see them publish anything that supports the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. They don't allow this viewpoint to be expressed at their conferences, on their web pages, in their publications, etc.

Plus, they are teaching students at BYU and CES that the prophets are wrong.

But, in my view, the explanation given by President George Albert Smith applies to the teachings of these employees just as much as it did to the false doctrine taught in the Improvement Era.