> A witch hunt would involve gaming the reporting system to hassle people for irrelevant reasons.
Specifically I would say that a witch hunt is characterized by an assumption of guilt, combined with a high false-positive rate, combined with offers for leniency if the accused points their finger at others. That's how the House Un-American Activities Commission did it, and those are the parallels between the HUAC and Salem that Arthur Miller identified.
Merely accusing somebody of doing their job poorly isn't anything like a witch hunt.
Specifically I would say that a witch hunt is characterized by an assumption of guilt, combined with a high false-positive rate, combined with offers for leniency if the accused points their finger at others. That's how the House Un-American Activities Commission did it, and those are the parallels between the HUAC and Salem that Arthur Miller identified.
Merely accusing somebody of doing their job poorly isn't anything like a witch hunt.