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->'''Peter Parker:''' Spider-Man was clearly protecting that armored car, not stealing from it. You can't say that, it's slander!\\
'''J. Jonah Jameson:''' It is not! I resent that! ''[beat]'' Slander is spoken. In print, it's libel.
-->-- ''Film/SpiderMan1''

Any fictional character worth their plotline knows that they have to be very, very careful about what they say within earshot of their enemies. Unfortunately, some of them don't know who their enemies are, or don't realize the danger that the bitchy-but-seemingly-harmless AlphaBitch might pose. Yes, she's snarky, but even with her high-heeled posse backing her up, she's not really a threat, is she?

Well, yes, she probably is. She probably won't beat you up personally, and while she might be queen bee of her clique, she doesn't have any official authority... but she can let a few comments slip to the principal, SadistTeacher, or your HelicopterParents. And what's more, she won't make up "proper" lies to do so. She'd get caught fairly quickly that way, and she's smarter than that.

Instead, she'll "innocently" report something you said. Perhaps you were joking or telling a story. Perhaps it was the sort of remark that would make sense to your friends, but no one else. Perhaps the phrase itself is totally harmless -- but it won't be by the time your poisonous rival's through with it. Somehow, they'll make an innocuous comment seem like high treason or proof that you really shouldn't be allowed out of the house without a responsible adult in attendance.

There's a couple of ways they can do this. They can take the words out of context (a man who remarks that he's Bugs Bunny sounds like a case for the nice men in white coats, until you realize he was going to a fancy dress party that night), change their tone of voice ("He's an idiot" sounds very different when it's said with a warm, half-amused tone from when it's said with real venom) or they might add in a little story of their own to colour your words with a level of malice that wasn't intended ("Mr. Smith, Milly was storming down the street and [[KickTheDog beating up puppies]] the other day, and she said something about wanting to throttle you for giving us so much homework. I'd call the police, 'cause she looked really dangerous..."). It can be done unintentionally when someone misreads a situation or jumps to conclusions, in which case it's nearly always being used for laughs. TheDitz is particularly prone to this sort of misinterpretation.

The thing is, you did say what they claim you said, technically speaking. And unless you're prepared to lie outright, you'll find it difficult to defend yourself when the angry authority figure comes storming up to you, demanding answers. Chances are that you'll get as far as "Yes, I said something like that, [[ConjunctionInterruption but..."]] before YouAreGrounded...or fired, or in serious trouble with the local thugs, depending on your age.

The causes and consequences of this type of ploy vary with age. Among young children, this might be as simple as "Miss, Bobby said a bad word!" when Bobby happened to comment that he's had a nosebleed and his face is all "[[DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch bloody]]." On the adult stage, however, it can be more severe, as when the nastiest employee of a company reports a colleague to the boss, using their own words against them in the hope of getting them fired. Gets extremely messy when the police turn up and the local gossip has "proof" that Joe Average did it in revenge for John Doe almost backing the car on top of him that morning (tip: Before grumbling that you're going to "kill them," check the local newspapers for [[TemptingFate stories about serial killers]]).

Speaking of newspapers, they're not above this sort of thing either, especially if it makes a story more sensational. Take this hypothetical example:

* '''Chief of Police:''' We don't think this is a serial killer. If he was an experienced murderer, he would have worked much faster.
* '''Newspaper:''' CHIEF OF POLICE: KILLER ISN'T WORKING FAST ENOUGH!

The person who has been misquoted (and probably suffered one heck of a character assassination in the eyes of the public as a result) will [[OnceDoneNeverForgotten find it difficult to get rid of this smear on their name]]. Somehow, it always seems a bit false when they appear on the television the next day, trying to explain what they actually meant. It's not helped when there are so many cases of celebrities genuinely saying bigoted, or just plain dumb, things. We may never know the true extent of this trope in the press since...well, the people reporting on it are likely to be the same ones who sensationalised it in the first place.

The NaiveEverygirl is especially prone to being the victim of this sort of attack (usually perpetrated by the aforementioned AlphaBitch). In fact, most characters who are [[GoodIsDumb too sweet-natured for their own good,]] or [[VirginityMakesYouStupid conspicuously chaste]] -- in which case the "twisting" of their own words is likely to make them out to be a sex maniac -- make soft targets for this trope; possibly because, being so good-hearted and having such a pristine reputation, this is the only way their enemies can get any real ammo against them. A ManipulativeBastard loves to do this, while a HairTriggerTemper or someone with a highly sensitive BerserkButton will do it internally instead of involving an authority figure, cutting out the middle man and beating you up personally for some perceived slight. It might also be used by someone who believes EverythingIsRacist, finding a racial subtext in someone's words that [[MistakenForRacist they didn't necessarily intend]].

For victims of bullying, this trope is ''very'' TruthInTelevision.

See also QuoteMine and ManipulativeEditing. Does not work in a BecauseYouWereNiceToMe situation. Compare TranslationWithAnAgenda and/or TrollingTranslator for when this happens between two languages. Also see OutOfContextEavesdropping.

----
!!Examples:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Manga/FairyTail'', [[StalkerWithACrush Juvia]] will twist any word that has ANYTHING to do with Gray.
* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', [[TheNapoleon Edward Elric]] is very good at mistaking anything anyone says for a "short" joke. He even does this to ''himself'' when he says he's lucky he's small enough to fit through the vents at the Fifth Laboratory.
-->"OH NO!!! I JUST CALLED MYSELF A TINY LITTLE PIPSQUEAK!"
* In ''Manga/{{MAR}}'' there's a version where the character doesn't even have to say anything. Early on in the War Games, Jack fights Pano and she ends up tied up in his ''Earth Beans'', which he starts to climb. When his hand reaches her breast (and is clearly nowhere near touching and all signs point to him continuing to climb) she calls out that he's a pervert and the crowd catches on. He quickly climbs down and tries to convince them he's not. Later, he shows that he actually is a pervert, and[[spoiler: Pano ends up being his girlfriend and living with him and his mother]].
* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', the Fifth Mizukage [[BerserkButton takes great offense]] to being called [[OldMaid too old to get married]]--which includes statements that only have a few words even vaguely related to such a topic ''which weren't even directed to her or speaking of her in the first place''.
* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
** PlayedForLaughs where during Baby 5 and Sai's fight, she misinterprets all of Sai's aggressive fighting shouts as declarations of love, such as "I'll rip your heart out" as "I'll steal your heart" in a metaphorical sense.
** Also, a RunningGag about Buggy is that he often mishears words and thinks people are [[BerserkButton talking about his red nose]] instead. One instance where Alivda was talking about being in "big trouble" but Buggy only hears the "big" part and thinks she is making fun of his nose and threatens to kill her.
* Himeno of ''Manga/{{Pretear}}'' can barely open her mouth without someone claiming that she said or did something inappropriate. Especially in the manga adaptation, whenever she tries to explain the cavalcade of men who have taken to following her about.
* Neko-Sensei from ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' always seems to twist words or actions to a belief that someone wants to marry him.
* ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'': Chief Mansam always thinks someone's calling him handsome.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''The ComicBook/FantasticFour versus The ComicBook/XMen'', Reed Richards' journal contains entries similar to what he remembers writing, but shifted to a context that suggests that he [[ReluctantMadScientist deliberately arranged]] to expose the group to the cosmic rays that [[SuperHeroOrigin gave them their powers]] because [[WellIntentionedExtremist the world needed powerful defenders]]. The discovery of these entries nearly destroys the team. At the end of the story, Sue concludes that the journal had been altered by Doctor Doom to undermine Reed's confidence in himself.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* ''WebVideo/{{Blixemi}}'': In the "Know Your Clanmate" episode about Squirrelflight, the narrator claims that she steals tufts of fur from all her clanmates. When Squirrelflight argues that she has more important things to do than that, her words immediately get twisted with the second "fact" -- that she thinks she's ''far more important'' than the rest of her clanmates.
* In ''Fanfic/ContactAtKobol'', Admiral Cain attempts to do this when Colonel O’Neill (Jack’s clone) is talking with the Quorom after the ''Pegasus'' got in a firefight with a Tau'ri warship. When O'Neill simply observes under questioning that the Tau'ri might have set up their own colony in the system if it was uninhabited, Cain attempts to use this to create the impression that the Tau’ri would conquer the Colonies, thus earning support for her defensive action.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
* Often inverted in RealLife movie ads, which take quotes from negative reviews and use ellipses to make them sound flattering, or take the one positive word ("Spectacular!") in an otherwise disparaging sentence ("This film is a spectacular failure").[[note]]Another good tip is the size of the quote's credit line. If it's from a local TV affiliate, and/or is close to unreadable on a standard-def TV, it's probably not a good movie. EA has to take the cake for this though, advertising ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' as having inspired the largest fan reaction of all time. They edited out the part of the sentence that clarifies that it was viciously negative.[[/note]]
* The newspaper editor teases Sergeant Angel like this in ''Film/HotFuzz'', asking him how he liked a production of ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'', and when Angel says he enjoyed it, coming up with headlines like "Cop Enjoys Watching Young Lovers" and "Local Bobby Gives Thumbs Up to Teen Suicide." Angel describes the latter as 'just grossly inappropriate."
* Used to a chilling effect in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JV8khm4s9j4 the trailer]] for Creator/{{Netflix}} documentary ''Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story'', where clips from Savile's TV shows are included out of context to make them sound like a sinister confession.
* ''Film/MeanGirls'':
** This is one of the first things Cady does that marks her [[TheDarkSide slide]] into the habit of being a two-faced liar. Her teacher talks to her privately about her performance in school, and Cady twists her words to make it sound as if she were confessing to being a drug dealer.
** There's also this early scene:
--->'''Regina:''' Homeschooled. That's really interesting.\\
'''Cady:''' Thanks.\\
'''Regina:''' But you're, like, really pretty.\\
'''Cady:''' Thank you.\\
'''Regina:''' So you agree.\\
'''Cady:''' What?\\
'''Regina:''' You think you're really pretty.
* In the Creator/AdamSandler version of ''Film/MrDeeds'', Deeds rescues a woman and all her cats from a burning building, but corrupt reporters edit the footage to make it look like Deeds murdered the cats, then dragged the woman out to rape her.
* ''Film/MyCousinVinny'': Stan and Bill get arrested as suspects in a hold-up and murder at a store that they were at moments earlier since the witnesses said they saw the suspects driving away in a similar-looking automobile. [[OneDialogueTwoConversations However, since Bill mistakenly shoplifted some tuna, they think they're getting arrested for that]], and it isn't till the sheriff asks "When did you shoot the clerk?" that they realize what's going on. [[MistakenConfession Unfortunately, Bill asks "I shot the clerk?" in an attempt to clarify, but instead, it's interpreted as an admission of guilt]]. Sure enough, at their preliminary hearing, the statement "I shot the clerk?" is presented as such. This scene shows why you should ''always'' ask to speak to a lawyer if you're ever arrested. When the police say [[MirandaRights "Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law."]], ''they mean it''.
* Done by the TV reporter in the second ''[[Film/ScoobyDooMonstersUnleashed Scooby Doo]]'' movie. "Hey! You're doing that thing again where you take everything I say out of context, you're trying to make it look like '''I think Coolsville sucks!''' ''({{beat}})'' No! Don't record that!" Of course, in peak Scooby-Doo fashion, [[spoiler:this turns out to be part of the villain's big plan. As Jonathon Jacobo (disguised as Heather Jasper Howe) attempts to smear Mystery Inc.'s name in order to turn the public against them]].
* A Malaysian bootleg version of ''Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2'' avoided this, opting instead to provide some unintentionally funny [[TruthInTelevision Truth In Advertising]] using this blurb from a [=FilmCritic.com=] review: "Superbabies has no redeeming qualities", using the same large-type font usually reserved for a glowing review from ''Rolling Stone''.
* A humorous example from the film ''Film/TheTrollhunter'' features a genuine clip from the former Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jBuNMHzqmI "We've got trolls in Norway"]] He's actually referring to the Troll oil field.
* The 1980 movie ''Used Cars'' has a corrupt competitor doctor a car dealership's TV advertisement, changing "many styles of cars" to make it sound like she said, "a mile of cars." The dealership was then threatened with charges of false advertisement unless they could prove they really did have enough cars to measure a mile when placed end to end.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Pretty much the entire plot of the novel ''BigMouthAndUglyGirl''.
* In Louise Rennison's ''GeorgiaNicolson'' series, prefect Lindsey uses this trope as an excuse to harass Georgia. It's not that the heroine is an angel herself, but Lindsey has a way of making a joke or off-hand remark seem like a lynching offence.
* The [[TabloidMelodrama obnoxious journalist]] Rita Skeeter in ''Literature/HarryPotter'', who has a magical quill that appears to have been enchanted to do exactly that. It also twists ''reality''. In other words, it lies. At one point, while she is interviewing Harry, it mentions a "tearful Harry Potter" or something along those lines and Harry is, if anything, a bit annoyed at being shoved into a broom closet and being interviewed by a rude, nosy woman.
-->'''Harry:''' Hey! My eyes aren't "glistening with the ghosts of my past!"
* Early in the follow-on to ''Literature/TheLostFleet'' series, Admiral Geary is outraged to see a news headline reading that he expressed only "qualified support" for the government. His wife explains that he told a reporter that he'd follow any lawful orders -- that's limiting his support because he wouldn't follow '''any and all''' orders.
* Discussed in ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters'' as a means of making the most (from TheDevil's {{Perspective|Flip}}) of a domestic PassiveAggressiveKombat:
-->"Your patient must demand that all his own utterances are to be taken at their face value and judged simply on the actual words, while at the same time judging all his mother's utterances with the fullest and most oversensitive interpretation of the tone and the context and the suspected intention. She must be encouraged to do the same to him. Hence from every quarrel they can both go away convinced, or very nearly convinced, [[MoralMyopia that they are quite innocent]]."
* Raymond Smullyan invokes this showing how to prove anything in ''WhatIsTheNameOfThisBook'':
-->'''1st Person''': Santa Claus exists, if I'm not mistaken.\\
'''2nd Person''': Yes, Santa Claus exists, ''if you are not mistaken''.\\
'''1st Person''': So you admit that I am correct.\\
'''2st Person''': Yes.\\
'''1st Person''': Since I am not mistaken, and Santa Claus exists if I am not mistaken, Santa Claus must exist.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* Music/WeirdAlYankovic's ''AL TV'' features various celebrities getting grilled by Al on various topics. The answers are taken from interview footage taken for the program without the interviewees' knowledge of the parodic nature of the final product.
* The UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} sketch-comedy show ''Series/AlmostLive'' did this to humorous effect in its "Street Talk" sequences.
* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' lampshades it: GOB tells a reporter, "Don't edit this so it sounds like I killed Earl Milford!", which is reduced to "I killed Earl Milford!"
* In the ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "The Illusion Of Truth", a reporter's interview footage is taken out of context and combined with slanted commentary to produce a propaganda hit piece.
** In another episode, Centauri ambassador [[TheCynic Londo Mollari]] tears into a report on [[SpaceElves the Minbari]] made by his assitant Vir, because it is meant for the eyes of the Centauri emperor and as such, should be worded in such a way as to denegrate the Minbari and imply their inferiority to Centauri.
* An episode of ''Series/BrassEye'' features [[Radio/JustAMinute Nicholas Parsons]], thinking he was reading a poem dedicated to a (fictitious) elephant who had jammed his trunk up its arse, being (incredibly obviously) edited to say
-->'Aren't we a bunch...of f/uck/wits. An elephant could / no more / get / its trunk / up / its / arse / than we / could / lick / our / balls.'
* Done in-universe in ''Series/BurnNotice'': a drug dealer's phone conversation is cut to make it sound like he's entering a plea bargain with the FBI. The other members of the cartel are not happy.
* Interestingly, one of the "[[AlterKocker old Florida Jews]]" lampshaded the whole concept of ''Series/TheDailyShow'''s segment on them (showing their [[JewsLoveToArgue incessant]] and [[YiddishAsASecondLanguage Yiddish-accented]] argument about UsefulNotes/BarackObama), saying "This is just to show how silly these Florida Jews are!" - at the end of the segment, Wyatt says, "It's time to head over to Georgia to take some more voters out of context." [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/22/daily-show-asks-elderly-j_n_114271.html Found here.]]
* Inverted in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYUL1R4pupU this skit]] from ''Series/EretzNehederet'', where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar admits to having a kidnapped Israeli baby in his house, and the Creator/{{BBC}} interviewer twists his words to make it seem like ''he's'' the victim, dealing with "torture by sleep deprivation" (the baby crying).
* Averted and lampshaded in an episode of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' where he tells Niles not to give an interview to the press concerning his possible involvement with his ex-wife's murder of her boyfriend and says that he will give one in his place which they will be unable to twist. He then has a Freudian slip where he says that Niles and his ex should be ''"executed"'' when he meant to say "exonerated".
* Inverted in the fourth season of ''Series/{{House}}'', after a documentary film crew has been recording Dr. House's attempts at diagnosing a patient for most of the episode. At the end, we see a glimpse of an early cut of the documentary, and several of House's JerkAss comments had been edited out of context (for instance, making sarcasm sound sincere) to create the illusion that he's a decent, sympathetic man. House, being House, is pissed that he's been misrepresented.
* Italian satirical TV Show ''Le Iene'' (''Hyenas'') broadcast several interviews with [=VIP=]s where they cheerfully admit tax evasion, fraud, and so on. The trick was editing the ''questions'' from harmless ("What's your shoe size?") to... less harmless ("How many millions have you embezzled this year?"). The same answer ("40") takes on a different meaning.
* Bill does this to Jerry Seinfeld in one episode of ''Series/NewsRadio''.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Series/PhilOfTheFuture''. Pim becomes principal for the day but will be forced to step down in favor of Vice-Principal Hackett once the day ends. She counteracts this by splicing together obviously out-of-context and blatantly non-linear segments from his speeches (even having the black Lil' Danny say one of the lines), in hopes of getting the student body to turn against him. It of course works on everybody but Phil and Keely.
* In the ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' episode "It's Your Funeral," one of the prisoners is being used by the powers behind the scenes to assassinate the current Number Two. Number Six attempts to warn him (to avert reprisals against the inhabitants of The Village); his warning is ignored because the current Number Two has seen a misleading recording that makes Number Six sound like a paranoid crank who has [[CryingWolf delivered several such warnings]] to his predecessors.
* ''Series/RowanAndMartinsLaughIn'' sometimes did a skit like this: they'd show an interview with a celebrity. Then they'd say, "Now here's what could be done by unscrupulous editing of this interview footage," and the "edited" version would have the celebrity making a number of inflammatory or self-incriminating remarks, such as Creator/JohnWayne saying critics of his films "can kiss my Levi's!"
* Stephen Colbert has been accused of editing political speeches this way. In response, he did an interview filled with easily editable statements, like "there are people who think THE TROOPS ARE STUPID! I am not one of those people."
* In an episode of ''Series/ThatsSoRaven'', Raven and Chelsea are competing on a reality show, and the producer edits their confessionals to make it seem like they've been trash-talking each other to amp up the drama.
* Toby in ''Series/TheWestWing'' misreads his relationship with a Republican woman, who takes an inflammatory statement said in a "casual" conversation and uses it to attack the Democratic White House regarding the minimum wage in a televised press conference.
* In ''Series/{{Ziwe}}'', whenever a guest says something that can be construed negatively, a graphic will pop up in the lower third oversimplifying their statement, often in an incriminating way - e.g., after Creator/MichaelChe remarks that "he doesn't need a therapist" because he can learn about his faults just from talking to Ziwe, a graphic pops up that reads "Michael Che: 'Every black woman is my therapist'."
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* A RunningGag in the early years of ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'' saw Milo call up the local senator in order to get stories for the newspaper, trying to get him to admit to outrageous crimes and misdealings by twisting everything he said.
-->'''Milo Bloom:''' ''(on phone)'' Senator? This is Milo Bloom at the ''Beacon''. Will you confirm that you sank Jimmy Hoffa in your backyard pond?\\
'''Sen. Bedfellow:''' ''(over phone)'' WHAT? OF COURSE NOT!\\
'''Milo:''' Fine. I'll go with "Sen. Bedfellow denies that pond is where he sank Hoffa."\\
'''Bedfellow:''' THAT'S NOT TRUE!\\
'''Milo:''' Okay. "Bedfellow '''did''' sink Hoffa in pond."\\
'''Bedfellow:''' I DON'T '''''KNOW''''' WHERE HOFFA IS!!\\
'''Milo:''' "'I lost the body,' says Bedfellow."
* One ''ComicStrip/FoxTrot'' comic had Paige saying "Mr. Vivona says we have to cut three newspaper articles out for social studies every day this week, and the only pair of scissors I have is like totally dull" over the phone. Jason records the conversation and splices it into "I cut social studies every day this week. Mr. Vivona is like totally dull" in order to get her in trouble.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
* According to his autobiography, Wrestling/MickFoley fell afoul of this in an interview about backyard wrestling. He was shown various amateur footage ranging from guys jumping around on a crash mat to stupid hardcore stunts, and then the interviewers showed his reactions out of order so that he appeared to be endorsing kids breaking light tubes over their heads as 'harmless fun'.
* Years later, interviewers tried to pull the same stunt with Wrestling/JohnCena and steroid use. By this point, however, Wrestling/VinceMcMahon was wise to the trick and had his own unedited footage of the interview.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]
* ''Series/TheMuppetShow'': In the episode with Creator/GeorgeBurns, Fleet Scribbler, reporter for "The Daily Scandal", searches the theater for the best news to exaggerate. His interview with Kermit goes like this:
-->'''Fleet Scribbler:''' Say, is it true you're dropping a lot of stuff from the show this year?\\
'''Kermit:''' Uh, no, no, not particularly.\\
'''Fleet Scribbler:''' Aha. "Muppets Relying on Same Old Tired Junk."\\
'''Kermit:''' Uh, wait, wait, wait. On the other hand, we have a lot of brand new, innovative stuff.\\
'''Fleet Scribbler:''' Oh. "Muppets Changing Format, Desperate to Sustain Show."\\
'''Kermit:''' I never knew the press could be so depressing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Radio]]
* Inverted in ''Radio/SafetyCatch''. Simon, an arms dealer who hates his job, is describing his job at a dinner party, not realising one of the other guests is a reporter. Simon talks about the arms trade, and how his company can profit unethically by selling to both sides in a conflict. When his company is asked to comment, and they are played a copy of the recording made at dinner, he and his friends add dialogue to make it look like they always acted ethically, and that the reporter was trying to take them out of context.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* The third segment of Steve Reich's "video opera" ''Three Tales'' centers around Dolly the cloned sheep, featuring interviews from biologists (UsefulNotes/RichardDawkins, Stephen J. Gould), experts in computer research, and religious figures. Dawkins is only shown in single-sentence soundbites, and the audience is tempted to take what he says out of context (especially with the audio and video hijinks by Reich and his video collaborator: Dawkins is made to talk like an automaton, his hair is zoomed close to make it look like a devil's horn, and his "clones" appear all over the screen). In contrast, a [[AuthorFilibuster Rabbi]] is given a whole uninterrupted minute to expound on his position.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Performing quests for the Harpers in ''VideoGame/BaldursGate2'' eventually has the leader of that particular division reveal that he knows about the player's Bhaalspawn lineage, and decides to ask them some questions about their past and personality to judge whether or not they're a danger to the world. The problem is, he twists every answer they give (including their ''favorite color'') to make them sound more dangerous because his real goal is to capture them and earn himself a promotion.
* In ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'', this is the standard MO for the media mega-corp Picus. Reading the emails on their computers makes it very clear that they deliberately manipulate the news to promote their own agenda. One email in particular has an editor send back a rookie's column with changes made in such a way that it didn't ''say'' anything different but certainly had a very different tone.
* In ''VideoGame/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', disabling Umbridge's loudspeakers has the effect of twisting every rule she announces over them. For example: "Walking is '''' not permitted. Children must '''' run everywhere!"
* The ''[[VideoGame/TheJackboxPartyPack Jackbox]]'' party game "Survive the Internet" is essentially Word Twister, The Videogame. Players are initially asked to provide a quote for a review or opinion on something totally innocuous, then another player takes that quote and attaches it to a headline that changes the context of the quote completely, making it come off as either deeply embarrassing or [[CrossesTheLineTwice insensitive and tone-deaf]]. [[https://youtu.be/JEvuFsNopEE?t=1882 Example:]]
-->'''Innocuous question:''' What do you say to a person that just cut you in line?\\
'''Player quote:''' bitch you better get to the back!\\
'''New "Headline":''' [[CrossesTheLineTwice First Black Woman President voted in.]]
* In a level of the Vietnam video game ''Men of Valor'', an American officer orders the huts of a VC village set on fire because a large enemy force had just attacked them from those very huts. The news reporter with them makes a fuss and when seen later in film footage, the officer's words are edited out and the news reporter makes it seem as if the Americans had just destroyed an innocent village. (Which ''did'' happen sometimes in Vietnam, unfortunately.)
* ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'': ''Alibi in Ashes'' features [[IntrepidReporter Brenda Carlton]], who does this for basically everything she reports on. When Nancy stumbles out of a burning building at the beginning of the game, Brenda immediately demands to know what made Nancy "decide to burn down the old Town Hall". Nancy denies it, which results in Brenda throwing out all the video footage and saying Nancy was "rendered speechless" instead.
-->'''Brenda:''' And speechless is the word of the day as onlookers struggle to come to terms with the brazen destruction of the beloved Town Hall - by none other than the girl detective they had once trusted their lives and livelihoods to.
* The VideoGame of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'':
** One can damage the sound system in the Jedi temple, twisting the Jedi oath into a more sinister form ("There is only the Force" becomes "There is only...the Dark Side").
** There is an even darker version where "There is no death, there is the Force" becomes "...death...is the Force".
* In ''VideoGame/TorinsPassage'' near the end, there's a puzzle where you use crystals in a recording device to warp the words of Lycentia (The woman who kidnapped your parents) "You're not welcome here, you decrepit old creep!" to "Dreep, come here!" which makes a guard named Dreep, who works for her, leave after you let the device float away (Via the lack of gravity).
* In the Thomas Edison level of the ''VideoGame/WhereInTimeIsCarmenSandiego1997'' game, one of the puzzles is solved by recording the store owner's message onto a series of wax cylinders and then rearranging them to have the completely opposite meaning.
-->'''Store Owner:''' ''(actual)'' Hello, this is Joe. What?! They want to borrow thread?! It's the middle of the night! Listen close, guard: Do not give those rascals a spool of thread!\\
'''Store Owner:''' ''(forged)'' Hello, this is Joe. Give those rascals a spool of thread!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* In ''VisualNovel/{{Sickness}}'', as a reporter talks to Lucia about [[spoiler:Suoh]], she tries her absolute best to make the killer a bad guy while Lucia claims he's not so:
-->'''Reporter:''' Aren't you scared he'll come back for you?\\
'''Lucia:''' Not at all! I mean, he did tell me not to talk to the police, but he'd never threaten me.\\
'''Reporter:''' That sounds like a threat to me. Are you sure you didn't get a good look at his face?\\
'''Lucia:''' It wasn't a threat! I should've known you wouldn't understand. He told me you people would try to turn this into a witch-hunt.\\
'''Reporter:''' ''You people?'' Do you mean reporters or law-abiding citizens?\\
'''Lucia:''' Th-That's not what I meant!
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* He's not a journalist, but Neilen from ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan: Oracle for Hire'' uses a wind spell to rearrange the words of Dominic and Luna to try and break them up.
* This was used during the first Credomar story arc in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', to make the amorph look like a sociopathic villain instead of the SociopathicHero that he is. They mostly relied on the "edit in completely different questions" method. Mass rioting occurred later, though for different (but related) reasons.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Ginger, in ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'' was occasionally a victim of this kind of thing. Her histrionic friend, Dodie, did it unintentionally while vicious Miranda used it deliberately, especially in attempts to break up Ginger's friendships.
** Another unintentional variation turns up in the episode "And Then, She Was Gone." Ginger's teacher decides that her student's rather bleak poem is [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory obviously evidence of suicidal tendencies]] despite the girl's protests that it's just fiction. Everyone else who quotes the poem back to Ginger assumes that the poem is about the poet herself, and applies suitably morbid connotations to it. Ginger ends up at the school psychologist's office as a result.
* There's an episode of ''WesternAnimation/CloneHigh'' where Lincoln and JFK are both running for student president, and JFK makes an attack ad full of ManipulativeEditing:
-->'''Narrator:''' [Abe would] also like you believe he's not a [[EatsBabies baby-eater]], but he's never gone on record saying he isn't.\\
'''Abe:''' ''(in the video, holding a fork)'' I can't wait to eat this / baby?\\ ''(Cut to a baby on a plate. Cut back to Abe, who has a mouth full of what is clearly spaghetti)''\\
'''Abe:''' ''(watching ad)'' How did JFK get my spaghetti video?
* Once on ''WesternAnimation/FairlyOddParents,'' Vicky used this trick to blackmail Timmy into doing her chores. She had a tape of him saying: "Hi, I'm Timmy Turner, and I..." then the voice cuts to Francis, who says "...cheated on my math test." Timmy angrily responds that "I never cheated on my math test!" Vicky then cuts the tapes together so it's all Timmy's voice. He later pulls the same trick on her after wishing her young so that he could be the babysitter.
* In one episode of ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'' Captain Marvel mentions to a group of reporters that Luthor is reformed and now running for president, saying that people can change. The next day the headlines read, "Captain Marvel endorses Luthor for President."
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E7TheCallOfTheSimpsons Call Of The Simpsons]]":
*** After Homer is mistaken for Bigfoot, Marge protests "That's not Bigfoot, that's my husband!" We are then treated to a tabloid headline reading "SHE MARRIED BIGFOOT!"
*** And this gem:
---->'''Reporter:''' What does it eat?\\
'''Marge:''' I don't understand! What's this all abou-?\\
''(beat)''\\
'''Marge:''' Well, I suppose pork chops are his favorite.\\
('''THE BIGFOOT DIET: PORK CHOPS APLENTY''')
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS6E9HomerBadman Homer Badman]]", [[AccidentalPervert Homer gets mistakenly accused of sexually harassing Ashley Grant, the college-aged babysitter he and Marge hired]]. So, he goes to the news show ''Rock Bottom'' to explain himself. Unfortunately, they twist his words to paint him as a crazed sexual predator. To make it that more obvious that [[ManipulativeEditing this is a hack job]] to score UsefulNotes/{{Ratings}} for a ''Hard Copy''-style TV tabloid, the hands on the clock in the background jump around more than Homer does. At the end, when Homer is cleared and the truth is revealed, the show was forced to admit that many of their reports were lies and reveal many truths. However, it's apparent that the reporter never learned his lesson, especially since the corrections flash across the screen too fast to actually read.
--->'''Homer:''' (''actual comments'') Eh, someone had to take the babysitter home. Then I noticed she was sitting on the gummy Venus, so I grabbed it off her. Oh, just thinking about that sweet, sweet candy... (''drooling'') I just wish I had another one right now. But the most important thing is --
--->'''Homer:''' (''edited comments'') Eh, somebody had to take the babysitter home, and I noticed she was sitting on / her / sweet can-- / So I grabbed / her / sweet can-- / (''drooling'') / Just thinking about / her / can-- / I just wish I had / her / sweet-s-s-sweet can--"
** Hilariously invoked by Skinner in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS12E8SkinnersSenseOfSnow Skinner's Sense Of Snow]]":
--->'''Bart''': What's the problem, Seymour? Stuck?\\
'''Skinner''': That's precisely the problem, and you know it. Now get me out of here!\\
'''Bart''': What's that? You want the pee bucket on your head?\\
'''Skinner''': No! You're twisting my words.
** In the "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E1TreehouseOfHorrorXV Treehouse Of Horror XV]]" segment "The Ned Zone", Homer is thinking of detonating the nuclear plant, Ned Flanders comes in to stop him by yelling through a mic "Don't do it! Don't do it! You'll kill everyone!" but by interruptions, Homer only hears: "DO it! DO it! Kill everyone!"
* The entire premise behind ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhostCoastToCoast''. Celebrities on the show are interviewed in a fairly normal manner. The answers are then taken wildly out of context, with the questions Space Ghost asks often having no relation at all to what was originally asked. One extreme example of this is when they made it look like Music/{{Bjork}} was Space Ghost's wife. This is balanced by the fact that Space Ghost and the other cartoon characters often look more [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} insane]] than the interviewee.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* During the [[UsefulNotes/ThreeKingdomsShuWeiWu Three Kingdoms]], this is what earned Kong Rong Cao Cao's enmity. A noted and respected scholar, he opposed the marriage of Cao's son Cao Pi to Lady Zhen, the then-wife of the enemy general Yuan Xi. Yuan Xi and his brother Yuan Shang had been driven out of their holdings by Cao Cao, and Cao Pi was smitten by Lady Zhen and asked for her hand. Kong Rong presented his case against the marriage by mentioning a historical precedent, and while the marriage went ahead Cao Cao acknowledged his words. Unfortunately for Kong, Cao later investigated and learnt that the story Kong had used had the opposite intent behind it. In other words, not only had Kong tried to interfere in Cao Cao's family business, but he'd also taken advantage of his reputation to twist facts, something Cao did not appreciate.
* This was done to selected quotes of UsefulNotes/MaoZedong by the Soviets after the Sino-Soviet split and by numerous sensationalist biographers trying to make him look as cruel, bloodthirsty, and callous as possible (not exactly a difficult task, admittedly). Perhaps the most famous is the suggestion that he thought that 'nuclear weapons were "paper tigers"' - the implication being that the man was a raving lunatic who either had no idea how nuclear weapons worked [[WeHaveReserves or didn't care how many people they killed because he placed zero value on Chinese lives]]. Several sensationalist 'biographies' of Mao written to cash in on European and North American BileFascination with the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution and The Great Leap Forward have taken the latter angle and run with it. Interestingly, while he really used the term "paper tiger", what he ''actually'' said was more along the lines of 'nukes are horrifically destructive weapons, but using them on Chinese cities to win UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar would stir up a massive political shitstorm and they know it, so there's no way that they'll actually use them (unless they're truly desperate, which they aren't) no matter how much they talk about considering it'.
* Conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart was infamous for this. He achieved notoriety when he released a video of a speech by Shirley Sherrod that made her appear racist for refusing to help a white farmer. This caused Sherrod to be denounced by the [=NAACP=] and fired from her government job-- but the video had been [[QuoteMine selectively edited]] to leave out her {{Aesop}}, specifically spelled out in the very same speech, that her initial prejudiced reaction was misguided and she in fact helped the farmer equally as she would anyone else. Once the full video came out, Sherrod got an apology and her job back, and Breitbart got a lawsuit for defamation.
* There's also several Website/YouTube videos of what appears to be Barack Obama calling himself a Muslim. He was actually saying that John [=McCain=] hadn't tried to claim that Obama followed the Muslim faith.
* Many people on Website/YouTube have taken one of JFK's speeches out of context to try and make it look like he's warning us about the New World Order. Even without the context, it's still blindingly obvious to anyone with a brain that he's talking about the Soviet Union. For that matter, the whole theory comes from taking out of context one time UsefulNotes/GeorgeHWBush said "new world order" (he too was talking about the Soviet Union, specifically its fall).
* Sadly, British newspapers twisted an engineer's words about the Titanic. When describing the compartmentalized hull, the original words were "Near unsinkable". A large amount of publicity for the Titanic also claimed it to be "practically" unsinkable, as well as "made as close to unsinkable as modern technology will allow". The newspapers were hardly making a huge leap.
* To impress upon the Cabinet the likely outcome of widening the [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar war]] and implementing the Naval Command's [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo 'Southern Strategy']] - which, because it seemed likely the US would take the opportunity to declare war on them anyway, called for a surprise attack upon the US Fleet which they had ordered ''him'' to direct - Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku told them that the ONLY way Japan could negotiate a peace with the USA was for them to fight all the way to Washington, DC and dictate peace terms in the White House itself; the USA would never agree to a treaty in Japan's favour, he knew, after such an insult to their national pride. When this quote made it to America, it was recast (possibly intentionally, possibly just a poor translation) as an aggressive, jingoistic promise to do just that (negotiate from an occupied US Capital).
* The famous alleged [[{{Seers}} psychic prophet]] Nostradamus made predictions that were, on the whole, extremely vague. This leads a lot of {{Conspiracy Theorist}}s to start pointing to his "prophecies" to whatever great event or disaster recently occurred to fit the view of the theorist. Some even go so far as to [[BlatantLies make them up completely]], such as the "Nostradamus 9/11 Prophecy" that was supposedly written several decades after he died.
* There is saying that makes allusion to this: ''One is master of his silence and slave to his words''.
* A specific variant is the TV journalist who [[ManipulativeEditing shows a video clip out of context]], or [[QuoteMine splices together quotes]] to make it look as though the person said something that reflects badly on them.
* Actor Charles Bronson told the story of reporters asking him what he thought of the city he was visiting. Wanting to portray him as gruff and cranky like the tough-guy characters he often played, they were disappointed that his answer didn't contain anything that could be taken negatively. They pressed for more details, asking, "If you could change one thing about it, what would it be?" Bronson joked that if there were anything at all he would change, he might move it a little closer to the airport. When the article was printed, he was quoted as having answered the question "How do you like our city?" with a snappish, "Too damn far from the airport!"
* In February 2023, the US Energy Department announced that they had "low confidence" that the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic was caused by a leak from the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan_Institute_of_Virology Wuhan Institute of Virology]].[[note]] Wuhan has a long and sad history of virus outbreaks, frequently involving coronaviruses, which made it a natural location for a lab devoted to studying the things. It also made it '''exactly''' the kind of place where a novel viral strain would be most likely to emerge all on its own.[[/note]] "Low confidence", in this context, is basically official speak for "we're as certain as we can be that this is not what happened". Unfortunately, certain media chose to home in on the word "confidence", and reported it as if the ED had declared the "lab leak" hypothesis a credible possibility.
[[/folder]]

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