History Main / ManipulativeEditing

-->'''Cuddy''' (''after watching the early copy, wiping away fake tears''): It's difficult not to be moved.
-->'''House''': Oh, stop it. Suddenly I don't feel I can trust Michael Moore movies.
-->'''Cuddy''': Where are you going? Kittens to get out of trees, blind kids to read to?
-->'''House''': I owe it to the world to make sure this evil never sees the light of day.

* Dr. Series/{{House}} was a victim of benevolent editing when the documentary crew filming a patient he cured changed the context of his usual comments, turning them from the verbal abuse of [[DrJerk a man who belittles his staff, the patient, and the crew itself]] into a heartwarming portrayal of [[WideEyedIdealist a kind man who became a doctor "because of the movie]] ''Film/PatchAdams''.

* In episode 13 of ''LightNovel/TheRisingOfTheShieldHero'''s anime, Naofumi and his partners defend themselves against some guards [[spoiler:who tried to assassinate princess Melty and pin it on Naofumi]] while another guard stands back with a CrystalBall that acts like a video camera. Once the heroes defeat the guards, some wizards are shown editing the footage to add blood and evil-looking facial expressions and make it look like they were killing the guards and [[spoiler:kidnapping the princess]].

* In early 2020, [[https://youtu.be/aca0KWoHtqQ this audio]] of a fight between Creator/JohnnyDepp and then wife Creator/AmberHeard found its way onto [=YouTube=]. It went viral and swayed public opinion to Depp’s side about how she’d supposedly abused him for years. The audio was ostensibly Heard starting a physical fight, admitting to being the aggressor in their relationship, and mocking Depp that no one would believe she was abusing him because he was a man. However, it was later revealed that summer in Depp’s defamation case against a tabloid in the UK that the audio was chopped up, misleadingly edited, and removed of context. [[https://youtu.be/k9pbrBmHI58 The full audio]] tells a different story. It is actually Heard (who has admitted to acting violently occasionally in self-defense and once in defense of her sister) admitting to having hit him in reaction to him slamming her foot in a door a few days after a particularly bad beatdown at his hand that had almost killed her. Her talking about how no one would believe him because he’s a man is not her taunting him about how society doesn’t believe men can be the victims of DV but actually her saying that it she went public no one would believe that their physical fights were fair because he’s a man and therefore much bigger and stronger her. Depp’s lawyer was kicked off his case against Heard in the US by the judge for leaking the audio since it being so heavily and manipulatively edited could have biased jurors.

* During World War II, Isoroku Yamamoto was one of the few high ranking officers in the Japanese army to have an intimate knowledge of American culture and knew that a surprise attack would galvanize the American public into entering the war instead of making them back down like most of his peers believed. In the prelude to the attack on Pearl Harbor he was quoted as saying that it wouldn't be enough for Japan to just capture areas like Hawaii and San Francisco if war with the U.S. broke out. They would need to march across the entire country and dictate their terms in the White House itself and questioned if Japanese politicians were prepared for the sacrifices that would take. Propogandists circulated an altered version of the quote that made it sound like he was declaring that Japan would conquer the United States.

* =YouTubePoop videos are made of this. One of the most common techniques is to edit a character's dialogue so they end up saying something weird, dirty, or both. This practice is known as "Sentence Mixing" (where single words generally stay intact) and "Word Splicing" (where words are cut up, put together and somehow, it works). For example, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bl2KyUbewI Robotnik's Face is Politically Incorrect]]'' changes Dr. Robotnik's line "I, the baron of badness, the knight of nastiosity, am on the brink of my greatest success!" to "I'm on the brink of incest!", and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-mF7Rttl9A Gravity Faaf]] turns an exchange about being co-captain into an exchange about cocaine (by cutting off the word "'''co-c'''aptain" so that it sounds like "coke").
** Robotnik's memetic catchphrase in YouTubePoop, "PINGAS!" ([[DontExplainTheJoke which sounds like "penis"]] to some ears) is also an example: it comes from the phrase "snoo'''ping as''' usual, I see". It was discovered by Stegblob and first used in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23pXoyKBHd4 Robotnik Has a Viagra Overdose]]''. There's also its much less popular equivalents, such as "PINESS", from a line in ''Sonic's Christmas Blast'' where Robotnik says "Hap-PINESS is always so much more enjoyable..." Also "PIENDISH" and "PEINOUS" from "fiendish" and "heinous" respectively.

Compare QuoteMine, RecordedSplicedConversation, and StupidStatementDanceMix. SuperTrope to SelectiveStupidity.

* WebAnimation/YouTubePoop videos are made of this. One of the most common techniques is to edit a character's dialogue so they end up saying something weird, dirty, or both. This practice is known as "Sentence Mixing" (where single words generally stay intact) and "Word Splicing" (where words are cut up, put together and somehow, it works). For example, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bl2KyUbewI Robotnik's Face is Politically Incorrect]]'' changes Dr. Robotnik's line "I, the baron of badness, the knight of nastiosity, am on the brink of my greatest success!" to "I'm on the brink of incest!", and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-mF7Rttl9A Gravity Faaf]] turns an exchange about being co-captain into an exchange about cocaine (by cutting off the word "'''co-c'''aptain" so that it sounds like "coke").
** Robotnik's memetic catchphrase in WebAnimation/YouTubePoop, "PINGAS!" ([[DontExplainTheJoke which sounds like "penis"]] to some ears) is also an example: it comes from the phrase "snoo'''ping as''' usual, I see". It was discovered by Stegblob and first used in ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23pXoyKBHd4 Robotnik Has a Viagra Overdose]]''. There's also its much less popular equivalents, such as "PINESS", from a line in ''Sonic's Christmas Blast'' where Robotnik says "Hap-PINESS is always so much more enjoyable..." Also "PIENDISH" and "PEINOUS" from "fiendish" and "heinous" respectively.

* ''WebAnimation/GamerPoop'' is a long-running ''WebAnimation/YouTubePoop'' that runs off this, using various games and putting characters in ridiculous situations with equally ridiculous people.

** Used in the episode "The Illusion Of Truth". The editing makes it look as if Sheridan is hiding plans to replace humans with aliens (They ''were'' hiding things from the news crew, but it was something completely different). Far more subtle is his apparently live, unedited interview with a psychologist, where the reporter uses leading questions and careful phrasing to plant the idea in the viewers head that Sheridan is suffering from a version of StockholmSyndrome (though it was accidentally called Helsinki Symdrome).
** Also used when Londo meets a technomage and tries to tape their conversation in a way that looks like they are allies. The technomage defies it by causing the recorder to explode, then lets Londo just how much he ''doesn't'' appreciate being used. ''[[CoolAndUnusualPunishment For the rest of the episode.]]''

->''"Oh no, the poor Nazi... hooray! Hooray for the Nazis, YES! DEUTSCHLAND UBER ALLES! Hooray for the Nazis, yay... Please don't take this out of context and put it on [=YouTube=]."''
-->-- '''Creator/CharlieBrooker''' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sX_Dp6CbT4 on the]] "Waffen-SS vs Viet Cong" episode of ''Series/DeadliestWarrior''

* This was parodied in an episode of British sketch comedy ''Not The Nine O'clock News'', featuring the tape of a suspect "confessing" his crime to an OldFashionedCopper — the camera makes obvious cuts every few words, the clock on the back wall jumps around, and [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique hideous bruises appear and disappear from his face]].

** One fitness model Youtuber demonstrated that in some cases, the person is ''already'' in phenomenal shape--the "after" picture is taken first. The model then pigs out on high-salt food and drinks over a gallon of chocolate milk; the combination [[BalloonBelly bloats his belly]] and makes him generally appear puffier. The "before" picture is taken with the addition of bad lighting and posture, and behold--an extremely muscular, lean guy now looks like he desperately needs the product that's being hawked.

** Inverted by ''Series/TheColbertReport'' back in 2007: Stephen, having heard that democratic Congressmen were being barred from appearing on his program due to this trope, [[http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/84197/march-26-2007/for-your-editing-pleasure staged an interview]] given by PBS's Gwen Ifill, gave [[MadLibsDialogue many phrases in list form that would allow for easy editing during the interview]], then invited the audience to edit the interview and post it to Youtube.

* WebVideo/DownHavenEntertainment: His show is basically what happened if you mix Youtube Poops and Reviewer Shows together.

* It's rather popular on youtube to take normally innocent video clips, and add {{Sound Effect Bleep}}s to make them sound dirty. Such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Wd-Q3F8KM this.]]

* David Barton's documentary ''Four Centuries of American Education'' shows how manipulative editing can be used to make something look stronger than it really is. For example, he has an actor portraying Benjamin Rush recite a quote; this quote is modified by having the phrase "if we remove the Bible from schools" added, a sentence skipped, and "soul of republicanism" replaced with "soul of our government". The modified quote appears on various websites, but not in the [[http://www.biblebelievers.com/Bible_in_schools.html original text]].

* A ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' tie-in story in ''Creator/CartoonNetwork Action Pack'' saw Ben get interviewed by an alien reporter named Gorphax; he was subsequently filmed going about his daily routine, from typical teenager things to saving the news team from a DNAlien attack. When the broadcast is aired, we find out that it was edited to make Gorphax look like the hero of the tale and Ben look like a helpless coward.

* An example made on paper — The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ems_Dispatch Ems dispatch]], work of UsefulNotes/OttoVonBismarck of UsefulNotes/{{Prussia}}. He made it seem like the Prussian king (and later, German emperor) had abruptly rejected the French ambassador, which hadn't been the case...but JustAsPlanned, the French fell for the provocation and declared the UsefulNotes/FrancoPrussianWar. Which also meant that they were blamed for [[Series/FawltyTowers starting it... which is never a good thing, as we know]].

* Happened with Andrea Mitchell during the 2012 US Presidential Elections. Video was aired of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney supposedly being "amazed" by the use of a computerized screen to custom-make a sandwich at a Wawa, a Pennsylvania sandwich chain [[note]]This harkened back to reporting almost 20 years prior, where then-President George H.W. Bush was amazed by a self-checkout in a grocery store, remarks that Mitchell made when the clip was aired.[[/note]]. However, the full footage was actually Romney making a comparison between the chain's innovation to the mountain of paperwork a friend of his filled out with the United States Postal Service just to change his address. Mitchell aired the unedited footage without apology the next day.

** Eric Holmberg, a religious fundamentalist MoralGuardian, and his docs ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHH3oMpgg90 Hell's Bell's]]'' and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHrN2M3XU8k Pandoras Box Office]]''. BEWARE OF THE MEDIA INDEED.

** In May 2018, the judge presiding over the case tore into ICE for both their persistence [[https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-judge-blocks-u-s-from-revoking-mans-daca-protection-orders-government-to-stop-saying-he-has-gang-ties/ and their attempt to conjure up "evidence" fraudulently]].

** In season 8, Jessica appears to be saying something rude about Carol when she was evicted. In actuality, that wasn't her goodbye message. They didn't even play it because it was "Too nice".

* Music. Take a shot of a guy staring off into space. Add a brass fanfare, and suddenly he is heroic. Add a Chopin piano ballade and he seems wistfu. Add atonal, harsh modern music and he seems on the verge of snapping and turning as an AxCrazy killer.