Have you ever been tricked into saying something stupid by a journalist?

Diogenes, I’m finding your assertion here a bit weird. The examples given do nothing whatseover to prove your point: “ever” and “at all” are absolutes.

I’ll throw the BBC’s Andrew Gilligan into the mix too - the words “sexed up” regarding the British government’s September Dossier re. Iraq’s WMD, that he put in Dr David Kelly’s mouth, which led to the poor man’s suicide*.

Sure, it’s usually a firing offence, but it absolutely does happen from time to time.

*Which I don’t actually think was a suicide.

Five who did something so black and white they got condemned. Most who deliberately distort by omission never get called on it.

While this is true, I in no way agree that the problem is limited in the way you imply. I’ve seen dozens of instances of reporters who garble legal detail and while it can be annoying, I understand that problem. But in the anecdote I told, no one who was actually listening could have failed to understand that the defence, the prosecution and the judge agreed that the incident in question was a freak accident and did not result from what I have euphemistically called being an asshole. The reporter was either terminally thick or deliberately writing a misleading story to fit her pre-chosen angle.