# "Must be accountability" - can media intentionally misquote using bad grammar
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-be-accountability-can-media-intentionally-misquote-using-bad-grammar/667295
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 27, 2013, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-be-accountability-can-media-intentionally-misquote-using-bad-grammar/667295 "2013-08-27T14:10:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lord\_Geoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Geoff)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2013, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-be-accountability-can-media-intentionally-misquote-using-bad-grammar/667295/1 "2013-08-27T14:10:47Z")
Good morning all. If this should be in general questions, I apologize. Regular lurker, first created thread.
I was eating pizza yesterday and one of the news networks (CNN I believe) was on. The TV was muted and the topic was Syria and the basic formula was some anchors talking followed by short clips and photos of John Kerry.
I hate the media, particularly when it comes to politics, but I am fairly certain that the station that was on is generally considered conservative.
My question is simple. Every time John Kerry came on the TV, the headline at the bottom changed to (their quotes) “must be accountability”. Obviously they meant either “must be held accountable” or “must have accountability”.
Watching this for about half an hour muted, I realized that John Kerry was coming off as ignorant and uneducated. Assuming that he did not make that quote and that it was a mistake by the news station, I began wondering - if a station did have an agenda, could they purposely misquote someone and claim “oops our bad - typo” afterwards? Does this happen, or was yesterday more likely an honest mistake?
Sorry - probably way too much of an explanation for my silly question. Thanks all.
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2013, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-be-accountability-can-media-intentionally-misquote-using-bad-grammar/667295/2 "2013-08-27T14:13:19Z")
Maybe Kerry said “there must be accountability.”
> [@](#):
>
> Yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry labeled the attack a “cowardly crime” and said President Barack Obama “believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world’s most heinous weapons against the world’s most vulnerable people.”
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Geoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Geoff)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2013, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-be-accountability-can-media-intentionally-misquote-using-bad-grammar/667295/3 "2013-08-27T14:38:19Z")
Oh ok. I suppose with an implied subject that is not actually grammatically incorrect.
In a way I feel like a total idiot for even posting this, but on the other hand it also kind of gets to my original point - can the media warp quotes either by intentionally making their own grammar mistake and apologize after the damage is done, or also is it a coincidence that the above quote was changed such that if it is read a certain way the speaker comes off as grammatically incoherent?
I will go ahead and give myself one of these though :smack:
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### Author:  [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2013, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-be-accountability-can-media-intentionally-misquote-using-bad-grammar/667295/4 "2013-08-27T15:27:54Z")
> [@Lord\_Geoff](#):
>
> Oh ok. I suppose with an implied subject that is not actually grammatically incorrect.
>
> In a way I feel like a total idiot for even posting this, but on the other hand it also kind of gets to my original point - can the media warp quotes either by intentionally making their own grammar mistake and apologize after the damage is done, or also is it a coincidence that the above quote was changed such that if it is read a certain way the speaker comes off as grammatically incoherent?
>
> I will go ahead and give myself one of these though :smack:
There’s no law against it, if that’s what you’re asking.
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### Author:  [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2013, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-be-accountability-can-media-intentionally-misquote-using-bad-grammar/667295/5 "2013-08-27T15:52:01Z")
Imagine what the print media could do with [eye dialect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_dialect).
“Senator Smith replied, ‘wutever my oppownint sez, ejukayshun wuz never hiz top prior-i-tee.’”
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### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [August 27, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/must-be-accountability-can-media-intentionally-misquote-using-bad-grammar/667295/6 "2013-08-27T18:52:48Z")
> [@Flywheel](#):
>
> Imagine what the print media could do with [eye dialect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_dialect).
>
> “Senator Smith replied, ‘wutever my oppownint sez, ejukayshun wuz never hiz top prior-i-tee.’”
Weird. I’ve lived my entire life, some of which was spent reading authors who wrote in dialect, without hearing the term “eye dialect.” Neither do I have any idea who George P. Krapp is, assuming that’s not a joke name left by a vandal.