Last modified on February 3, 2017, at 05:18

Gotcha journalism

Gotcha journalism is a mainstream media tactic of asking questions less to find out about an interviewee's life or ideas than to get a reply that the interviewer can easily twist and deliberately misinterpret in an attempt to damage the interviewee's credibility.

An example of such a question is Name all Ten Commandments. Few people, regardless of political leaning, can do this, and the question is aimed to make the target look silly. This particular question is usually asked of those who wish to see the Ten Commandments displayed outside courthouses.

Another example was the interviewer who spent an entire bus ride asking George Bush geography questions, until he finally found a major country whose current dictator Bush couldn't name. Then, disregarding the bulk of the interview he trumpeted Bush's "ignorance" based on the one question out of hundreds he couldn't answer.

Gotcha journalism is an example of unscrupulous tricks played by the liberal media.

See also