
Michael Phillips-Anderson, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Communication, recently published a chapter in the book “Not My Words How and Why Elected Officials Quote, Requote, and Misquote Others.”
The chapter, “Misquotation, Misattribution, and Misrepresentation in American Political Rhetoric,” explores the role of misquotation in American political culture and examines how quotations and misquotations are strategically used in American political discourse. It also addresses the concern that misquotations can lend false credibility to an argument.
Phillips-Anderson additionally explores instances of misattribution, including the assignment of political beliefs to the nation’s founders and President Abraham Lincoln; the misquotation and essentializing of Martin Luther King Jr.’s views; a fabricated quotation attributed to Mahatma Gandhi invoked by American politicians across the political spectrum; a false quotation linked to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin; and the controversy surrounding President Donald Trump’s comments on the white supremacist riot in Charlottesville, Virginia.