This article examines misrepresentation of people's speech in news reports, exemplified by an analysis of an Australian court case, in which newspaper articles designing a Christmas cruise were found to be deceitful and calumnious. It is shown how the meanings of the core expressions in the original speech events can be altered via recontextualisation of the reported speech. Speech misrepresentation can also emanate from an interaction between media discourse's textual structure and incorrect speech presentation.