Let's say a reporter asks me whether I think that the National Guard should be used to keep people in their houses. I reply "Yes, but only as a last resort." A, um, creative reporter may just cut after the "yes". But if I said "I think that, as a last resort, they might be used", it's a lot harder to play that game with my answer.

Worse is if the reporter next asks if I think the federal government should now declare martial law, and then pastes my "yes" from the previous question as the answer to that question. This takes an even more unethical reporter than the first scenario... but such reporters exist.

This kind of stunt can be done to you either by political or by business reporters.