set the record straight

set the record straight

To make the true facts of something clear, especially when they have been previously mistaken, misunderstood, or misrepresented. There have been a lot of crazy rumors flying around for the last few days, so I'd like to set the record straight once and for all.
See also: record, set, straight
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

set the record straight

Fig. to put right a mistake or misunderstanding; to make sure that an account, etc., is correct. The manager thought Jean was to blame, but she soon set the record straight. Jane's mother heard that Tom is a married man, but he set the record straight. He's divorced.
See also: record, set, straight
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

set the record straight

or

put the record straight

COMMON If you set the record straight or put the record straight, you state that something that has been said or written is wrong and then correct the mistake. A company seeing wrong information about itself in a report may struggle to set the record straight. I am amazed at the rubbish written about my alleged lack of fitness. Let me put the record straight.
See also: record, set, straight
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

put/set the ˈrecord straight

(informal) give a correct version, explanation of events, facts, etc. because you think somebody has made a mistake: I think there has been some misunderstanding so I’d like to set the record straight.
See also: put, record, set, straight
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • put the record straight
  • put/set the record straight
  • recognize (someone or something) for what (someone or something) is
  • recognize for what it is
  • if truth be told
  • get (one's)/the facts straight
  • get the facts straight
  • the big lie
  • big lie
References in periodicals archive
There's so much misinformation out there about everything that I'm going to set the record straight once and for all," he told the New York Daily News.
Manager touts tell-all book about MJ, controversial album
I am not in the least bit concerned about what price the horse is, but when it makes the front page of the Racing Post I need to set the record straight."
Horse Racing: 'I succumbed to sleep' maintains Bolger over Teofilo injury silence
Shea (professor of History of Science, University of Padua) and Mariano Artigas (Dean of the Ecclesiastical Faculty, University of Navarra, Spain) present Galileo Observed: Science and the Politics of Belief, a history written to set the record straight about what really happened at Galileo's famous trial, unmuddled by propaganda or novelizations.
Galileo Observed
The following week, the Times-Dispatch did a follow-up story about this shooting, and though this article set the record straight about what actually happened on that fateful night, the story still emphasized that the boy never really intended to hurt anyone.
Biased coverage
Spurred by a letter to the editor of his religious college newspaper condemning homosexuality with Bible verses, Justin Cannon decided to set the record straight. Then he realized that he isn't.
Future gay hero: Justin Cannon
I felt the need to write you and set the record straight on this guy.
Mini-soda
She joined Sir Paul in launching a blistering attack on critics in an effort to 'set the record straight' for the first time about the modelturned-landmines campaigner.
Let her be says Paul
First of all, let's set the record straight. The dematerialization of the art object never happened; or rather, it has been infinitely less important than defamiliarization.
"Real World": Modern Art
To help set the record straight, Americans United has produced a new brochure that explains how meaningful religious liberty cannot survive without separation of church and state.
America's Legacy of Religious Liberty: pass it on!
To set the record straight, rotenone is not commonly used in organic agriculture.
Pesticides and organic agriculture
The Music Educators National Conference is launching the National Anthem Project next spring to set the record straight. MENC gave a demo during the Sept.
Oh, say, can you sing it properly?
This revision of history seeks to set the record straight about the roles of Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey, and Ernst Chain in the creation of penicillin and the advent of modern medicine AS Lax reports, Fleming discovered a stray mold's potential against bacteria in a chance observation and subsequently coined the term penicillin.
The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: the Story of the Penicillin Miracle
To set the record straight, grits are a corn product.
True grits: a Southern-Southern California revival
This book seeks to set the record straight through the examination of some of the most significant engineers working today, together with a selection of the most remarkable recent buildings'.
Structurally sound: Masters of Structure: engineering today's innovative buildings
I noted that a recent Catholic Insight article regarding MP Svend Robinson's private member's bill C-415 (July/August, p.33) contained several inaccuracies and I would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight on two of the most egregious errors.
From Vic Toews, MP, re "Harper's Alliance out already?" (Letters to the Editor)