divert/distract attention

idiom

: to try to keep people from noticing or thinking about something

He was trying to divert/distract attention away from his friend's mistake.

Examples of divert/distract attention in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

As spokesman Mike Marinella frames it, the NRCC encourages lawmakers to meet with their constituents in public, but to be wary of events that could divert attention from a House member’s message and agenda. —Steve Peoples and Thomas Beaumont, Los Angeles Times, 28 Apr. 2025

There are encouraging signs in the meetings that Vahtras says technology executives in the country have been organizing between those in the public and private sectors in an effort to divert attention towards security. —Roger Trapp, Forbes.com, 26 Apr. 2025

And even the Zoom call was kept private until after the polls closed, at the request of Wisconsin Democrats, who feared that reports of her involvement would divert attention from Elon Musk, the overriding target of the Democratic campaign. —New York Times, Mercury News, 13 Apr. 2025

If the underlying agenda is to highlight a specific topic, briefly state your facts and divert attention to a different topic. —Lieke Ten Brummelhuis, Forbes, 20 Feb. 2025