This paper is an epistemological dialectic on earnings management. It appears that for a long time earnings management has taken on the cloak of nebulousness and imprecision. In fact, some researchers use the term without knowing its true meaning or purport. It is generally agreed that there is, at best, “a lack of consensus on the definition of earnings management” (Beneish, 2001) or, at worse, “confusion” (Davis-Friday and Frecka, 2002) about the construct. “The fact that accounting academics often have very different perceptions of earnings management” (Dechow and Skinner, 2000) has not helped mat-ters, and this renders most research on earnings management to suffer from construct validity. Apart from being a diatribe on the misuse of the term earnings management, this paper attempts to place issues in their proper context by presenting anecdotal and empirical evidences showing why “earnings management” may not be earnings man-agement as it is known in some quarters at present. Consequently, this paper proposes a simple conceptual framework for understanding accounts manipulation. In the process, the paper proffers a wider world-view that situates earnings management in its proper remit.