get (something) backwards

To do or understand something in a way that is fundamentally incorrect. This article gets the whole thing backwards. It wasn't the director who caused trouble for the studio—it was the producers from the studio who messed up the director's vision! For a long time we've been told that this type of pension plan was the best way to save for retirement, but according to some analysts, we've been getting it backwards this whole time! No, you've got that backwards—we wanted to continue our research, but the board pulled our funding!