Online Papers Misleading headlines

A thread to discuss how headlines often mislead people about the articles they represent.

Are they deliberate click-bait, or just pejorative headlines crafted to make a company/person look bad, aimed at those people who only read headlines but not the actual stories.

Years ago, a writer would write the article and an editor at the paper would write the headline. I don’t know if that’s the case any more or if the writer does his own headline.

Anyway, we’ll start with this:

MSN: Multiple people killed after Amtrak train hits car in Florida

To me, the headline makes it sound like multiple people inside the train were killed.

But if you read the article, it’s only 3 people inside the car who were killed.

There are no details of the accident given in the article, as to who - train or car- was at fault, although the writer seems to imply, with the final sentence, that it was Amtrak’s fault.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/multiple-people-killed-after-amtrak-train-hits-car-in-florida/ar-BBXeEh2?ocid=spartandhp

This has been de rigueur since … the internet.

BTW: The lack of info is a function of the rush to create content before other sites. Sometimes it results in fact-deficient articles. Sometimes it results in flat-out erroneous content.

PS: expect the thread to devolve into tit-for-tat partisan examples, and countless partisan sub-discussions about whether each example is misleading/false.

Plenty of “clickbait” sites that pretend to be news do this.

I’m interested in actual news sites - Fox, MSN, the TV and cable news networks, etc.

Those should not indulge in clickbait headlines, and so their misleading headlines are either due to editorial bias (if they’re a liberal or conservative news outlet, and which shouldn’t be tolerated by their publishers, IMHO) or reporter bias (if the reporter also writes the headline these days.)

PS: expect the thread to devolve into tit-for-tat partisan examples, and countless partisan sub-discussions about whether each example is misleading/false.

So far it’s garnering no interest whatsoever… ; (

Not only misleading…but “Some people are saying” is used to get a story out there or add a little credibility to a story or narrative that the outlet wants to push. What bugs me most is… when an interviewer will use that, and the the interviewee doesn’t come back with “who are these some people?”

All they need is two examples of people saying something and, technically, any use of plurals in the piece is truthful. The insinuation is not truthful when it’s written to suggest some majority or even a large number.

And the reliance on twitter is worthless. “Twitter is abuzz…” As far as I am concerned, twitter is as meaningful as “people on the sidewalk are saying…”

That’s precisely why a good interviewer would ask who those “some people” are.

I wouldn’t say this is the greatest example of a misleading headline but I agree those headlines are out there.

I agree with the poster who said this story is an example of having so many content providers that need to keep the content beast fed that they dump stories like this out there before there are any pertinent details.

Three is multiple.

I honestly can’t remember that ever happening…