You couldn’t pay me to go to journalism school, but I imagine they spend considerable time talking about the importance of headlines. Most readers, myself included, simply don’t read much past the headline unless they have a personal interest in a story… or are stuck in a doctor’s office. So, often, the headline is the story or, at least, the story the news outfit wants you to take away.

So, I was struck today to see different news agencies, within minutes of each other, reporting very conflicting news on the same set of facts. First the AP headline:

October durable goods orders fell 0.7 percent

Now, check out the Reuters headline for the very same report:

Durable goods orders ex-transportation up in October

Of course, the Reuters headline is no doubt completely true, but how is excluding a major sector of the economy remotely helpful to readers? Is Reuters now just going to report the bits of the news it likes and ignore the inconvenient bits. It reminds me of the classic Marion Barry line addressing rampant crime in DC:

Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.

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One of the many ways in which the Associated Press lends its support to Democrats and leftists in its political reporting is often evident in its stories about political scandals. The most common assist the AP gives to Democrats is to somehow forget to mention that a politician in the news because of criminal activity or other scandals is a Democrat. Yet when any pol in the news for scandal is a Republican, his party affiliation often leads the story, if it isn’t in the headline, even.

Oh, it’s all accidental I’m sure, but it happens so often as to give the suspicion of a concerted effort. And here we have a great example of the AP’s penchant for covering for Democrats:

The writer is AP’s Colleen Long and on June 14 she penned two stories on separate political scandals, both of them occurring in New York. These criminal cases concern political operatives and how Long treats them is telling.

The first of Long’s stories concerns Hank Morris, a former advisor to former N.Y. State Comptroller Alan Hevesi — a scandalous figure in his own right. Morris is a long-time Democrat operative who faces 123 charges, “including enterprise corruption, securities fraud, grand larceny, bribery and money laundering, according to an indictment.” The feds are also charging him.

Here is how Long’s AP article describe Morris in its second paragraph:

Hank Morris, a once-adviser to former state comptroller Alan Hevesi, has been accused of taking kickbacks and other payments to steer billions of dollars in pension fund investments to favored companies in a “pay-to-play” scheme.

Notice how neither Morris nor Hevesi’s party is identified. This holds true for the entire story. The word Democrat does not appear. (more…)

Over the weekend, conservative bloggers pounced on a seriously biased headline from the McClatchy News Service on their website. The editorializing news service’s statement was discovered by @McClatchyWatch on Twitter on Sunday.

Dan Riehl at Riehl World View summed up the McClatchy headline meme this way:

All it claims is some alleged hate for Obama by Southern Republicans with no explanation for it at all. Perhaps McClatchy wants to leave its readers free to figure out some motivation for any alleged hate for Obama. Ya think? If McClatchy wants to write about hatred in American politics, they’d be better off rounding up the Left’s reactions to any black conservative. Justice Clarence Thomas might be a good place to start. But they’re probably more likely to just portray him as dumb.

Riehl also points out that, given their standards of accuracy, perhaps McClatchy reporters weren’t even at the conference itself: (more…)

Headline writing has always been an art.  From my earliest days as print newsman, finding the right words to tell a story and fit the allotted space was a routine challenge that often sparked some of the liveliest debates in the newsroom.  Sometimes hilarious, often passionate, headline writing has been and remains a distinct and important craft.

So how does one adequately explain this March 16 item from the CNN website politics page?

Health care foes have 200 no votes in House

Or this March 4 item from the Miami Herald website?

Health care opponents target Utah judgeship in latest salvo

Let’s see a show of hands:  How many health care foes do we have out there today?

Okay, let’s rephrase the question.  All you “health-care opponents” say “aye.” (more…)