The headline of this thread should be quite self-explanatory.
If it wasn't, however, I apologize. Here's the deal:
I don't read much newspapers at all, online or physical. The little that I do read, however, have showed me a very common pattern in the headlines of news. They are often overdramatized and sometimes even outright lie, contradiction what the actual article is all about.


Two specific headlines forced me to start this topic without me going crazy inspired me to start this topic: a place to share the headlines that have been misleading, or outright false, about what is written in the article.

The first one was an online article talking about a lake in Pasila. (a city near Helsinki, in Finland). The headline to this article was, roughly translated:
"An underground lake in Pasila discovered!"

Which made me think, 'how the -censored- have they missed a damn lake under the city?? Which naturally made me want to read the article. So I did. Turns out the true story is this:
"An artificial lake is being created in Pasila, to serve as a cooling place for an energy company." (something like this, I'm not 100% sure if it was energy company or not).
-->


The second one was a newspaper article about "shocking reveals of humans behaving badly on job". The main thing about it, and the headline at the same time, was something like this:
" "I play Xbox while on work.", ′says a doctor, whose patients are waiting. "

My first reaction to this was a mix of 'that can't possibly be true, this is BS and is trying to make gaming look bad!' Actually reading the article, and this was the core-thing:
"I play xbox on my breaks. I even bought a new TV just for the work-place, to have better quality gaming. It feels bad to have to pause the game when there's an emergency, but I'm ready to do so if the need arises."
-->




Discuss the reason behind misleading headlines, post examples of ones you've seen, etc.

It's really annoying. Same with articles written about quotes that are taken completely out of context to make them more dramatic. Many sites just don't care and will do anything for more page views and ad revenue.

Or sometimes people write controversial articles on purpose so that lots of people get angry about it and share it across all sorts of forums. 'Nerd baiting' is what people call it, when it comes to the topic of videogames. The IGN article about http://pastebin.com/KKhctbbY is one example. Go click it, I've pasted the article into pastebin so they don't get any ad revenue from it.

*Cough*Fox News*Cough*

They want to grab your attention, making the story seem more exciting so more people will read it.

Nerd baiting?

I remember that article. Hrmmphh...

That's true.

Obviously, but it's also spreading false information around when someone only reads the headline and spreads the word.

Sometimes that's the point.

Policemen Help Dog Bite Victim

Many Antiques At Senior Citizens' Sale

Four Battered In Fish And Chip Shop

Protestors Tried To Spoil Play But Actors Succeeded

CRIME: Sheriff Asks For 13.7% Increase

[edit] Like these?

If that truly is the intention behind a misleading headline... I'd fire a writer who did that if I was in charge.

Can't think of specific examples offhand, but it's something I've seen a lot over the years. It does seem that newspapers take the approach "regulating Teh News™ would be bad, so we can be as irresponsible as we want!" which rather makes me worry about the way things may eventually go.

Ha! Those are headlines I would expect from TheOnion.

Ha! Welcome to the forum...stick around...we'll treat ye so many different kinds of ways....you bound to like some of 'em.

Hehe, the last one is a good one.

Well it can't be that much worse than it already is. (I hope!). Newspapers should be much more responsible for what they write.
Btw, love the quote in your sig.

It's a for-profit industry. Outrageous headlines reels people in. Simple as that.

*Cough*Nearly any News station*Cough*

Thanks for the welcome.


We all know that the headlines are misleading simply to garner more attention (and earn more money), and as annoying as misleading headlines are, I suppose I'm preaching to the choir when I say that Fox News does a lot more than that. One somewhat relevant example is when that woman on Fox News called Obama's hi-five to his wife a "terrorist fist-jab" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_vmQrTi3aM. Another somewhat relevant example is when Fox News had edited photos of two reporters to make their physical appearance look bad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR1MB8tq-v0&feature=fvwrel (skip to 3:40 and 4:20).

As annoyed as I am with misleading titles in news stories, I can handle it if the story is fact-based. It's the deceit that bugs me the most, and Fox News isn't the only one in that amoral business.

Every news company does stuff like, Fox, NBC, MSNBC, you name it, they do it. News Media is about garnering viewers, so they make sensationalist headlines to attract viewers. That is why, against every muscle in my body, I click on Huffington Post.

*Cough* finally someone makes sense* cough.

[edit] Nope...not going to refer to that...changed my mind...some might get it and I don't want to send others off looking for it...forum inappropriate.

Heh, I remember a small book I had as a kid, on collected, humorous headlines like that.

In terms of being deliberately misleading, yeah, it can be pretty exasperating, especially on the internet where "views" and "clicks" are coveted. It's why I don't read news much myself.

A Red Top gotta do what a Red Top's gotta do.

It's down to the reader to explore the issue. If they're content to swallow whatever they're given from a single news source then they're asking to be taken for a ride.

It's generally the people in charge telling them to do that.