Saturday, February 26, 2011

How to Read News Headlines

If any part of the headline is 'in quotation marks,' the story is either a vast distortion of the truth, or an outright lie.

If the headline ends in a question mark, the answer is no.

If the headline suggests a major medical breakthrough, the study will be small, the results not statistically significant, or there will simply be no mention of these things.

Addendum: If the headline is written in a publication in the Northwest Territories, hey! Look over there! Something shiny!

2 comments:

Mongoose said...

You should see the news here. They don't want anyone to disagree with them, ever, so they don't report anything that might cause a reaction, and don't ever draw any conclusions. There was a half-page article this week about the territorial GDP, with no comment whatsoever as to what the numbers could possibly mean. Or which GDP they're talking, for that matter.

inverse said...

Amended for your approval.