Sunday, December 7, 2014

Sexy headlines lure pervs, police say

The Internet is filled with some amazing headlines this week. This one is specific and makes great use of nouns in doing so: Man broke wife's nose with McChicken sandwich. One of the best headlines this week utilizes tip 7 beautifully and makes me giddy like a schoolboy: CM Punk joins UFC, will fight in 2015.
Whenever I think about poor headlines, I’m reminded of a stand-up bit by John Mulaney, one of my favorite comedians, Mulaney said, “I like reading the New York Post because reading the New York Post is like talking to someone who heard the news and now they’re trying to give you the gist.” Mulaney may be a comedian, but his words are no joke, the New York Post is terrible. Right now, the first headline on their home page reads: Sexy Russian spy ‘tried to seduce’ Snowden. The word “sexy” is sexist, arbitrary and opinion-based in a non-opinion piece.  Another New York Post gem includes: Victims abused by perv teacher spoke positively about him: lawyer. You don’t use “perv” in a headline. You don’t say “perv” in journalism at all; unless of course you’re quoting it, in which case, pull a different quote. That is all.


The editing lesson this week comes from Ikea. It’s not a mistake, it’s not as though there’s anything wrong with it at all. It does show that some things can be a bit lost in the translations when running multinational corporations. Either that, or this is like that movie, "They Live" and there's subliminal messaging in the advertising.

1 comment:

  1. I am so happy somebody else pointed out the headlines at the Post! For the last four months I had to read it every morning for work and it always left me scratching my head with the things they get away with writing.

    ReplyDelete