Once again, I beg of news organizations: write your headlines, tweets, and push notifications as though they're the only things most people will see — they often are.
The only thing I can add to this is to say, as an official Old Person, that this principle way predates social media. The “Trump says” headlines wouldn’t have made it in the newsrooms I worked in in the 90s.
No one wants to admit that people aren’t reading past the headline, but “The story is not supposed to correct the headline” seems like a principle even a Times dope could get behind.
They still manage to shock me (if not surprise me) with how actually bad they can be.
This is excellent, next do "On Israel, Progressive Jews Feel Abandoned by Their Left-Wing Allies."
Like, seriously? There are "Progressive Jews" who are just now discovering that those of us in the "Left-Wing" advocate for the rights of Palestinians and oppose the Israeli occupation?
The problem isn't simply their headlines. The problem is reporting "news" that is sourced completely to Hamas or some arm of Hamas. They are terrorists, they are liars, and they are not credible. There is no good journalistic reason to believe anything that they say, and no good journalistic reason to report something as fact because Hamas says it.
And if you want to say that the Israeli government or military also is not credible, fine. Then don't source things to them either.
And to be fair, this is not simply a Times issue. It's very much a Reuters and BBC issue, and to a modestly lesser degree, a CNN and NBC issue too. It is incredible that, a week after the hospital fiasco, CNN is still reporting stories that are sourced completely to "Palestinian health authorities" or the "Gaza health ministry".
The New York Times Needs to Do Something About Its Headlines
The only thing I can add to this is to say, as an official Old Person, that this principle way predates social media. The “Trump says” headlines wouldn’t have made it in the newsrooms I worked in in the 90s.
No one wants to admit that people aren’t reading past the headline, but “The story is not supposed to correct the headline” seems like a principle even a Times dope could get behind.
They still manage to shock me (if not surprise me) with how actually bad they can be.
Spot on, Parker! As always, when it comes to integrity in news.
And you know, that's my BIG thing.
So thank you!
This is excellent, next do "On Israel, Progressive Jews Feel Abandoned by Their Left-Wing Allies."
Like, seriously? There are "Progressive Jews" who are just now discovering that those of us in the "Left-Wing" advocate for the rights of Palestinians and oppose the Israeli occupation?
The problem isn't simply their headlines. The problem is reporting "news" that is sourced completely to Hamas or some arm of Hamas. They are terrorists, they are liars, and they are not credible. There is no good journalistic reason to believe anything that they say, and no good journalistic reason to report something as fact because Hamas says it.
And if you want to say that the Israeli government or military also is not credible, fine. Then don't source things to them either.
And to be fair, this is not simply a Times issue. It's very much a Reuters and BBC issue, and to a modestly lesser degree, a CNN and NBC issue too. It is incredible that, a week after the hospital fiasco, CNN is still reporting stories that are sourced completely to "Palestinian health authorities" or the "Gaza health ministry".
My favorite example (of so, so many): https://x.com/VFuckyourself/status/1477564293235236865?s=20
WaPo needs a good lesson in this as well, but as usual they only go on the defensive and refuse to self-reflect. https://twitter.com/michaelscherer/status/1717213057540034608