A Three-Way Headline Bungle

Headlines matter because most people skim them in newspapers, social media feeds and push notifications without reading the full story, and because studies show that headlines frame the way people read and remember the articles. For some issues, you just don’t have the time or inclination to read the article — but you can’t escape the headline.

Here’s a fuller treatment of why headlines matter.

Which brings us to a headline published in the Australian news site, news.com.au, which also appeared in the affiliated Perth Now.

A closer look at the article, originally by AFP, shows why the headline is flawed, and why some editors Down Under blew it in three ways.

1. The air strikes are against Islamic State in the Sinai, not Egypt. Moreover, the reported airstrikes have been carried out with Cairo’s blessing.

2. The comment referred to in the headline referred not to Egypt specifically but Israel’s surrounding enemies in general. (Israel doesn’t consider Egypt an enemy.) Had the news.com.au editors read their own AFP report more carefully, this bungled headline could’ve been avoided. Here’s the snippet that shows the editors asleep at the wheel. Speaking at the weekly cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:

“As I also made it clear to President Trump and afterwards to European leaders and President Putin, our presence here is the main element in the Middle East blocking the spread of radical Islam, led by Iran and Islamic State, which also threaten all other elements in the world,” he said.

“We are not bent on war, but we will do whatever is necessary to defend ourselves,” said Mr Netanyahu.

3. The editors’ disjointed juxtaposition of the air strikes with Netanyahu’s quote simply demonizes Israel, painting a picture of a hypocritical, double-talking Jewish state. Readers who aren’t familiar with what’s going on in the Mideast would see that headline and simply smirk at Israel.

The news.com.au editors can do better. This headline fails.

We contacted news.com.au for a correction. Watch this space.

Image: CC BY-SA HonestReporting, flickr/Richard Heaven

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