Never Let Accuracy Get in the Way of a Headline

This from today’s “Afternoon Scoop” from The Daily Beast:

Really. The President of the United States “chugs” a Guinness. Huh.

Well, for one thing, being of Irish background Mr. Obama certainly knows, instinctively, that one does not “chug,” “slam,” or “throw back” a Guinness. One sips it, so as to be able to enjoy the complexity of flavors that make Guinness the exemplar of all beers. At most, one quaffs it. But sipping is recommended. On this point I am unanimous.

Then there’s the little matter of the story itself. Click through to the article at National Journal, and you will read this (which, apparently, the staff of The Daily Beast had no time for):

When he finished talking, Obama said, “And with that, let me have a pint.” After being cheered for taking the first swig of his pint of Guinness, Obama announced, “I just want you to know the president pays.” The normal price of a pint of Guinness is 3.75 euros. He finished at least three quarters of the pint.

Not having been there, I cannot comment on the use of the word “swig,” except to reference my comment above in re sipping. But given that the standard definition of “chug” means to down a drink at one go, without stopping for air, but the National Journal indicates that the president finished “at least three quarters of the pint,” I think it safe to conclude that “chug” was a pretty poor choice of verb.

But I have observed over time that The Daily Beast is little concerned with accuracy where its “Cheat Sheet” headlines are concerned. Provocative trumps precise every time.

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HuffPo Goes Provocative

I'm no prude--shoot, my CV includes a novel called The Naked Eye--but I find deliberately suggestive come-ons such as this from the Huffington Post to be a little disingenuous:

Obviously, the "teaser" could have read Teri Hatcher Without Makeup just as easily...but that would have been less of a tease.

Nor am I entertaining in the least the notion that the line break after PICS: Teri Hatcher Naked is at all coincidental.

Interestingly, the item itself carries the far less innuendo-laden headline
Teri Hatcher Goes Makeup Free To Prove No Botox & No Surgery.

Still, more than a little tacky.

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Strange Headlines, Part Two

Not so much strange headlines as interesting juxtaposition of headlines. Did someone not look at the overall look of the page before sending it out...or did someone note the layout and decided--as did I--that the placement of these two headlines was rather amusing?

Again from The Daily Beast's Morning Scoop Cheat Sheet (which, it must be said, seems to have at least one title too many: "The Daily Beast"; "Morning Scoop"; "Cheat Sheet." I get that they're separate albeit umbrella'd pieces of a whole. But that doesn't make it easier to type) for today:

Nuff said, I think.

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Strange Headlines, Part One

Having spent a fair number of years coming up with headlines, subheads ("decks," if you prefer), pull-quotes (call-out quotes), photo captions, and the like, I get that it's not always an easy task. Indeed, it's a pretty precise skill, one that, like any skill, requires practice and patience.

Evidently those commodities are sometimes in short supply.

Here's an item from The Daily Beast's Morning Scoop Cheat Sheet one day last week:

Wait. What? "Homicide Student"? You mean this guy was, like, majoring in homicide? In which case, wouldn't murder be, I dunno, his final project or something? What next--"French major accused of speaking foreign language"?

The Cheat Sheet's little blurb contains no useful information, other than that the accused is a grad student, meaning he must have taken a lot of Homicide over the years. A regular fixture in his college's Homicide department. Bit of a Homicide geek, truth to tell. Probably going to become a Homicide professor himself. You know, those who can't do...oh. Wait. That's wrong. Forget that part.

One must click through to the Telegraph's report to get the full scoop:

Ah--the accused is a PhD student whose focus of study, apparently, has been Jack the Ripper. Okay, that makes some sense--evidently he was doing his practicum--and I suppose it's fair enough to call him a "homicide student." It's a grabber headline, and I get that. But The Daily Beast would have been well advised to do a tiny bit of explication in their subsequent blurb.

On the other hand, it was pretty intriguing for a few minutes there. I was all set to go back to school.

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