Headlines are an odd art. You must summarize the story in a few words — in print, that is. With search engine optimization, online headlines tend to be these long, triple deck affairs redolent of an elaborate, almost Victorian complexity. Where once “Asteroid to hit earth?” would suffice, now we see, “Hurtling space asteroid on possible collision course, could destroy earth and all life upon it, including Taylor Swift.”
Otherwise, brevity is still valued. Wit too. The Sun-Times is famous for both, often in the same headline: “DA POPE!” comes to mind, celebrating the joyful Chicago roots of the current vicar of Christ.
Long or short, the goal of any headline is to draw readers into a story. Plus accurately reflect both the story and reality. An article on Holocaust deniers should not be headlined, “Holocaust a hoax.”
Though sometimes, fidelity to truth gets lost.
Such as the headline on page A5 of The New York Times Monday: “Trump Has Moved the Boundaries of What Is Ethical.”
He has?! That is news. Because while the president’s second term has been noteworthy for ramping up the deceit, self-dealing, corruption and institution-shredding of his first administration, I have not gotten the memo that these things are now acceptable.
The article, by Peter Baker, the Times’ veteran chief White House correspondent, begins by recounting how, seven years ago, when Trump tried to host the G7 summit at his own golf club, Trump National Doral Miami, “It incited an uproar among fellow Republicans, forcing him to scrap the idea.”
No such trouble in 2026. Now his club is hosting the summit with “practically no protest.” Which is true. The Republicans, whether active co-conspirators, or dazed hostages agreeing with their captor’s every demand, are docile as sheep, with only the occasional soft bleat of anything that could, perhaps, be considered dissent.
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Your last paragraph says it all.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great piece! Thank you! I'm a regular reader of NYTimes, as well as EGD. With headlines and articles like this one you site, the NYTimes and other media are really advancing our progression towards autocracy.
ReplyDeleteI'm tempted to forward your piece to Mr. Baker and his editors. No doubt NYTimes is open to criticism, right?
Thanks. You can go ahead, but myself, I wouldn't bother, as I've found the Times fairly deaf to their own flaws (which is how those flaws persist). I've notified them of factual errors on several occasions and never heard back.
Delete“The Times Has Moved the Boundaries of Journalistic Integrity”
Deletehe is without a doubt, the single most corrupt person in the history of this country, the biggest crook of all time, he makes Al Capone, Charles Ponzi, Bernie Madoff, Elizabeth Holmes look like two bit crooks who rob a candy store of a single candy bar!
ReplyDeleteAnd his children are just as rotten as he is!
There isn't a day that I don't shout out loud at inane mainstream media headlines (and, often, story content) as journalists and editors try so hard to find fairness and neutraility in this administration's clear and openly documented march to destroy democracy and laws that promote social and economic equality and/or equity. I, too, saw this and similar headlines yesterday and thought, No, Trump hasn't moved anything. He's been allowed to get away with so much, too much, due to (I love the labels) the co-conspirators and dazed hostages.
ReplyDeleteI and the people most directly in my life haven't forgotten what is moral and ethical and legal, and I am buoyed by the blogs and substacks that relay information in the bigger picture of context and consequence. A couple of weeks ago, during the height of Trump's ban of news organizations and journalists, Peter Baker was interviewed - as a source in a story - and quoted with some strong, honest, straightforward words from his personal perspective as a journalist affected by a ban that prevented gathering and reporting information to the public. I wonder if his (and so many other reporters') wish would be to relay more of that straightforward tone in all of his own stories but is checked internally by editors and headline writers toeing the billionaire and hedge-fund owners' corporate line.
I hope we can get ourselves out of this mess. Be informed via quality sources. Vote.
Thanks Neil. If we don't shape up fast, the history of these times will be written by Chinese historians, because history is written by the winners. America risks becoming another one of history's failed empires.
ReplyDeleteConsider all the empires mankind has witnessed. Persia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Aztecs, the Incas, Spain, France, Great Britain..all lasted for centuries. Then there was Germany (the blink of an eye), Japan, (the blink of the other eye), and finally the USSR (less than 75 years). So 250 years is not a bad run, as empires go.
DeleteWe are already going the way of Greece and Rome. This century will be the Chinese century, after they and what's left of Russia, and maybe the Muslims, fight over what remains of the crumbling Untied Snakes...like feral dogs fighting over a few discarded bones.
If we're lucky, most of us won't be around to see it.
If we're unlucky...or just young enough...we will.
Good luck with that noise. And it will be quite noisy.
I remember the speech that Mitch McConnell delivered during the impeachment process that followed January 6th. He laid it all out all of the traitorous behavior that Trump had engaged in.
ReplyDeleteAnd then still voted against impeachment. The maga Congress has taken the attitude yeah he's a crook but he's our crook.
So long as they can get their snoots in the trough and get a share of the loot they're not going to exercise the only device to stop this behavior which is impeachment.
Turns out our foundational documents are seriously flawed and the systems of checks and balances in place leave only the Congress to curtail this maniac.
Even with the anticipated Blue Wave on the horizon for the midterms there won't be enough votes to bring him down.
Hopefully we'll be able to gain control of one of the houses and thwart the administration's actions.
My concern is that this won't materialize and that Democrats will fail us once again.
The voters have a chance right now if not to get their hands on the wheel to at least put their foot on the brakes. Will they come out in numbers big enough to gain the seats? We will find out soon enough.
Nothing is going to change the damage that's already done that will take years
I remember when the radical queer left tried to silence President Donald J. TRUMP in Pa.
ReplyDeleteThen Trump won another election.
Sorry Neil has sour grapes.
Big JB can be Neil's sponsor.
That gas-bag is a tax cheat and unplugged his Chicago toilets. Have you no shame? Black kids didn't get a free lunch and JB ate them all. Even the Mexican illegals said JB is no Bueno.
So many Hoosiers, Iowans, Show-Me-Trump staters, Ohioans and the great American majority love and keep voting TRUMP.
ReplyDeleteMaking America Great Again: Donald J. TRUMPS you butt good !!!!
Trump is eligible in 2028 we hear the Supreme Court says.
Our hero, the man who beat two old hag women, Donald John Trump, his Excellency and President of USA !!!!
Oh my . Did you read the part about how he's a thief who steals?
DeleteBillions, billions. And what did you get out of it ?rampant inflation?
We are still a developing nation in terms of morality.
ReplyDeleteLately I've been turning to Rebecca Solnit's Hope in the Dark, written at the start of the Iraq War. She sees hope as neither optimism nor pessimism — both are certainties that let us off the hook. Hope admits the future has yet to be written. Our vast uncertainties are the opening in which our voices and actions matter.
So even when we are ignored or dismissed, we can keep defending the ideals we cherish. The fact that we still bother is evidence we haven't given up.
Marge Piercy's "The Seven of Pentacles" reminds us that what we tend grows slowly, often underground, where we can't see it. Our smallest efforts may be exactly that. They may seem as nothing to us but they represent what others have called the soul of our nation.
We don't know how this ends. That isn't bad news; it's the room we still have to work in.
I will say, headlines -- and really articles -- like the referenced one, are great examples of how "the main stream media" or "legacy media" fail us all.
ReplyDeleteYou end perfectly the piece perfectly, Neil; "What has happened is, they have been abused and ignored so successfully for so long that some people apparently have forgotten what they are, or can’t imagine their return. I can."
I lament our societies lack of sophistication or education as a whole. Morality is dead, at least in every republican. The words, statements, and bills released by mike johnson and the republicans are proof enough. I would venture a bet that a vast majority of the American public would get the answer wrong when watching "Aesop & Son." Goofus would undoubtedly be hailed as the idea alpha mail when people read Goofus and Gallant from highlights.
Yes, I repeat myself. Yes, I scream into the void.
But i like to think that by reading your pieces (and other's) Neil, that I'm more well read and a touch more enlightened then the average bear. Hell, I'm no Yogi, but I'm no Boo-Boo either.