The headline in the News & Record on Wednesday morning said "Alcohol found in SUV after deadly wreck" (can't find a link), in updating the readers on the tragic accident that took two teenagers lives early Sunday morning.
On Thursday we get a headline "Highway Patrol revises report in fatal wreck".
Why not an equally bold headline with the "correction" article?
Something like "Highway Patrol says no alcohol found in SUV". This "revises report in fatal wreck" seems a little slack to me, as some people just scan the headlines in the newspaper, never reading the article.
The Wednesday headline confirmed (falsely) , most peoples pre-conceived notions that this was a bunch of teenagers out drinking, driving, and acting foolish.
It just seems to me that the Thursday article could have carried a headline with equal weight disputing the Wednesday article.
Why didn't it?
In the Thursday text you did say that no alcohol was found in the SUV and that the father of the driver said that tests at the hospital showed no signs of alcohol, but what if no one read the article?
Of course, if the Highway Patrol had not given out incorrect information, these articles would have never been in the paper.
I just feel like you ought to correct with as much veracity as you condemn.
2 comments:
In an ideal world, you're exactly right. We would have put the second article in the exact same place with the same headline size and simply made the headline a contradiction of the first day.
Even in the real world, you point about the wording of the headline is well-taken. You're right.
For the record, from day to day, designs change, based on the photography and the weight of the other stories. And there are many ways to measure weight simply the words in the headline. The first day story took up two columns; second day took five. First day was higher on the page than second day. In the end, the point size of the headlines were pretty close.
It is true that some people simply read headlines. It's a shame, too.
John Robinson
Thanks John.
I understand the daily design changes and the weight of the stories in deciding how the paper looks from day to day.
I just felt like the Thursday headline could have been more "forceful" in contradicting or correcting the Wednesday story, wherever it was placed in the paper.
Guess that's why I'm not a newspaper person although I do run a printing press.
It is a shame some people only read the headlines. Me, I kinda like the N&R.
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