Misleading Headlines

I love it when newspapers publish stuff like this:

Bungalow partially demolished after new £25,000 Audi smashes into wall when convertible driver collapses at the wheel

Obviously they should make those drivers less 'bendy'.

Thanks to the online Daily Mail.

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Odd headlines No 12

Thanks to the BBC for this one - well, two really:

The link on the website reads, misleadingly:

Woman repels bear armed only with a courgette

Which goes to a story headlined, equally misleadingly:

Montana woman fights bear with courgette

UPDATE

The Telegraph has a front-page link which is also misleading, but possibly on two levels:

Woman beats bear with courgette

However, the actual story headline comes close to being coherent - close, but thanks to a typo (read it carefully), not quite:

Woman fends of bear attack with courgette



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Odd headlines, no 42

Occasionally my eye is caught by a misleading, funny or just odd headline which is worth passing on.

This, from the Guardian website, falls somewhere between the first and second - perhaps deliberately, perhaps not:

George Michael is a national treasure, despite the funny fags

I think they mean the 'joints', 'spliffs', 'whacky baccy' or whatever. On the other hand ...


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Misleading Headlines No 97

The problem with newspaper headlines is that sometimes the desire for brevity conflicts with the need for clarity. A legendary example comes from the Second World War and announces (in one variant) "Eighth Army push bottles up Germans".

Unfortunately, that remains unverified as an actual headline. However, this from the Daily Mail is entirely true. In the online page 'header' it reads "Could you get away with (etc)?". However, on the internet page itself it has been abbreviated to the rather more eye-catching,

Could you pull off... Girls Aloud Nicola's red dress?

Well, it makes a change from discussing women bishops. Answers, as they say, on a postcard ...

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