Dear Headline Writers: The Target is Real People — Not Bus Stops

...No matter how quickly news breaks, there is no excuse for editors to publish misleading headlines that soften the reality of cold-blooded terrorism.

Yarden Frankl..
HonestReporting.com..
19 April '15..






Here’s the headline that ran in the New York Times on Friday, April 16:

However, Khaled Koutineh, a 37 year old Palestinian, is not suspected of targeting an empty, Jerusalem bus stop. He is accused of deliberately driving his car into two people, who happened to be waiting at a bus stop. There have been no accusations that the driver had some sort of vendetta against the bus stop itself. The suspicion is of terrorism, and now that one of the victims has succumbed to his wounds, of murder.

While the article written underneath the bizarre headline makes clear what happened, one has to wonder if whomever wrote the misleading headline even took the time to read the story. Unfortunately, the headline is perhaps the most important part of an article since many news readers simply skim through the paper, whether online or in print. Based on the headline, how could anyone understand that this was an act of terrorism against two innocent people rather than a crash at an inanimate bus stop?

This is not the first time that headline writers have gotten it wrong when it comes to acts of terrorism against Israelis. After a similar attack in 2011, we reported on headlines at the BBC, the Associated Press, and Sky News — all of who described the target of an attack as a bus stop, rather than the real people who were victims of the terrorist.


Here’s what really happened (from Ynetnews):

A Palestinian driver deliberately rammed his car into a Jerusalem bus stop this week and killed an Israeli man in a “horrible attack”, police chief Yohanan Danino said on Saturday.

No matter how quickly news breaks, there is no excuse for editors to publish misleading headlines that soften the reality of cold-blooded terrorism.

Link: http://honestreporting.com/real-people-not-bus-stops/

Featured image: CC BY Ze’ev Barkan via flickr with additions by HonestReporting

HonestReporting -Defending Israel From Media Bias

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