The worst members of the press are the people who write the grabby headlines for stories they don’t seem to have read
This is not a feature only of the outlets you don’t like. It’s a general criticism, of all media.
I know it’s an obvious and commonly made click-bait point. Just joining the chorus after seeing some headlines today.
And no headline writers are not actually the “worst” members of the press. That was a dumb grabby headline. See the point.
Even op ed authors are at the mercy of grabby headline writers. You may not like Mitt Romney but he never said in so many words “Let Detroit go Bankrupt.” That was a clickbait person who gave dynamite to Romney’s critics. mobile.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opi…
Obama killed Romney with this line that Romney never wrote, attributed it directly to Romney because normal people assume the op ed writer chose or approved his own headline, like he does every single word in the piece itself. It is a small outrage that they don’t.
History footnote: What was done to Gerald Ford by the Daily News (“Ford to City: Drop Dead”) was completely fair, though he chafed at it and thought it cost him the presidency. But not the same as putting those words in his mouth in an op ed. mobile.nytimes.com/2006/12/28/nyr…
