Misleading Headlines

[pyat]

You may have been reading about the large temporary lakes created by the recent Chinese earthquake. These are/were highly unstable bodies of water, and there was much concern that they would break through the dams of wreckage and catastrophically flood heavily populated areas.

So, I was a little concerned by this CNN headline:

QUAKE LAKE WATER SURGES THROUGH CITIES

Except when you read the story, you find out that the draining operation was a success, and most of the danger is past. The "surge" refers to control drainage of the lake that passed through an outflow channel.

I don't know. I see this as a kind of bait and switch. It's not simply a dramatic headline - it's an actively misleading headline.

Comments

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

And meanwhile, though not as big, a lake wound up getting drained in Wisconsin, dam broke, went straight into the river. IT surged thru some houses, I guess.

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=513834

[zenten.livejournal.com]

This is why I stay away from things like CNN.

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

Well, you know, it isn't like anything closer is going on. Like a call in congress to Impeach Bush...