Headlines which are catchy (and possibly ‘cheesy’) belong on a personal blog like this one that is personal revelations from the author(s), political opinion, creativity, and (trying to be) artistic prose and poetry, not on a news website, portal, or other source of what should be trusted journalism. Yes, it’s fun to come up with these headlines, and hopefully my readers enjoy mine, but on a ‘serious’ news site one ought to be able expect a higher level of sobriquet and an deliberate effort to minimize bias.
I do not buy the argument that since bias is not completely avoidable that one should not even try, and that ‘journalism’ is really propaganda and should behave as such. It is only true when news outlets choose to make such a prophecy true, but it is neither inevitable nor desirable that those who pride themselves on building an ‘informed electorate’ instead create a ‘misinformed/disinformed electorate’.
It is not that we have entered a ‘post-truth era’ but that far too many deny that truth of any sort exists. I’m not going to get too much into the philosophical underpinnings, but I’ll leave you with this to think about: “Just because we are ships in a thick fog doesn’t mean there aren’t real rocks and hazards (and safe berths) among the optical illusions and confusion created by that fog.”
[AUTHOR’S NOTE: Title edited due to a case of ‘I do not think that word means what you think it means’, with thanks to ‘The Princess Bride’]
