Headlines gone wrong, and those that hit the sweet spot and soar...

If you have not heard of the "Lin-sanity" fever, you are -- as they say -- from another planet. But one ESPN headline writer must have wished he had not heard of the New York Knick's new poster boy, the Taiwanese-American basket ball player Jeremy Lin. Trying to be clever, that person wrote this headline:

That unfortunate person was sacked, after protests charging racial slur flooded in. I agree that the "Chink in the armour" headline was in really bad taste, but I can also see how tempting it was for the writer to come up with a pun. He might probably have previously even come up with award-winning headlines. Sad. Perhaps a reprimand might have sufficed.

From xinmsn's site is a similar it's-wrong-but-let's-not-get-overboard view:

http://sports.xin.msn.com/commented/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5905760

---------------------------------------------------

Just to give lay people an idea of how headline writers can get carried away is this sub-headline from a British university journal, in early February:

In an apology to their readers, redfaced editors of Suffolk University’s Suffolk Journal wrote this explanation: "In today’s issue of The Journal, we published an inappropriate sub-headline in the article “SLI Involvement Fair a success.” We want to apologise profusely for the mistake and make it clear that we in no way harbour ill feelings towards the Student Leadership and Involvement [SLI] Office, nor any of the students and staff that work there. The sub-head was put in as a joke, by editors, that unfortunately slipped through our editing process later in the night. We want to make it clear that the reporter who wrote the article had no idea or anything to do with the subhead."

--------------------------------------------------

Having said that, headlines must make sense. This one does not...

The story is a sad one; the pregnant dog that was hit later died. As for the headline, what was the person who wrote it thinking of? Unless you are Superman, you can't just pick up a car to do that action described!

This alternative headline, from another newspaper, got it right:

Outrage after national bowler's car hits dog

--------------------------------------------

I felt the headline writer for the story below missed out on a chance to come up with something more catchy:

 I would have written this:

Boeing, going, gone...
on March 24; that's when SIA flies
its final B747 jumbo service

----------------------------------------------------

I thought the headline writer did a very good job with this one:

Very creative! The aircraft doing the aerial stunts at our recent air show are from the Royal Australian Air Force (Down Under), and one of the planes is in a "down under" position.

------------------------------------------------

Here's another great headline, commenting on the recent sinking of a cruise ship off the Italian coast:

On a related theme, one British paper found itself with two stories that deserved to be put on Page One, but which would then likely lead to an unfortunate juxtaposition. Its editors chose to go ahead (full steam ahead?):

---------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, I like the clever fade-out effect for this headline: