That was the headline on CNN.com, re: Bill Bennett, and his moronic racist remarks. My question is, why is the news that Bennett is “under fire”? To me, the headline should read, “Bill Bennett Makes Racist Remarks,” or something to that effect. It’s not that Bennett being under fire is news – that’d be like saying, “Man Says “Hello,” after picking up Exploding Phone”. Everyone says “Hello,” and everyone should be condemning racist assholes. It’s the fact that he said this idiotic crap that should be making the news, but I suppose the current crop of “conservatives” being racist asshats really isn’t news any more anyway.
Still, it’s weird to see the news framed in such an incompetant and ill-thought-out way.
I don’t agree with this particular example.
As a reader, it gives a denser amount of info to say what happened and what consequences came of it. For instance, “Serial Killer Convicted and Sentenced To Life” as a headline would be fine for me. It’s obvious that they should have a harsh punishment so you could similarly argue that it’s not news to report that they’ve been punished, that it’s only news that they committed a crime. But it’s useful for me to know what the consequences have been for the issue in question.