Friday, January 17, 2020
Headlines for Jan. 17, 2020
Worst, Most Misleading & Funniest Headlines for Jan. 17, 2020
*Warren accused Sanders in tense post-debate exchange of calling her a 'liar' on national TV
*Warren accused Sanders of calling her ‘a liar on national TV’ in their tense confrontation after Tuesday’s debate
*Warren accused Sanders of calling her a liar, recording shows
*Warren Told Sanders After Debate, ‘I Think You Called Me a Liar on National TV’
Subhead: “You called me a liar,” Bernie Sanders responded, as the candidates’ sudden clash injected new uncertainty into the Democratic presidential race.
But if you listen to the video, Sanders also accuses Warren of calling him a liar. Here’s the lead paragraph of the WaPo story: “Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the two leading liberal presidential candidates, accused each other of calling the other a “liar” in an extraordinary exchange caught on a CNN microphone moments after the end of Tuesday’s presidential debate.”
So why does this headline only convey half the story?
*Warren, Sanders spar over claim that a woman can’t win
Nonsense. They both agreed strongly that a woman can win. And there is a subtlety here. If Warren and Sanders really did spar over that claim, obviously Warren thinks a woman can win, since she's running, so implicitly, they're saying that Sanders does claim a woman can't win. Which is a lie.
*Can a Woman Win the Presidency? It’s a Good Question
It’s not a “good question”, it’s a ridiculous question. If we had a system of direct election, a woman would have already won. Even with the system we have, she only lost by tens of thousands of votes in a few states. Get out of here with that “good question”.
Sanders-Warren rift highlights liberal divide: purity versus pragmatism
Really what it highlights is how low Warren will stoop to beat Sanders.
Bernie Sanders’s agenda makes him the definition of unelectable
Jon Cowan is president and Jim Kessler is executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a center-left think tank.
Sanders is a socialist, Medicare for All is toxic, blah, blah. You know what receives nary a mention in this article? Polls that show Sanders beating Trump by the widest margin of any Democrat. Next to last paragraph attempts to explain this: “Sanders is truly an authentic politician. That helps explain why some early national polls show him competitive in a head-to-head race against Trump.” Nonsense. The polls reflect his agenda, not his “authenticity”.
*Pompeo says Soleimani killing part of new strategy to deter U.S. foes
Accurate headline: Pompeo confesses US committed a war crime.
*State Department security officials weren't notified of 'imminent' threats to US embassies
In an article which uses the word "imminent" no less than 15 times, this nugget is buried in the 6th paragraph: "the State Department did not produce the analysis that US embassies in the Middle East faced an imminent threat, the legally required threshold to justify Soleimani's killing." "War crime" or "war criminal"? Not once.
*Trump authorized Soleimani's killing 7 months ago, with conditions
"International law"? "War crime"? Unmentioned.
*If there was no ‘imminent’ attack from Iran, killing Soleimani was illegal
Only mention of "war crime" is in the final paragraph: "And while military officers and others in the chain of command may question or push back on his proposals, they will follow his orders (short of clear war crimes and other patently illegal acts)."
A Narrative Collapses as Trump Tweets: ‘It Doesn’t Really Matter’
How about “Administration lies fall apart.”
*The majority of women feel relief, not regret, after an abortion, study says
*Five years after an abortion, most women say they made the right decision
After five years, 99% of these women said having an abortion was the right decision. That 99% statistic is completely omitted in the CNN article.
Proper headline:
*Almost no women regret having abortions 5 years later, according to a landmark study
Trump Sold Voters on Stopping ‘Endless Wars.’ What if a New One Starts?
The good old passive voice. How about as the 2nd sentence: “He just started a new one”?
11 Americans Were Hurt in Iranian Strike, Military Says, Contradicting Trump
Trump did say that, of course, but the claim comes from the military, not Trump.
Who is Lev Parnas? Soviet-born operator thrust into Trump impeachment scandal
He was born in Ukraine (admittedly then part of USSR), then moved to the US…WHEN HE WAS THREE!!! But he’s still “Soviet-born” in the headline as if it’s relevant.