Stupid Journalism

[Byron Virgo]

Looking around for a distraction from work this morning, I came across the local paper (the Ham & High) which had the headline:

GHOSTS SUPPORT BID TO SAVE PUB!

Now, as it turns out the 'Ghosts' are actually a band and not, as I'd hoped, phantoms from beyond the grave. But it set me wondering, what sort of ridiculous, hyperbole-bound, alramist or just generally idiotic headlines or stories have you come across in the past?

Link: http://www.rttimes.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1568617.mostcommented.crabs_attack_in_hampton.php" target="_blank">Crabs Attack in Hampton!

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[petemaskreplica]

When I saw the headlines this week about "New Mills Rant" I thought, oh dear, that'll start another flame war here. Apparently it was just some deranged harpy getting divorced, though.

[Cthulouis]

The York Press has had some brilliant ones, including

"Knights Hit By Parking Charges"

and

"York Tot Battles Killer Bug"

Deepest sympathies to the family of the tot involved, but my first thought upon seeing this was "it should shoot the antenna"...

[Mike Carroll]

An article debunking the myth that rabbits are more promiscuous than people. The headline was "Man beats rabbits in sexual activity."

[Bico]

"Man beats rabbits in sexual activity."

As long as I'm not the only one.

[ThryllSeekyr]

I guess Nude bathing would be out of the question.

[Byron Virgo]

Link: http://thesurrealist.co.uk/standard.php" target="_blank">Evening Standard Random Headline Generator

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[GeorgeBernardShaw]

I am probably the only Spectator reader on this board. I notice a tendency for them to give headlines which either contradict the article or are not supported by it.
  For example, since I can't remember any instances and don't want to hunt around their website for interviews, the headline might say "Our Birthright Up for Grabs" with a sub head "the shadow minister for Europe says that new EU regulations mean that any Austrian bureacrat can override decisions by British parliaments". Excited by this, one scours the article only to find that it is the usual careful bland waffle and that the closest it comes to the headline is that the MP allows that "there is concern over the demarcation of powers"

I'm exaggerating in this example, but not by much

[Dudley]

The Clevedon Mercury is/was notorious for running the same nonsense story every few years about SATANISTS IN OUR MIDST.  An innocent cat would be found crucified on the beach, clearly the work of SATANIST THUGS.  Since no photos were provided, and the story was never followed up in any way, we pretty much assumed that it was completely made up, and based on finding, er, a dead cat.

[Peter Wolf]

 Local rags are full of this sort of thing.

 You very rarely get anything interesting in local papers.Its always the same banal crap every time.


 "Pensioner [they love that word ] knocks over and spills a cup of tea in horrific incident"


 Rats on the march.


 King Alfred gets green light. [thats one from the archive!]

 
 Just reading through the archives of the local rag online is like reading the Darwin Awards.Its just one long litany of peoples stupidity.

 Not that i am complaining.I am all for a bit of natural selection myself.

 Man dies after killing himself

 
 Whitehawk [Shitehawk] mum duped in fake lottery scam.