Wednesday's Biased Item - June 13, 2007
The Oakland (Mich.) Press has an upbeat story about military recruitment:
Kyle Thiel can't wait to join the U.S. Army and fight the "war on terror" in Iraq as part of an infantry unit.
"Ever since 9/11, that's all I wanted to do," said Thiel, 18, of White Lake Township....
The Army is enlisting far more soldiers than before the war, officials said.
"Pre-invasion, the military was in a different mode. The Cold War had ended and the Army didn't need to be at such full strength," said Army spokesman Jeff Landenberger.
"Now a lot of people come in strictly for patriotism. They want to be part of history," added Army Sgt. Aaron Stuckey, 28, of Birmingham.
The headline: "Despite War, Army Draws Recruits." Despite?
Go to OpinionJournal.com for the original posting from 4/17/07.
ANSWERS:
1. The headline told a very different story than the article. Editors not reporters are generally responsible for headlines, and they can greatly influence opinions about the news. The importance of a bias-free headline is that most people don’t read every word of every article; they often just skim the headlines. That meant the people who read just the headline got a very different impression from those who read the entire article . (this answer provided by Lynn Davidson in a June 8, 2007 post at Newsbusters.org)
2. The headline is an example of bias by spin