Hui's JOMC221 Journal

On February 10^th, I watched Crossfire on CNN and heard one panelist say this: “Donald Trump probably has a larger staff [than Prince Charles has]”. This was followed by laughter from all the panelists. I wondered why. Then, I learned ‘staff’ can also mean penis. It was not so funny to me.

I know that many misunderstandings find their way into print and online, too. Here is a link to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno: http://tinyurl.com/alvh. The examples on that site are from print media. I wanted to find some online examples of misleading links. The closest thing to an inappropriate link, in very bad taste, led to HERE. You can safely skip it unless you like morbid humor.

Then, I got help from the Poynter Online collection of bad headlines. I do not agree with all of them. For example, I could find nothing wrong with this headline: Fire crews save naked man cuffed to toilet. I read the article. There was a fire. The firefighters saved a man. He was naked and cuffed to a toilet.

It did have these headlines with problems (all links leave cookies on your PC):

1. Urine may cause bridge to collapse Actually, the problem with this headline is that it is unclear. It can be taken to mean many things. “Urinating on a bridge’s steel pillars weakens them” is better. I cannot get it shorter than that. Headlines must be concise, as well as clear.

2. Singapore: The monkey swings both ways This headline is unclear, too. I think it is deliberately a double entendre. Does a newspaper or online source benefit from a play on words? Some people may enjoy sexual innuendo. I am told to avoid puns and clever headlines. “Singapore: Its strengths and weaknesses in 2004”.

3. 'I'm sorry sir, but you died last year' One of our written rules is to avoid teasers. I think this is one. “Social security office mistakes man for dead”. Again, I do not know how to make it shorter.

// posted by Hui Liu @ 2/13/2005 10:30:00 PM