Monday, November 22, 2004
Oh, those crazy Bostonians
I read with interest the Boston Globe's Ombudswoman explain away criticism of headline-writing. While it's no LA Times, The Globe is not your source for non-partisan headlines.
The funny thing about this ombudswoman response is that she says "You know, sure, headlines sometimes aren't that good, but the writers may only have a few minutes to come up with them, and the space dedicated for them is fixed."
Also, I'll note that headline-writing is not weather-reporting.
I say this because while you can justifiably say "Gee, you know, we try to predict the weather, but sometimes the weather just doesn't behave the way we predict it, and we have to go by imperfect information," the same concept doesn't hold when you're talking about management practices. If the editors don't have enough time to come up with fair headlines, give them more time. Make adjustments. These things aren't fixed. The paper has some control over them. For instance, they could reassign the ombudswoman to headline-writing duty.
But throwing up your hands and saying "Well, we do the best we can with the cards we're dealt" is not a reasonable defense when you get to stack the deck.
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