Saturday, July 30, 2005

BBC Dishonest Headline of the Day

BBC
Saddam 'attacked' during hearing

Stated as fact. However, in the opening of the article we find:

Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was attacked by an unidentified man after questioning by the Iraqi special tribunal on Thursday, his lawyers say. The former president was attacked as he was leaving the courtroom, and there was an exchange of blows, his legal team said in a statement.


However, a US military spokeswoman denied that any such incident happened.

In reality Saddam's lawyers 'allege' that this happened. It may have, it may not have.

But a fair and balanced headline might have been:

Saddam 'allegedly attacked' during hearing
In a world with a bumper-sticker mentality headlines matter.

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