I wrote a fairly bog standard diary last week about the need for the Democratic Party Whips to exercise some backbone in favour of progressive solutions to healthcare. There was nothing too controversial I didn't think.
Thing is, the whole of the comments thread (and I can't say I wasn't warned) became a discussion on whether or not I should change my Headline. I had chosen "Democratic Legislators Should Be Whipped Senseless". Contrary to some of the comments, I wasn't advocating violence, and I certainly didn't think I needed to be compared to Dick Cheney: the positions of House and Senate Majority Whip are rooted in Parliamentary practice of whipping MPs through the correct lobby for voting. Doing this properly is sometimes called "whipping them senseless" as they forfeit any pretence at individual decision-making.
To my mind, the Headline did exactly what it should do - play on the line of ambiguity of the verb 'whipping' to attract attention, without being sweary, angry, or offensive. And this is where I've realised there is a culture clash: you guys grew up with the NYT and WaPo - I grew up in the UK with the Sun and the Mirror. And so a couple of ideas...
I love headlines. I like them when they have puns, I like them when they push the bounds of decency (but just stay within them), I like them to make me laugh. They should be part of the engagement of the reader - hooking the passing interest for just long enough to tell them the story.
As much as I think the US media can be very good, and there is no doubting the quality of some of the journalist and journalistic training (compared to the UK), I find US newspapers headlines to be generally very dull, with the notable exception of a couple of the tabloids
Just a quick perusal of the US papers online today, and we find:
"Slain Crofton boy's mother to sue Anne Arundel Co. school system" - Baltimore Sun
"Federal 'Organic' Label's Integrity Under Fire" (try saying it quickly) - Washington Post
"Senators at an Impasse Find That Their State Pay Is at an Impasse, Too" - NY Times
"City spends $22 million on rent, often to well-connected landlords" - Chicago Sun Time
None of these are really bad, but they range from being rather dull to barely being headlines at all.
Iain Martin at the Telegraph picked out a special one during the campaign:
"“A TRUE CONSERVATIVE: For McCain, Bush Has Both Praise, Advice” (from the NYT).
I still think the great headlines are those that are related to the story, but have a life of their own:
SICK TRANSIT'S GLORIOUS MONDAY - NY Times on a state bailout for the NYC subway
SUPER-CALEY-GO-BALLISTIC-CELTIC-ARE-ATROCIOUS - The Sun's sports pages, after Caledonian Thistle somehow beat the far more successful Glasgow Celtic
HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE KOREA? - The Sun again, after Kim Jong Il tested missiles
UP YOURS DELORS! - the Sun, after Jacques Delors recommended the European Single Currency
Blogs too can do pretty well - after wannabee Chancellor Ed Balls was slow hand-clapped at a restaurant in the City, blogger Guido Fawkes put up a post saying
"BALLS GETS CLAP"
Being a little more daring is not the preserve of the outsiders: Tom Harris MP is a Member of Parliament and former Minister for Transport - his blogpost last week was entitled
"What a bunch of Tory cuts"
on plans to take 10% out of every government department except health and Int Dev.
Of course you need to be careful, which is why Steve Merelmen (front-page editor at the News and Observer) haswritten a six-part test and sign-off sheet for 'amusing' headlines (hat-tip to Edit Desk)
So where from here? I want to encourage playful, amusing headlines without encouraging OTT screaming and shouting or profanity and shock tactics.
To that end, I will devote a diary each month to the best Diary Headlines, giving them all a second chance to be enjoyed by the DKos community and accumulate the recognition they deserve.