Use access key #2 to skip to page content.

Turfscape (42.44)

I hate headlines

Recs

5

October 19, 2010 – Comments (2) | RELATED TICKERS: HOG

Is it a requirement for all publications to hire the most hysterical person on the planet to write their headlines? I get that you need to hook the reader, but c'mon. Can't we bring some sanity and reason to headline writing?

Case in point:

1) The Street

"Harley-Davidson to Ship Fewer Motorcycles"

Oooh, that's bad news! After all, Harley-Davidson started the year by stating that they were going to ship fewer motorcycles than last year and had given guidance of 201,000 to 212,000 units (9 months ago). Today's Q3 announcement must be really bad if they're lowering that number further...

And the article states: The company now expects to ship 207,000 to 212,000 Harley-Davidson motorcycles to dealers, a decrease of about 5% to 7% from 2009. Prior shipment guidance was 201,000 to 212,000 motorcycles.

Huh? Wait...that's not fewer motorcycles! Well, sure it's fewer than last year, but we knew that for 3 quarters already.

Feel free to share your own examples...

2 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On October 19, 2010 at 6:31 PM, sawchain (< 20) wrote:

If I had a dime for every headline that said AAPL had "poor results..."

If I had a nickel for every headline that said "DOW {up, down} on X..."

...I'd be able to buy out all these phony news organizations and fire their damned "journalists."

Fact is, their job isn't to "journal" anything.  Their job is to generate traffic / viewership / readership.  That's why we see so many click-bait articles.  Advertising is how the money is made.  The goal of advertising is to increase exposure.  Journalism is an illusion.  Advertising is reality.

Report this comment
#2) On October 19, 2010 at 6:40 PM, Turfscape (42.44) wrote:

sawchain wrote:
"If I had a dime for every headline that said AAPL had "poor results..."

Oh yeah! That's been sticking in my craw today:

'iPad sales disappoint'
Really? Who's disappointed? They sold over 4 million in the quarter. If memory serves correct, upon product launch analysts and competitors were predicting fewer than that sold in the first year...

There is some decent journalism out there. It's just a shame that you have to really search for it, instead of that being the norm.

Report this comment

Featured Broker Partners


Advertisement