Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Huh? (repeat heading; not repeat content)

Tapes destroyed over CIA's objections
By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer
16 Jan 2008

Okay, my first thought was, "Maybe the CIA objected to WH destroying tape back-ups of WH emails."

But, no. The headline refers to the videotapes of the CIA's "enhanced interrogation" of a couple of folks in their custody.

"CIA destroyed tapes over its own objections" just doesn't make any sense... but that's the story!
WASHINGTON - The CIA official who gave the command to destroy interrogation videotapes apparently acted against the direction of his superiors, the top Republican House Intelligence Committee member said Wednesday.
I was on the staff of my high school newspaper, and wrote a lot of headlines. Me? I would have phrased this along the lines of, "CIA flunky destroyed tapes without authorization". This is at the very least self-consistent, and logically possible!... it's also more honestly descriptive of the story's content.

Moral: don't rely on headlines! Read the story... or at least, read the lead paragraph.

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