Monday, November 21, 2011

It seemed like a great headline - even if we made it up

What do you do if you have a pretty good story about a man who fakes his own abduction and when he calls mom to get $100 in ransom, she talks him down to $60 - but you just don't have that great quote for the headline?

Well, you make it up, of course. At least that's what The (Columbia, S.C.) State appeared to do on Saturday. I dare you to find the quote from the hed in the body of the story:





So this would be another reason to be judicious on quote heds - if the good quote isn't in the story, probably not the time for a quote hed.

The State had an editor who just loved quote heds - for a while it seemed like there had to be one on the front or Metro front almost every day. The editor, unfortunately, had a habit of reaching down the bottom of the story to grab the writer's punch line. That was bad enough, for several reasons.'

But making them up out of thin air? That's a new one on me.

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