Saturday, December 17, 2011

Ban headlines like this

One inviolate rule of headline writing - it should reflect with fealty what the story actually says.

So let's look at this specimen from today's (Columbia, S.C.) State newspaper.



Is there really a "ban"?

Let me help by starting with the last graf:

The provision that Upton got placed into the spending bill will cut off money the Department of Energy would have used to make sure that the regulations are followed. The lighting standards themselves remain. 

Not definitive enough? OK, let's go up a few grafs to this:

In fact, the new standards don’t ban incandescent bulbs, but rather require that new ones use about 25 percent less electricity. The extra efficiency is provided by the use of halogen gas.

We report, you decide.

It's not as sexy, but something like House blocks money for light bulb rules would be a bunch more accurate.

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