Star headlines draw continued scorn in Tucson

by David Safier

No coincidence here. Once again, a headline written by the Star for an article about Obama is by far the most negative I can find. This is happening regularly.

Today's example:

Obama's budget draws bipartisan scorn on Hill

Scorn? Scorn implies anger and disgust. It means you dismiss what someone else has done or said completely.

While that may be accurate of Republicans' response to everything Obama does, it doesn't fit Democrats. And it doesn't fit the tone of this story.

Here is the first paragraph of the story.

President Obama's $3.8 trillion budget outline drew bipartisan fire on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, with Republicans complaining it doesn't address deficits soon enough and raises taxes too much. Democrats balked at some of Obama's spending cuts.

The budget drew fire. Democrats balked at some of the spending cuts. But scorn? The word isn't anywhere in the story, nor is the emotion the word evokes, even on the Republican side.

Once again, let me list the few headlines I found elsewhere for the same AP article.

Obama team draws sharp questions on US budget (Auror Sentinel, Colorado, and the Memphis Daily News)

Obama team draws sharp Hill questions on budget (wtop News, Virginia/D.C.)

"Draws sharp questions" vs. "draws bipartisan scorn." The Creative Headline Writers at the Star have once again performed a hatchet job on Obama. If I saw this once or twice, I might call it a coincidence. Seeing it this many times shows clear intent. It speaks very badly of the Star to misrepresent stories with misleading headlines, especially when they are continually slanted in one direction.