Star Healthcare Headline Train Wreck

by David Safier

Does Star owner Lee Enterprises stand to lose money under the new health care legislation? It sure looks that way from the paper's coverage of the health care story. Will Lee have to offer better health care coverage for its employees or something?

(By the way, I have no information about Lee Enterprises and health care legislation. This is nothing more than idle speculation. But if anyone knows there's something to what I'm saying, feel free to contact me — safier@schooltales.net. I always respect sources' confidentiality.)

The Star's Creative Headline Writing Team is at it again with a number of health care stories in today's paper, writing unique, misleading headlines to put the paper's peculiar slant on the stories.

Here's one of today's Star headlines:

Health-plan benefits could go unneeded by many

Message: this isn't going to benefit you, buddy. You may be getting screwed here.

Now, here is the most used headline nationally, which most likely means that's the one the news service supplied:

Obama's Healthcare Offers Familiar Bargain — Social Security and Medicare (Bellingham Herald, Washington, WNOL TV, New Orleans)

Notice the difference? The health care legislation is like Social Security and Medicare. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? What a difference!

How about this Star headline from today's front page:

Republicans still have a shot at blocking Dems' initiative

That says, there's still hope, the health care bill can still be stopped if Republicans get a few breaks.

Other papers running the same story are more neutral, stating that the Republicans are going to try and block the bill, a simple statement of fact.

GOP readies Senate bid to halt health bill (Daily Progress, Charlottesville, VA)

 Senate
GOP will attempt to derail or repeal bill (Wichita Eagle, Kansas) 

GOP regroups for Senate health showdown (Philadelphia Enquirer, Pennsylvania)

The others state the facts. The Star roots for the Republicans.

Now here's a beaut! You know all the name calling from the anti-health care folks over the past few days? The racial slurs? The anti-gay slurs? Pretty bad, huh? According to the Star headline, not really.

Nastiness not new, just publicized more

Most other papers ran one headline, which most probably means that was the default head sent by the news service.

Before health vote, a weekend of ugly discourse (Seattle Times, The Olympian, Kansas City Star)

Sounds like the name calling was pretty bad when you read that headline, doesn't it? But the Star headline leaves the impression, "Nothing to see here, folks. Move along. This is just business as usual."

Speaking of business, the Star's story on the effects of the bill on business had a different headline from other papers, but it wasn't much different in emphasis.

How various health sectors fared in overhaul

I'm not surprised they got that one right. Even the Star know business people want their business news straight. Getting the facts right is the difference between profit and loss. That's why the Wall Street Journal's news is often so accurate and well written, even though its editorial section is slanted wildly to the right.

And to be complete, I have to mention that the Star editorial gives a glowing review of the bill, as its headline indicates.

Health-care law is a big positive for America

The Star, like all newspapers, maintains a wall of separation between its news and editorial staff, so I'm not surprised to see a different attitude in the two sections.

But here's the difference. Editorial writing is opinion writing. News writing is supposed to report the news, and its headlines are supposed to accurately summarize the story. Too often, the Star's headlines distort the stories' intent. The paper has the worst headlines I have seen in any paper, anywhere.