A headline that should shame everyone involved and which disgusts me...

I e-mailed the paper to loge a complaint and received this response:

 

How off-base. So because someone else is offensive, in an NYC tabloid no less, that gives your P.O.S. paper the right to be offensive, to be upsetting and basically to piss off even the lowest common denominator?

Great editor, great leader.

 

if that is legit -- ie, you aren't just fucking around -- then I'm pretty much incensed. I'm not easily offended -- and to be honest, I wasn't really offended by the headline, although I can recognize a bad idea when I see one -- but this reponse is kind of offensive.

 

I haven't received a response from either. Then again, I don't live in a city with a tabloid newspaper, so they probably have no defense for my argument.

 

Maybe I'm stupid, but why would you try to be glib with a headline about a near sexual assault? Especially one that involved a child? I don't understand the paper's reasoning.

 

You don't, HB.

I'll merely echo what was said before about the total lack of professionalism and taste in this headline with the simple tenet that the nature of the story dictates the nature of the headline/lead/story.

SF is right on with his analogy about a fictional Michael Jackson getting stuck in an air conditioning duct trying to burglarize a Burger King. THAT works.

If you're writing a story about a Holocaust survivor, you don't write a snappy, funny headline or lead. The same goes for a child who was the victim of a sexual assault.

 

Did someone say Morris owns the paper?

Time to start shooting off some e-mails to execs.

Has Poynter/Romensko picked up on this yet?

 

Morris just made a lot of sales, though, so I'm not sure if they still own the LCD, but yes, Morris own(ed) the paper.

 

According to this, they are still owned by Morris the Cat.

http://www.thecabin.net/extras/history.shtml

 

According to the Web site, though, Jessica Montgomery (not even her last name anymore) and Rachel Parker (also not her last name) are the only two reporters.

I don't know how often it gets updated.

 

A tabloid in England would have no problems running such a headline.

 

Don't make the ombud go for her gun.