Kansas Snapshots by Gloria Freeland - August 8, 2025

Separating fact from filler

When I make my way to the living room most mornings, I typically find my early-riser husband Art on his laptop.

"What are you working on?" generally produces, "You’ll find out," ... Art-speak for he'll share it when he considers it in shareable form.

Art's topic a few days ago was internet news. He was prompted down that rabbit hole by seeing an article headlined: "Queen Camilla Marks Major Milestone After Hospice Admission." He wasn't aware she was in ill health, so he read on.

She wasn't! Camilla had visited a children's hospice and had remarked - that was the "admission" - about being surprised it was not a place of gloom and doom, but actually possessed a cheerful vibe.

At the very least, it was a poor headline - easily misunderstood. But his hunch was it was intentionally deceptive, designed to attract attention to an item otherwise unlikely to do so.

And that "major milestone?" It was her 78th birthday! Is that really a major one?

He counted 245 words in the article, but had to plow through 203 of them - 83 percent - before the "admission" was "revealed." I too am of the opinion this "non-story" had been shaped not to inform, but to draw attention so an advertisement could be delivered.

Both of us enjoy writing and so, look at news items not just to stay informed, but also to see what other writers are up to. When I began writing this column in 2001, he quickly transitioned from "first reader" to editor. He was trained to write about technical matters, but we have much in common, such as making references clear, deciding what a reader can reasonably be expected to know, and so on.

I was taught the inverted pyramid method of news writing: the most relevant facts come first, followed by those of declining importance. This allow readers to move on when they've read as much as they like. An editor can also easily shorten the story if space dictates. The headline's role is to provide a heads-up so readers can decide if the topic interests them or not.

Looking for other misleading headlines, Art found two separate articles about the same event. The two headlines were: "Chiefs cut ties with Super Bowl champion receiver in surprise decision before training camp" and "Chiefs waive Patrick Mahomes weapon right before training camp." The wording creates the impression that wide receiver Justyn Ross was an important player. The reality is that Ross was undrafted, didn't play at all one year, and totaled just six catches for 53 yards in two other seasons, i.e., he was a marginal player at best. My alternate headline would be, "Chiefs release back-up receiver Ross," although, in reality, it isn't much of a story ... unless an excuse is needed to deliver advertising!

With his researching juices flowing, Art moved on to do a little survey on story content. He looked at 10 additional online stories from various news outlets - our local newspaper, a Topeka television station, online versions of "The Hill," "The Washington Post," and six others. Hardly a rigorous sampling, yet he attempted to be fair by limiting the selections to one day and randomly choosing featured items as selected by the publisher from the widely-recognized pool of news organizations. He also counted ads, but only those between the headline start and the story end because others were easy to ignore. The results are in the table below.