Why do newspapers organise their headlines in the mildly confusing manner in which I phrased my subject line? Wouldn’t it make more sense to say “Bush: Iraq needs more troops” than “Iraq needs more troops: Bush”? The latter, to me, implies that Bush must be one of the new troops, which isn’t the case.
So, the question is simple. Why do they do it?
Most of my experience has headlines leaning toward your former example, rather than your latter. Do you have examples of actual newspapers using headlines like you say they do?
How does your message note that you just edited it?
Have the mods changed that feature?
Mine are all from my city’s local paper, so I can’t provide examples from there off-hand. Here’s one from China’s People’s Daily, which as a foreign paper, isn’t the best example. If I see an instance of this online, I’ll be sure to post a link.
Welcome to the new world. :eek:
At a guess, I’d say it’s because news media always work on the principle that the most important thing goes first - what will catch the reader’s interest, in case they don’t read to the end ( of the story, of the paragraph, of the sentence, or even of the headline). In the Iraq example, the thing that is most likely to catch the reader’s attention is the possibility of more troops. President Bush says a lot of things each week, so headlining everything he says with “Bush:” may not catch people’s attention.
I’d go with Northern Piper, plus note that headline writers have to come up with a bunch of headlines on very short notice every day. At some point or another, they’re going to have one printed that, upon reflection, they might have wished they had time to change.
I’ve seen it both ways. My impression is that speaker precedes or follows depending on whether the news is that he said it, or on the startling thing that he said.
Bush: Marriage Amendment Needed implies, not that somebody called for the “Defense of Marriage Amendment” (for someone to do that is old news), but that the person who did so is President, and putting the prestige of the Presidency behind the idea.
Troops Out of Iraq by July: Bush carries the message that the announcement itself is the big news; that Mr. Bush and not one of his subordinates made the announcement is secondary to the story itself.
In other words, whether the colon-ated speaker precedes or follows is a subtle signal as to whether the news is what was said or who it was who said it.
The Guardian is a quality UK newspaper that likes witty headlines.
It regretted once that a politician called Michael Foot, who ran for Prime Minister, had never been put in charge of a UN Disarmament organisation.
Because the headline would have read…
Foot heads Arms body. 