I just went to the NYT website (9:43 AM PDT). The large headline gave me a sense of deja vu (or whatever):
“GUNMAN IN DALLAS SNIPER ATTACK ACTED ALONE, OFFICIALS SAY”
It just felt weird, that’s all.
Wow.
That headline isn’t all that striking or unwarranted. Initial news reports said there were multiple snipers, and three of them were arrested. Now it appears that none of the arrestees were shooters.
Ever mindful of the adage, “Daily news is the first draft of history,” I am not surprised the facts are different from the first reports. The conspiracy theorists will go nuts anyway.
Yes, I agree the headline is accurate and appropriate. Also, considering the facts of the event that it is describing, it is also not that striking–as you said.
I only started the thread because I had an intense, visceral reaction immediately when I read the headline this morning. It just reminded me so much of the JFK assassination. I don’t know that in 1963 there were immediate screaming headlines saying that Oswald acted alone, but given all the hubbub about the “second gunman” conspiracy theories since then, today’s headline just pulled some levers in my head.
I’ll admit this thread is the most Mundane and Pointless that I have ever started. I only meant it like a sort of ‘nudge in the ribs’ to a guy next to me at a newsstand, “Hey, isn’t that headline a little… je n’est sais quois?”
I know how you feel. The local school board’s public meetings are usually about 2 hours long, but when I made a request for a copy of their recording, I was told the camera had stopped working after the first 18 minutes.
I told a local news editor about this, and he exclaimed, “18 minutes! How Nixonian!”