But why does it need quotes? It only needs quotes to delineate it as “not a fact”.
Because it denotes that those words are a quotation of another person, not the words of the article’s author. That’s the reason why they are called “quotation marks” in the first place.
It’s inaccurate to state that quotes are only used to delineate something as “not a fact”. Quoted terms are used in headlines with single quotation marks frequently. It’s extremely common and usually does not have the pejorative nature you are assuming here.
It, in my posts, referred only to this headline.
In this case it is being done to show that it is not a fact, IMO.
Nobody ever puts “the sky is blue” in quotes in a news story because it’s accepted as a fact.
I don’t know what you base that opinion on.
The title is, “Betty White ‘died of natural causes’ at age 99”.
Read the article and you will see:
“She died of natural causes. Her death should not be politicized – that is not the life she lived,” Witjas said.
The term “died of natural causes” is word-for-word from her representative. Fox News deserves scorn (almost 700 scornful posts in this thread alone!) but not for this.
I am not at all inclined to think that Fox News is displaying journalistic integrity or adhering to journalistic standards.
Why are you so inclined?
OTOH, I am inclined to think that Fox will skew and slant and try their best to tell their audience the things they want to hear, even when Fox knows them to be deliberate lies.
Because I can read and I can base an article on its own merits, and I don’t need to criticize every single article to justify my general disdain for the news organization. It’s okay Bo, you don’t have to make up reasons to dislike Fox News, there are plenty of legitimate reasons to dislike them.
They even make a point to squash the rumor that she had said she just got a vaccine shortly before her death.
Additionally, the news article cited by social media users doesn’t contain the bogus quote – “Eat healthy and get all your vaccines. I just got boosted today” – or anything about vaccines.
The article is a rare example of something decent coming out of Fox News.
Nah; it’s just using her death as best they can to spread propaganda.
That’s what Fox News does.
Okay. 
I bet if you take the first letter of each word, and put it through the proper algorithm, it will say “Betty White Ate Babies”.
The text in quotes shows it is just something someone said. Like I said, facts don’t need quotations.
You disagree; I get it.
FWIW, People.com headline reads much like that of Faux.
Do Fox News viewers know that?
I get what you are saying, that technically, it does not violate rules for quoting, but I also get what @Snowboarder_Bo is saying, that they intentionally worded it that way in order to put the scare quotation marks in their headline to propagandize their marks viewers.
Along with what Railer13 quoted, here is another headline:
This is from a CBS affiliate, not Fox.
While it doesn’t have actual quotes, it does the same thing that Bo is accusing Fox of doing. It is declaring that Betty White died of natural causes according to her agent. It’s not declaring it as a “fact”, which Bo believes is a form of propaganda.
The Hill is certainly not a right wing propaganda piece, but it also stresses that her agent is the one saying she died of natural causes.
ABC News also put it that way, that her agent is the one reporting that she died of natural causes:
Are all of these news organizations trying to push the idea that she didn’t actually die of natural causes, but this is only a story her agent is spinning?
There may be some kind of journalistic norm where you don’t state something as a fact when you only have it from a single source.
Or to get the CT out where slower folks would be sure not to miss it.
‘air quotes’
No, but as you admit, they also didn’t do the scare quotes thing.
You really think that the average Fox viewer is going to see that, and take it at face value, or that they will read into the scare quotes, and know what’s “really going on.”
This quotes discussion is really ridiculous. Can we go back to discussing how they are really lying fucks, rather than this bullshit?
I don’t think People Magazine readers are any smarter than Fox News readers, but no one is concerned about them doing some CT bullshit.
Journalistic norms are not okay when Fox does them, apparently.
It’s hard to say. I think a lot of the CT folks have written off Fox, after Trump turned on them. Remember that there are parts of Fox that care about journalism (at least enough to try to avoid lawsuits) and so they reported accurately about the election. Trump really didn’t like it, of course, and so many of those folks have moved to OANN and Newsmax.
(I’m talking about the actual reporting, not opinion pieces.)
That being said, yes their reporting is often total shit that spins things as propaganda. That doesn’t seem to be the case here.
For example, just look at the reporting on their front page right now about COVID cases. It’s bullshit and lies from top to bottom, no scare quotes needed:
Headline 1: Biden’s ‘unvaccinated’ narrative blown to pieces as US shatters worldwide record 3 years into pandemic
Sub Headline 2: White House ripped for doomsday winter message of ‘severe illness and death’ for unvaccinated people
Sub Headline 3: Biden demonizes the unvaccinated to create a fictitious notion we should be panicked: Raymond Arroyo
They are actively trying to kill their readers, and some of you are worried about how they properly use quotation marks around quotes.
True. I guess we’ve been arguing about whether the mass murderer’s shirt was improperly buttoned as he killed people.