# Trump to help pay for Russia investigation -- Oh really?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-to-help-pay-for-russia-investigation-oh-really/791866>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [July 22, 2017, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-to-help-pay-for-russia-investigation-oh-really/791866 "2017-07-22T04:15:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-to-help-pay-for-russia-investigation-oh-really/791866/1 "2017-07-22T04:15:27Z")

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Headline on Yahoo News site this evening:

[Trump Finances Part of Russia Investigation](https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-finances-part-russia-investigation-185139594.html)

Seriously?

Oh wait a minute. Maybe that headline doesn’t really say what it says. :dubious:

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**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-to-help-pay-for-russia-investigation-oh-really/791866/2 "2017-07-22T05:36:26Z")

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See [zero copula](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_copula) in “headlinese”  
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]  
Dropping the copula is also found, to a lesser extent, in English and many other languages, used most frequently in rhetoric, casual speech, and **headlinese** , the writing style used in newspaper headlines. Sometimes unintended syntactic ambiguity results.  
[/quote]

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**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-to-help-pay-for-russia-investigation-oh-really/791866/3 "2017-07-22T18:13:56Z")

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Which is fine when there’s no ambiguity. But, when there is, then the editors need to fix it. In this case, a simple possessive on Trump would make the zero copula crystal clear:

“Trump’s Finances Part of Russia Investigation”

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**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2017, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-to-help-pay-for-russia-investigation-oh-really/791866/4 "2017-07-22T18:39:59Z")

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I think headline writers strive for these things as a way to both show off their mad headlining skillz to each other and to generate a little extra interest in the stories from the rest of us. IOW: Made 'ya click!

Back in the day our then-local dead tree newspaper [https://www.reviewjournal.com/](https://www.reviewjournal.com/) had a front page layout guy who was a mastermind at juxtaposing two stories so the headline of one and the picture of another were very eye-catching.

I recall one day during the fall of the Soviet Union & the rise of Yeltsin (a \*very \*nervous time for the US in general and USAF in particular) that the headline of the main story was “Russia sets new government”. The sidebar, which always carried local interest stories, usually carried a picture right alongside the main section’s headline.

The pic that day was of Mr. Spock in the then-current Star Trek movie uniform. Above a squib about Leonard Nimoy appearing at a Trekkie/Treker convention in town later this week.

# You can’t tell me that was inadvertent. Not when something similarly special happened every few days. That guy/gal was a genius. And generated a lot of what we’d now call “buzz”.

Aside: This article [Man faces charges in stabbing death in southeast Las Vegas | Homicides | Crime](https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/homicides/man-faces-charges-in-stabbing-death-in-southeast-las-vegas/) was one of the lead front page items when I followed that homepage link to make sure it worked. Reminds me of Gary Larsen’s “How nature says ‘Do not Touch’” [How nature says do not touch](http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/2926771/How#8481f3_2926327)