Is “header” the correct term for the small heading the newspaper places over a published letter to the editor?
Is it okay for the newspaper to imply in its header that it agrees with the writer?
I’m writing a letter to the editor to refute a previous letter that presents as fact something that clearly is not fact, and which I have researched (I cite my sources). But the newspaper’s header over the letter repeats the error. If this kind of thing is frowned upon, as I’d think it would be, I want to call the newspaper on it briefly in a parenthetical comment
AFAIK, the headlines for each letter are written by an editor. They may take considerable liberties including mocking the content or reinforcing it, right or wrong. If you have a beef about a headline, write the “letters” editor.
“Header” is indeed the accepted term. Some do call it a mini head, however.
Regarding your second question. It all depends on the newspaper’s policy, also the experience of the editor, and, to a certain extent, the expertise of the headline writer (all of which often can be lumped into the size of the paper).
I am a long-time newspaper man who has worked on big dailies and small weeklies. Currently I am attempting to retire as the managing editor at a middle size daily. Most good size papers will just put a general head over all of the letters on a given topic. Smaller papers will often try to capture the mood of the letter in the head. How successful they are will depend on the guy writing the head. Writing heads for “Letters to the Editor” very often falls to the least experienced guy on staff. In the old days headline writing was an art. These days it is not that highly regarded and that is why so many screw ups can occur in that area.
I am an editor at a small daily. My official title is news editor, and I share duties with my boss, the managing editor. One of my duties is to build the editorial page, edit the letters to our maximum 400-word length, write about half the editorials, and put the headers on the letters.
My aim is to encapsulate the main theme of the letter clearly and without distortion. If the subject is too complex to abstract in the limited space, I will err on the side of generic blandness rather than give a partial label that might be misunderstood.
Most of the time it goes well. But I sometimes misunderstand the tone if a writer is too elliptical or too subtly sarcastic. When it does happen, I always respond with an apology. I hate being misrepresented, and I’m sure letter writers feel betrayed when that happens.
If I strongly disagree with the opinion expressed in the letter, then I am most careful with the header. My opinions belong in the editorial or a column of commentary, not on the letter headers.
I’m owner of two small town newspapers at this point.
I agree with hometownboy in that the headers should not be anything other than informative regarding the contents of the letter. One can play with headlines on feature or news stories but to do that on something someone else has written is editorializing where it doesn’t belong.
One place I disagree with hometownboy (and, in fact, most editorial boards) in that I either run a letter in full or I don’t run it. I think the longest ever was 1200 words. I just feel uncomfortable editing down someone else’s writing. It does make me an odd duck in editorial circles.
My local paper seems to use headers that reflect the content of the letter, logical or not. So if I saw a header like “Obama’s terrorist ties” or “Clinton’s lesbian agenda,” I’d figure it was one of those letters the paper runs to show the full spectrum of humanity. I don’t assume that the paper holds those views about the candidates. You may want to look over how your paper handles various letters from extreme viewpoints to see if they just echo the letter as a matter of course. Like you, I find it maddening when letters to the editor with blatant falsehoods get printed. They almost never get challenged/corrected unless someone writes in.
The header uses the exact wording of the writer, and to me that implies that either the editor doesn’t care, or that he/she agrees. The writer’s comment (and header) isn’t an opinion, but rather stated as fact. I’m going to make a brief comment about it. Thanks for the help.