j-school diary: day one, hour one, lesson one

the third rail of headline writingYesterday’s fleeting Yahoo! “most popular” roundup alerted readers to the newest fetish sweeping the country: muggers in need of relief by band instrument. Takeaway: if you can deal with the swelling, the intensity is supposedly worth the humiliation.

This is People’s Exhibit “A”, the dreaded headline faux pas el supremo taught in every college of journalism as the prime example of the unintended consequences of an unintended double entendre, caught in authentic screen shot mode as distributed by AP. We mostly don’t make this stuff up – but are thankful when it happens right in front of us.

PS – NPR’s rewrite: “High School Band Member Thwarts Muggers”