One of the things I find so amusing about reading news on Yahoo is watching the headlines change depending on who they think they need to appease. Today’s top news story on Yahoo was about the UN Inspections in Iraq and the preliminary report that Hans Bliz was delivering. The story has not changed during the day but the headline has.
This morning’s headline:
Blix: No ‘Smoking Gun’ in Iraq
This afternoon’s headline:
Blix Says Iraq Violated U.N. Sanctions
The story is the same for both, and also, by the way, supports both headlines. But the tone of the article is much different depending on which headline it’s saddled with.
The point… is this is how important language is and how easily we can be manipulated subtly by the bias of the agency presenting the news. It’s why it’s so important to know what their motivations are.
But try to point it out to people and they give you the stare they reserve for Kennedy conspiracists.