On headlines

AS any copywriter knows, headlines are crafted to grab attention and, ultimately, sell.  They are more important than the copy in the sense that they provoke the reader to either continue to read the news story or simply ignore it.   In the morning, all dailies vie for attention and readership.  In some cases, some reputable newspapers even go down to the level of the tabloid if only to win in the battle of readership.

            In the morning of August 17, the Philippine Daily Inquirer brandished this headline:   "CBCP Backs Marijuana Bill".   That was smart and sensational.  It got good readership and attention.  It garnered hundreds of threads of comments in its online version and in social media.  The only rub was, it was not true.  The CBCP does not back the Marijuana Bill. Even the copy of the news story, which was written by PDI's church beat reporter who was privy to the CBCP's "Pastoral Guidance on the Compassionate Use of Cannabis," did not say so.

            Immediately, Archbishop Socrates Villegas posted his reaction:

            "As President of the CBCP, I take strong exception to the MISLEADING headline of your paper "CBCP Backs Marijuana Bill". It would have been far more helpful to the public had you published our statement in full than to create the wrong impression in the minds of the public. 

            "Let me make the point clear: IN RESPECT TO WHATEVER MEASURES ARE NOW PENDING BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE, CBCP NEITHER ENDORSES NOR OBJECTS, realizing that the regulatory schemes and administrative strategies they attempt to establish are beyond the competence of the CBCP to comment on.

            "What our letter did was to reiterate the teaching of the Church which I will summarize:

            1. Addiction is wrong, and those who facilitate addiction by placing habituating drugs within easy reach commit a very serious wrong.

            2. The constant teaching of Church is that palliative care using narcotics is ethically permissible when there is no other convenient and available means with which to alleviate the suffering of the terminally ill.

            3. In other cases, the principle of proportionality is to be applied which makes means licit when there is PROPORTION between the risks and disadvantages and the benefits expected or anticipated.

            I hope you will give this clarification and disavowal as much publicity as you gave your misleading article."

            But this is the age of digital media.  Unlike some years back when readers were left to swallow in toto what gatekeepers of news tell them, this is the age of fast and multiple media platforms.  People always find the truth faster than the malicious spread of lies.  Nothing, of course, is smarter than the truth, even in headlines.