Media bias

Matthew Hoy
By Matthew Hoy on May 11, 2006

I was walking through the composing area in the newsroom yesterday when I came across this story on one of the Union-Tribune's opinion page headlined: "The Boy Scouts' exclusion policies."

Intrigued, I read the story and while the headline may be technically accurate, it doesn't reflect the tone of the column by James J. Kilpatrick, which you find out by reading the final paragraph.

Since the Dale case was decided six years ago, Rehnquist has died, and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has retired. If the reconstituted high court wants to reconsider the recurring issue of private rights on public facilities, it had better find a better case than this one.

Curious, I went online to see what headline was on the column when it was sent to subscribers. It was entitled simply, "Back to the Boy Scouts."

It's a little thing, but it tells you something about the headline writer. The one that went out on the story was neutral. The one that appeared in the paper was slanted against the Scouts.

It's a good thing I wasn't writing the head, because it would've said something along the lines of: "Another attack on the Boy Scouts."

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