Wes’ Blog

I am not exactly sure how this fits into PR, but it was an interesting headline. The headline was “Calif. Students Forced to Use Buckets as Toiltets.”

Apparently, the principal at Worthington Elementary School can’t read very well. She was going to put the school on lock down to keep students from going to protests. So she implemented the nuclear attack lock down. Where students are to use buckets instead of toilets.

This may be a very competent woman who made an honest mistake. So I’ll allow her to make an honest mistake, but FOX News has done something that I don’t agree with.

It framed the headline to sound like that students were being treated cruelly. On normal circumstances I would not agree with what the principal did, but she misread the guidelines. She implemented the guidelines she read, but they were wrong. And she made a mistake. But she was trying to keep order in her school and I can’t blame her for that.

But to frame the headline to make the story sound worse than it is wrong.

So here is my point: headlines can be very deceiving. I know the purpose of the headline is to get people to read the story. But making something sound worse than what it is, is a very questionable practice.