Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Adventures in bad newspapering

Just wow.
This headline writer should be fired.
USDA releases figures on what it really costs to raise a child. Francisca Ortega, Chron.com

As someone who doesn't have children I'm not pretending to speak for parents here, but I'm going to be surprised if this doesn't generate some outrage, although not an apology from ChronBlog.  Increasingly it seems that ChronBlog's business model is to do whatever it takes online to generate page-views. In a way, they're copy-catting the route taken by Village Voice Houston.

The problem here is that you have what used to be a legitimate news outlet dumbing themselves down to alt-news level.  It's gossip-rag level "reporting" with sensationalized headlines only designed to garner a response.

It's also another reason newspapers are failing.  Unserious organizations pretending to do a serious job do not get treated seriously by the buying public.


ADDED: I forgot to mention.  This ran on their "MomHouston" blog which touts itself as offering "news, tips and fun stuff for savvy Houston parents."  Think about that for a minute.

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