LINGERING STALE HEADLINE FOR AN UPDATED ARTICLE

A headline sells a newspaper article. Similarly, the front page headline can be the difference between high and average newspaper sales. So great care is taken to craft the most appealing headlines, to grab a reader's attention. But a headline must not contradict details in the body of its own article.

It's obviously very unprofessional for a newspaper to publish one story containing two sets of facts.

What should the reader of Kenya's leading daily believe?

'Nigeria says mobile firm MUST pay $5.2bn fine'

Or...

'...the Nigerian Communications Commission... had agreed to reduce the fine to $3.4bn...'

Perhaps the story had developed. But even so, it's strange that the body of the published article is updated, (from the second paragraph), but the headline remains stale.

Or is it that a $5bn figure is more attention-grabbing than $3b?

Most probably, this is another instance of sloppy sub-editing, symptomatic of the cosmetic editorial refinement, regularly administered to Kenyan newspaper copy.

And if such contradictory facts are carelessly thrown around within a single story, what does that say about the believability and indeed credibility of a newspaper publisher?

The road to major mistakes in the media is littered with little inaccuracies!