1 February 2009

Confusing heads

Recent headlines from the BBC news website succeed on brevity but fail on clarity.

Wife jailed over rap band killing


implies that she killed the band. In fact, she employed band members to kill her husband.

China firework bar blaze kills 15

suggests they have firework bars in China. Groovy. In fact, the blaze was caused by a firework set off in an ordinary Chinese bar.

The problem is caused by trying to squeeze two strands from a story into six words. Wife jailed for killing husband is a better single strand head, but a little mundane. Jail for wife who used rap band to kill husband gets the second, more interesting, strand into the head but now it is too long. Could be it is an impossible puzzle to solve?

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