Thursday, April 06, 2017

I am getting real tired of clickbait headlines

Ever see those 'sponsored'  articles which purport to show some intriguing  fact or picture (which rarely actually shows up in the 'article') with the headline saying something like 'Number 3 shocked us' or 'Number 5 is outrageous'.

It seems like many news organizations are now using the same, stupid, and annoying methods to try and get people to read what is supposed to be a news article. Mostly it is focused on some political situation or person such as:

The internet burns Trump...
Trump is furious over this...
West wing drama...
The internet is celebrating....
so and so does (whatever) and the reason is disgusting...
Twitter explodes as trump...
why (insert country here) thinks that trump is (insert insult here)
so and so 'shreds' Trump (foreign or domestic) policy
so and so 'torches' (GOP/Trump/Democrats/Clinton) for...
is so and so the 'real' president
Trump 'feud' with (insert everyone here) intensifies...
(insert situation) puts (insert party) on the spot
'bombshell' report just published showing (insert politician) has (insert unethical behavior)
so and so just burned trump over (tweet or action of the day)
so and so just did (whatever) and trump is furious.
so and so just did (insert action) and Twitter is ripping them a new one...


You get the idea. These 'article headings' are just designed to get you to click on the article and for the most part are either opinion pieces or speculation, NOT NEWS.

I am tired of this. I go to news sites to read fact, not be manipulated by web pages that mislead people into thinking they will get some new, rather than unsubstantiated speculation.

That is the real 'fake news'.