Mis-leading news

Creative liberty or misleading headline

Yahoo headline: "Pure evil": City caps sewer of woman fighting to live "off the grid"

Lead, 2nd graph actually: Since November 2013, WFTX Fox 4 has reported on Ms. Speronis’ ongoing battle with the city to live without most utilities. The self-sufficient woman has lived for more than a year-and-a-half using solar energy, a propane camping stove, rain water, and eating mainly non-perishable food. However, the day after the station’s first profile of her lifestyle Speronis’ home was tagged by the city code enforcement with a notice to vacate.


Money graph (buried six graphs down and two up from the bottom): Also discussed at the special hearing was the fact that Speronis had been using the sewer system for the past year yet not paying for the service amassing a past due bill in the thousands. After her testimony admitting that she had used the service without paying for it, the city decided to cap the sewer line. Connie Barron, Cape Coral spokesperson told The News-Press, “She also gave clear indications she does not intend to pay for this service but intends to continue to use the system. We really had no choice but to cap the sewer.”

So the city didn't cap her sewer because she's fighting to live off the grid. They capped it because she was stealing services and had no intention to cease.




http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/%E2%80%98pure-evil%E2%80%99--city-caps-sewer-of-woman-fighting-to-live-%E2%80%98off-the-grid%E2%80%99-234050584.html

 

Editors aren't necessary because no one cares if it's wrong.

 

Thousands for sewer service? Even in a year, that seems exorbitant.

 

But was this a case of the writer writing the headline and no editor to catch the mistake? Or was it somebody else who wrote the headline and either didn't read the story closely or did read it closely and intended to mislead readers anyway?

 

I don't know. Just being a smartass.

Either way, nobody - writer, editor, headline writer, etc. - is covering themselves in glory with this one.

That's as shittily written as they come.

 

But they're 4 In Your Corner!

 

The headline is borrowing the lead graph.

 

It's Yahoo. They've been doing this for years, to the point I'm no longer surprised they've done it but rather surprised I fell for it

 

Why is "pure evil" in quotes?