Faithful reader objects to newspaper headline

When she picked up her newspaper this morning one faithful reader objected to the lede hed. (That’s how it is spelled by curmudgeonly old editors who when marking up proofs did not wish to confuse the top of a page or story with the hot lead type or waste time spelling out headline in the margin.)

It was atop an L.A. Times-syndicated story on President-elect Barack Obama’s pick to run the Treasury Department and read: “Treasury pick touted as sound.”

“It looks like the RJ has joined the throngs of Obama worshippers,” our reader scolded, adding that a better and more neutral headline would have been “Obama picks Secretary of Treasury.”

True enough. But among intelligent readers — and of course all of ours are, except for a couple who gravitate toward the flamed-out, self-described socialists in the Sun section — I think we can find room for interpretation and perspective. The subhed (another old nomenclature) captured the focus of the piece, “Obama moves quickly to send message of reassurance.”

But our intelligent reader insists, “This is a blatant attempt to bring people on board the Obama Express before he has even taken office.  How about just reporting the facts in Section A and reserving the opinions for the editorial page in future?”

Every word we use carries some baggage of connotation. Even though we may not imply some political stance, it certainly can be inferred.

Thanks for reading and I lift my coffee cup to toast the concept of hardy debate and dialog.

(You may read different versions and heds at the Los Angeles Times Web site and on our paid eEdition, sign up for seven days for free.  Since the Times holds the copyright we may not post their material on our free Web site.)

View more blogs.