BLOG: 'Pirates Party, Shoot Each Other'
Ad Newseum
By Ian Bowman-Henderson, Speakeasy Blogger
October 3, 2008 | noon
This isn’t the plot of the latest Johnny Depp flick. No, it is something a bit more cuckoo than old Jack Sparrow. The title of this post, "Pirates Party, Shoot Each Other" is the exact title of the link on Fox News' homepage (pictured in the screenshot on this page).
Never mind the fact that the link in question transports readers to the much more ambiguous story, with a much more ambiguous headline of shots fired in the night that Fox actually reported. Never mind that any reports of deaths are currently unconfirmed, a point made even by the anonymous U.S. government official who claimed the pirates shot three of their own. Never mind the fact that the pirates themselves said the shots were fired to celebrate the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan.
The front-page title remains: "Pirates Party, Shoot Each Other."
It isn't uncommon or surprising for Fox, or any other cog in the 24-hour mega-news machine, to distort the facts of a story so that they make for "better" news. However, it is much less common to find an example as blatant as this one, wherein the story's front-page link has a title which is called into question immediately upon reading the story. I am not saying that I think the pirates definitely did not shoot each other, but the facts of this story show that at this time, it is unclear whether they did. One thing is clear however: this story is presented in a way that makes factually unsubstantiated assumptions about what happened.
The unethical treatment of this story is not limited to the title it was given on Fox's homepage. While the anonymous government official is quoted in the lead of the story, the pirates are not quoted until the fifth graf. So not only did Fox decide that the statement of a government source was significantly more important than the contrary and firsthand account of the pirates, Fox gave primacy to an anonymous source over a verifiable source.
The link's title also misleads the target audience with the word "party." The use of "pirates" and "party" in the same sentence instantly conjures images of rum-soaked debauchery and violence, but Eid al-Fitr is a religious holiday, and drinking alcohol in excess is forbidden in many interpretations of the Quran.
It may seem excessive to harp on the minutia of this story, but these issues represent a widespread and dangerous trend in news media. Fox has to compete nationally with other news outlets, all of which are running the exact same stories. The only way for Fox, or other 24-hour news operations, to compete is to amp up the drama. Consumers are more drawn to a story with a body count, so that is what Fox offered up in the link's title.
It is a shame that journalism is no longer about reporting the truth exclusively and unconditionally. It seems that in 2008 if it isn't sexy, it isn't news. Today's most popular journalists seem uninterested in dealing with the blatant erosion of journalism's core principles, so I hope the next generation, my generation, of journalists is more concerned with the ethical implications of their work. Otherwise, it seems I am going to have to change my major to creative writing if I want to get a job as a journalist.
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Fox News has since changed the headline for this story. However, the damage is already done.