In Trump’s America, Headlines Matter
Over the weekend, CBS News ran an online article with a headline that promptly sparked wide confusion and criticism. The article covered President-elect Donald Trump’s latest Twitter rant, in which he casually charged that “millions of people” voted for Hillary Clinton illegally.
Trump failed to provide evidence for that remarkable claim, so I did some digging to find out where it came from. The best I could find was this article from conspiracy theory machine InfoWars, a site that sells “9/11 Was An Inside Job” T-shirts and doomsday survival kits.
CBS News’s original headline for their article, Donald Trump: “Millions” Voted Illegally for Hillary Clinton, triggered a harsh reaction on Twitter…
CBS News corrected their mistake, and reposted the story under a new headline, Donald Trump, Citing No Evidence, Claims “Millions” of People Voted Illegally in the 2016 Election.
This brief debacle highlights some of the unique challenges newsrooms and content producers will encounter as we transition into four to eight years of Trump’s America. First off, headlines matter now more than ever. Media organizations must be mindful that audiences will like, share and draw conclusions from headlines without ever reading the article. The original headline likely misled a number of people to believe that wide-spread election fraud had taken place, even though that claim is currently – and will likely remain – unsubstantiated.
If we learned one thing during Mr. Trump’s historic campaign, it’s that there will be many more Twitter rants and wild accusations during this presidency. News organizations have a responsibility to create fact-based headlines that don’t give life to bogus ideas or statements that originate on fake news sites.
Brian Hart is the founder and president of Flackable, a national financial public relations and digital marketing agency. Learn more at www.flackable.com. Follow Brian on Twitter at @BrianHartPR.
Brian Hart is founder and president of Flackable, a national, full-service public relations agency headquartered in Philadelphia. The agency, which he bootstrapped in 2014 at the age of 27, represents a national client base of financial and professional services firms. His professional recognition includes Irish America Magazine’s 2019, 2018 & 2017 Business 100, PR News’ 2017 Rising PR Stars 30 & Under, Lehigh Valley Business’s 2016 Forty Under 40 and Adweek’s 2015 PR Industry 30 Under 30.
As founder and president of Flackable, Brian is committed to helping clients reach a new level of growth by emboldening them with superior communications counsel and services. His team’s efforts bolster brand engagement and routinely land clients in top news outlets including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Fox Business, Bloomberg, Forbes, Barron’s, US News & World Report, The Associated Press, Reuters and various industry trade press.
Brian is a Temple University graduate with a B.A. in Strategic Communication and a Political Science minor. He began his career as a licensed life and health insurance professional at a broad-based financial services firm in King of Prussia, PA. Prior to founding Flackable, Brian represented a number of leading financial services firms at a public relations agency in New York City and New Jersey.
