Headlines about the Mexico Cartel Shooting Were Misleading. This is a Problem.

Sometimes good journalism is writing headlines without Trump-like exaggeration.

When I opened my news today and read the headlines about the killing of U.S.-Mexican citizens by drug cartels in Mexico, I first thought that Mexican drug cartels had killed Americans in the U.S. After all, what else was I supposed to believe with the catchy, misleading headlines?

• The Daily Beast: American Moms and Kids Massacred in Mexican Ambush that Killed at Least 9
• FOX: US citizens killed, kidnapped in cartel shootout in Mexico
• CNN: Mormons were attacked near the US-Mexico border. A family member says 9 US-Mexican citizens were killed
• NBC: At least nine Americans killed in Mexican highway ambush

These headlines come from both sides of the aisle. Based on the Daily Beast title, I’d have believed that Mexicans ambushed innocent victims in America. The FOX and NBC titles led me to believe that U.S. tourists were targeted in Mexico while the CNN title suggested that Mormons were attacked in the U.S.

These article titles misleading readers as to the actual circumstances of events is seriously problematic. All of these headlines…