Patriot Ledger

Headline Twists Richard Cohen’s (and Mel Gibson’s) Words

The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics insists that a newspaper must "make certain that headlines ... do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context." Misrepresent, however, is precisely what a headline assigned by the Patriot Ledger to an Aug. 3 column by Richard Cohen does.