Catch of the week: 'Reporter's bizarre on-air episode raises questions'

The headline of Joe Pompeo's Yahoo! News article, "Reporter's bizarre on-air episode raises episode" is quite ambiguous and can lead readers to believe that the story is about something that it is actually not.

Serene Branson during on-air Grammy report.

By just reading the headline, a reader might assume that the story is about a bizarre topic that a reporter covered while broadcasting the news. However, in actuality, Pompeo's article is about Emmy-nominated CBS entertainment reporter Serene Branson who randomly began speaking gibberish during the network's post-Grammy newscast, and many people initially suspected that the sudden outburst was caused by a stroke.

With this information, instead of the story title being "Reporter's bizarre on-air episode raises questions," I would have made it: "Reporter's gibberish outburst may be result of stroke" or "Cause unknown for reporter's bizarre on-air behavior."

Work Cited

Pompeo, Joe. "Reporter's bizarre on-air episode raises questions." Yahoo! News. Yahoo! Inc, 2011. Web. 16 Feb. 2011.