Catch of the week: 'Danbury, Connecticut Film Festival need each other'

Similar to the last "catch of the week" that I posted, this headline uses a comma in place if an "and," which makes the headline quite confusing. Since Danbury is a city in Connecticut and the name of the film festival is the Connecticut Film Festival, the headline can be misinterpreted to mean that a film festival in Danbury needs someone or something that the editor failed to include in the headline.

I don't understand why an "and" was once again replaced with a comma when it would only take up three more character spaces and make the headline much more understandable, especially to readers who are unfamiliar with the Connecticut Film Festival, such as myself.

Catch of the week: 'Danbury woman, man arrested on burglary charges'

The headline of Susan Tuz's News Times article, "Danbury woman, man arrested on burglary charges" is quite confusing. In order for me to understand what the headline meant, I had to click on the link and read the lead, which explains that a "25-year-old Danbury woman and her alleged getaway driver were arrested Saturday morning on burglary charges, police said" (Tuz).

The headline could have more understandable if an "and" had been used instead of a coma: "Danbury woman and man arrested on burglary charges," and I don't know why this was not considered before the article was released.

Catch of the week: 'Most Danbury area officials surprised by steroid ring arrests'

As I was working on an editorial piece for Kendra's Two Cents blog, I noticed that one of the articles I was using as a reference had an ambiguous headline: "Most Danbury area officials surprised by steroid ring arrests". I already knew what the story was behind the headline since I had come across the article while clicking through related News Times articles, so I did not pay that much attention to how the headline was written at first, until I was typing out my blog post's work cited.

The way the headline is written makes it seem like the Danbury area officials are surprised by who the arrestees are, but that is not true. The article is about the arrest of an alleged steroids ring that sold performance-enhancing drugs to high school athletes in the Danbury area. By reading the headline, readers would think that the Danbury area officials are surprised by who was arrested, but in reality, they are surprised that local high school athletes are reported to have been among their customers.

Catch of the week: 'Judge helps dapper suspect spiff up for federal murder'

I came across an article on Yahoo! News that had quite an interesting headline: "Judge helps dapper suspect spiff up for federal murder". When I was first skimming headlines on the website and came across this one, I had to re-read it since I didn't understand it the first time, and after finally comprehending what the headline said, I clicked on the link to read the story in order to understand why someone hadn't given the article a title that was easier to read.

The headline's strange wording drew my attention, and I guess it could be looked at in a positive way since it stands out to readers, such as myself, and intrigues them to read the article. However, most readers skim through headlines, like I did, so it is best if the headline is clear and understandable. With this said, I have come up with a few alternative headlines that could have been used for this article:

1. "Judge lends tie to accused mob boss for murder trial".

2. "Jailers refuse to give accused mob boss a tie to wear, judge lends him one".

3. "Judge lends litigant a tie to wear for court after jailers deny him one".

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."