The following is the comment I posted on the Battle Creek Enquirer site in response to the article, “Nigerian charged in airline attack.” In the print edition, it is the lead story on the front page.
Subheadline: “Near-terror at Detroit airport shakes area.”
I question how your reporters and headline writers could possibly know that. Did they do a psychological survey of the population to determine how shaken people were? Did they do an opinion poll?
Of course not. I bet they just made it up, maybe after talking to their drinking buddies in the bar after work. I just made that up, too, of course, but it’s as good a guess as what the Enquirer put on the front page.
It’s a little thing, but it forms bad habits among newspaper people to make up even little stuff like that sub-headline.