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The method was apparently a brute force attack, so the title is accurate.
by sklogic 11y ago
The method was apparently a brute force attack, so the title is accurate.
- nickysielicki 11y agoSomething can be accurate and still be misleading.
- sklogic 11y agoIt would only have been misleading with a capitalised "Pentagon".
- nickysielicki 11y agoWell now we're arguing semantics. But okay. I think that in the context of a newspaper when you read, "Attack on the pentagon" the first thought that most people have is that there has been an attack on The Pentagon. That's the whole reason it's a pun, right? Because you're lead to believe it refers to The Pentagon when it really refers to a 5 sided polygon? That's an inappropriate thing for a newspaper to do. Go ahead and make puns, just not about attacks on government buildings. The SPJ ethics code clearly states, > "make certain that headlines, news teases and promotional material, photos, video, audio, graphics, sound bites and quotations do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context." At the very least you must admit that it's pushing the envelope, no? The fact that the HN mods changed the title from what OP submitted is evidence enough that I'm not alone in thinking it's a misleading headline.
- sklogic 11y ago> most people have is that there has been an attack on The Pentagon Most people on this planet do not give a crap about some tasteless Northern American building. It is unlikely the first association with the word "pentagon" for anyone outside of the US.
- nickysielicki 11y agoI agree that most people don't think of The Pentagon when they hear the word "pentagon" alone. But the title says, "Attack on the pentagon". Furthermore, given that the Guardian is a UK newspaper, I would argue that most people in the UK know what The Pentagon is and associate the phrase with the building. But let's assume I'm wrong and most readers don't know what The Pentagon is or wouldn't have associated the title with the US government building. If that's the case, then what is the point of the pun at all?
- sklogic 11y agoJust asked a number of people around how do they read this title. Nobody had "The Pentagon" in mind. London, UK, geeky population, so there might be some bias.