7 ms·

I read it that way as well—-words do have secondary and tertiary connotations, and any competent journalist knows how to use composition and careful word choice

I read it that way as well—-words do have secondary and tertiary connotations, and any competent journalist knows how to use composition and careful word choice to more effectively convey a particular narrative.

freddie_mercury 8y ago
Here are some other recent NY Times headlines that use the word fallout Trauma May Have Fallout Over Generations Cambridge Analytica and Facebook: The Scandal and the Fallout So Far As Trump Struggles With Helsinki’s Fallout, Congress Faces a New Charge: Complicity Inside Uber’s $100,000 Payment to a Hacker, and the Fallout Nissan and Renault Wrestle With the Fallout From Carlos Ghosn’s Arrest Fallout is widely used to mean "affect-effects" with no secondary or tertiary connotations. I mean....you really thought there was some kind of nuclear disaster in Helsinki after reading that headline?
- gojomo 8y ago
  All your examples use 'fallout' about abstract occurrences – not situations where an actual plane-and-jet-fuel crashed-and-exploded from the sky, throwing some actual 'fallout' across a debris field. As far as I can tell, clean-up crews are having no notable problems with the fallout from the crash. Boeing is scrambling to contain the damage to its business.
  - 7e 8y ago
    I can't believe you stole 30 seconds of my life on this "topic."
    - gojomo 8y ago
      As a common consumer of news on sites like HN, headline practices are very interesting to me.
  - sk5t 8y ago
    Nobody with a full command of the language uses "fallout" to refer to a debris field. It is most commonly used in the abstract sense, to refer to negative after-effects, or else in the technical sense, for radioactive pollution.
    - gojomo 8y ago
      The 'fallout' isn't the field itself, but toxic stuff that falls from the sky after an explosion. No competent headline writer would use that figurative language around an explosive incident where there might be literal 'fallout'. (The NYT uses 'fallout' to refer to the literal toxic materials thrown off from a non-nuclear explosion, as in stories like https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/world/asia/cyanide-levels-tianjin-china-explosion.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/world/asia/cyanide-levels.... And also to refer to toxic off-gassing from other processes, as in the headline at https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/23/us/home-drug-making-laboratories-expose-children-to-toxic-fallout.html. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/23/us/home-drug-making-labor...)
      - sk5t 8y ago
        > toxic stuff that falls from the sky I know... "radioactive pollution." The public would not expect a civilian airliner to be nuke-powered.
        gojomo 8y ago
        As noted in my examples, the NYT regularly uses 'fallout' to refer to non-radioactive toxics emerging from explosions and other activities as well. This usage is also confirmed by many dictionaries.
        sk5t 8y ago
        The Times in the first (and only working) link uses fallout in the "problematic aftereffects" sense, although I can see how this might be confusing.

freddie_mercury 8y ago

Here are some other recent NY Times headlines that use the word fallout Trauma May Have Fallout Over Generations Cambridge Analytica and Facebook: The Scandal and the Fallout So Far As Trump Struggles With Helsinki’s Fallout, Congress Faces a New Charge: Complicity Inside Uber’s $100,000 Payment to a Hacker, and the Fallout Nissan and Renault Wrestle With the Fallout From Carlos Ghosn’s Arrest Fallout is widely used to mean "affect-effects" with no secondary or tertiary connotations. I mean....you really thought there was some kind of nuclear disaster in Helsinki after reading that headline?

gojomo 8y ago
All your examples use 'fallout' about abstract occurrences – not situations where an actual plane-and-jet-fuel crashed-and-exploded from the sky, throwing some actual 'fallout' across a debris field. As far as I can tell, clean-up crews are having no notable problems with the fallout from the crash. Boeing is scrambling to contain the damage to its business.
- 7e 8y ago
  I can't believe you stole 30 seconds of my life on this "topic."
  - gojomo 8y ago
    As a common consumer of news on sites like HN, headline practices are very interesting to me.
- sk5t 8y ago
  Nobody with a full command of the language uses "fallout" to refer to a debris field. It is most commonly used in the abstract sense, to refer to negative after-effects, or else in the technical sense, for radioactive pollution.
  - gojomo 8y ago
    The 'fallout' isn't the field itself, but toxic stuff that falls from the sky after an explosion. No competent headline writer would use that figurative language around an explosive incident where there might be literal 'fallout'. (The NYT uses 'fallout' to refer to the literal toxic materials thrown off from a non-nuclear explosion, as in stories like https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/world/asia/cyanide-levels-tianjin-china-explosion.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/21/world/asia/cyanide-levels.... And also to refer to toxic off-gassing from other processes, as in the headline at https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/23/us/home-drug-making-laboratories-expose-children-to-toxic-fallout.html. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/23/us/home-drug-making-labor...)
    - sk5t 8y ago
      > toxic stuff that falls from the sky I know... "radioactive pollution." The public would not expect a civilian airliner to be nuke-powered.
      - gojomo 8y ago
        As noted in my examples, the NYT regularly uses 'fallout' to refer to non-radioactive toxics emerging from explosions and other activities as well. This usage is also confirmed by many dictionaries.
        sk5t 8y ago
        The Times in the first (and only working) link uses fallout in the "problematic aftereffects" sense, although I can see how this might be confusing.