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I'd just like to invoke Betteridge's Law of Headlines. "Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." It is based on the assumpti
by djeastm 9mo ago
I'd just like to invoke Betteridge's Law of Headlines.
"Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no."
It is based on the assumption that if the publishers were confident that the answer was yes, they would have presented it as an assertion; by presenting it as a question, they are not accountable for whether it is correct or not.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...
- likpok 9mo agoThe article clearly lays out that the answer is yes. It points to specific ways the researcher adjusted their reporting to mislead readers. I think the key here is where Koren attempts to specifically account for the stomach content explanation: he misrepresents the lab results and claimed they showed the opposite of what they did.
- Twisol 9mo agoI'd just like to invoke the principle to "not judge a book by its cover". The article here is very well written and does a great job of conveying the perspectives and opinions of many parties. I would recommend reading the article in spite of its headline.
- maxbond 9mo agoRazors should guide, not replace, your engagement with the subject matter.
- throw4847285 9mo agoIt's a rhetorical device.
- strken 9mo agoI would suggest that when there's a possible crime, as there would be in this case, even a clearly guilty murderer caught red-handed holding a knife and screaming "I DID IT" will be an "alleged" perpetrator.
- dwohnitmok 9mo agoIn this case Betteridge's Law is wrong. The article (quite convincingly) argues "yes."
- whyenot 9mo agoI am invoking Meta-Betteridge's Law: "any comment that dismisses an article based on it's headline has no value" For large publications like the New Yorker, it is an Editor, NOT THE AUTHOR who writes a headline.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- bambax 9mo agoYeah I thought about that when seeing the title; but after reading the article I'm quite certain the answer is yes in this case. Also, Koren may have been a "celebrated researcher" at some point but he's now disgraced.
- alterom 9mo ago>I'd just like to invoke Betteridge's Law of Headlines. To say that it doesn't apply here, I hope? Spoiler: the "celebrated researcher" in the title was discovered to commit fraud on a massive scale, was stripped of his physician license, and had multiple articles recalled. He absolutely did obscure a baby's poisoning. But that's not the main point of the article, nor is the story.
- ctippett 9mo agoThe headline was editorialised for the web. It originally ran under the headline "A Fatal Error". > Published in the print edition of the February 2, 2026, issue, with the headline “A Fatal Error.”