I don't claim to be an expert and I definitely lack an English degree. But I was an early reader of Orwell so I learned early on how to recognize how words are used by the media in order to lead the reader to a given conclusion.
For instance; When protesting students were attacked with chemical weapons most media outlets claimed the incident was a
clash
That looks like an assault to me. Yet the media portrayed the situation as something involving mutual combatants instead of an officer acting in overreach of his authority.
Now I went to @BreakingNews on Twitter and found the most recent post:
Colo. AG John Suthers asks state Supreme Court to stop gay marriages in #Boulder County - @dailycamera bit.ly/1qHjrh3
Well that link went to another tweet. And that tweet did not lead to another story.
So.
I Googled John Suthers and filtered the results for within the hour by choosing search tools and selecting the thumbnail that says anytime. If you want to choose a preset one you can up to one year. But you can also search for something in a specific time range. 1972 for instance regarding the term 'horse'. This brought me to a contemporary music video obviously made after 2000 by the use of digital video and contemporary editing practices.
I found a full article on SFGate:
DENVER (AP) — Colorado Attorney General John Suthers is trying again to stop Boulder's clerk from issuing same-sex marriage licenses.
Suthers filed a motion with the Colorado Supreme Court on Monday asking it to order clerk Hillary Hall to stop providing the licenses.
Both the Colorado Court of Appeals and a state judge in Boulder have refused his previous requests to stop the licenses from being issued in Boulder...
Now for a title to this piece there are several aspects that can be highlighted. Or not.
First off the instinctual move is to attack the attorney general for forcing his values on the population despite the inappropriateness.
Like this:
Suthers jealous he didn't wait, attempts to quash Boulder Gay weddings.
But that is not very succinct:
Fundaloon grasps at straws in Boulder
And that title lacks information. Sometimes you want to reduce the information in the title to spur more readers of the article itself. But other times especially for breaking news involving public notification the writer wants to put as much relevant information in the titles as possible as the post is an informational post. Tornado and Tsunami Warnings would fall in this category.
A neutral title would be along the lines of:
Attorney General challenges City Clerk of Boulder in court.
Informative and lacking in loaded words meant to spur ideas about the case by the reader first thing.
Leading with the state or city can also be helpful for readers.
Colorado AG attempts to stop Gay weddings in Boulder
There are a myriad of ways one can attempt to be humorous about a title as well. But that is fraught with danger as you will be assuredly interpreted negatively by at least one reader. And that is not reassuring even knowing it is to be expected. And remember to
punch up when writing comedy.
Understand a title is just a heading to get attention. Do not use it to falsely lead the reader to your story. But use it to inform and, if you dare, entertain.