Must-Read: Noah Smith: Who Is Responsible When an Article Gets Misread?

Must-Read: What Noah Smith does not get: The headline is not just part of the article–the headline is the most important part of the article. When academics complain that their articles have been misread because “I didn’t write the headline”, they do not have a valid complaint against the reader: the reader has correctly read what is in front of their eyeballs. They do have a valid complaint against the headline writer, and the organization that employs the headline writer. That’s who they should be directing their fire against.

Noah Smith: Who Is Responsible When an Article Gets Misread?: “How much of the responsibility for understanding lies with the writer of an article, and how much with the reader?…

…Most cases fall somewhere in between. And the fact that writers don’t usually get to write their headlines complicates the issue…. Susan Dynarski wrote an op-ed in the New York Times criticizing school vouchers…. Economist opinion is uncertain about… vouchers…. The headline of the article (which Dynarski of course did not write) might overstate the case a little bit: “Free Market for Education? Economists Generally Don’t Buy It”…. It’s a little click-bait-y, like most headlines, but in my opinion not too bad….

To be fair, [Scott Alexander’s] misreading was somewhat assisted by the headline the NYT put on the piece…. The fault here is partly that of the NYT, who used a headline that focused only on one part of Dynarski’s article and overstated that part. It’s a little harsh for me to say “Come on, man, you should know an article isn’t about what its headline says it’s about!” Misleading headlines are a problem…

A similar point applies to leads.

Headlines are the most important part of an article. And lead paragraphs are the second most important part.

When Jim Tankersley gives Peter Navarro and Wilbur Ross the first eight uninterrupted paragraphs to denounce Marcus Noland, Mark Zandi, and Len Burman, that is unprofessional. I call you out, Jim. You are better than this.