Great newspaper headlines
October 24th 2010 09:36
Kelvin Calder MacKenzie (born 22 October 1946, South London) is a British media executive and former newspaper editor. He is best remembered for being editor of The Sun newspaper between 1981 and 1994, an era in which the paper was firmly established as Britain's best-selling tabloid. His period as Sun editor was also controversial.
MacKenzie was responsible for the May 4, 1982, "Gotcha" front-page headline, which reported the controversial sinking of the Argentinian battleship General Belgrano by a British submarine during the Falklands War. MacKenzie was heavily condemned by some commentators who felt he was glorifying slaughter and the headline caused a storm of controversy and protest, although MacKenzie had actually changed the front-page of later editions to "Did 1,200 Argies drown?" after it was established that there had been a large number of Argentine casualties.
Newspapers, and most of the journalists who have worked in them, are not unfamiliar with controversy. Serious newspapers report it; those like The Sun, and Kelvin Calder MacKenzie, welcome it.
Love him or loathe his tabloid values, however, MacKenzie did much to energize and indeed refine the art of newspaper headline writing, and we dedicate our list of nine all-time favourites to him.
1.
Super Caley go ballistic Celtic are atrocious
The Sun, UK, on first division Inverness Caledonian Thistle beating Premier League heavyweights Celtic 3-1 in the Scottish Cup (2000).
2.
Freddie Starr ate my hamster
The Sun, again, on Lea La Salle's claim that the comedian had eaten her pet in a sandwich. The story was later shown to be a fabrication, but this remains one of the most remembered headlines of the past few decades.
3.
Cash is better than a Czech
During the 1987 Wimbledon men's singles final, in which Australian Pat Cash beat Czechoslovakian (later American) Ivan Lendl in straight sets, a fan held up a sign reading "Cash is better than a Czech". Several newspapers borrowed it for headlines the following day.
4.
Headless body in topless bar
New York Post on a local murder (1983).
5.
Great satan sits down with the axis of evil
The Times on US-Iran talks (2007).
6.
Ice cream man has assets frozen
The British Broadcasting Commission, not to be outdone by the tabloid punsters, put this heading on its web page over a story about an Irish ice-cream salesman suspected of smuggling tobacco (2005).
7.
Fog blankets Channel - Europe isolated
This headline, famous for depicting the smugness of the British, was in fact not a headline but a cartoon in the UK's The Daily Telegraph in the 1930s. Instead of demonstrating English superiority, therefore, it demonstrates instead their ability to laugh at themselves.
8.
Obama Chooses Sen. Hilary Clinton for VP slot
This headline appeared on the Los Angeles Times web site, along with several other headlines claiming Evan Bayh, Chet Edwards, Kathleen Sebelius, Tim Kaine and Bill Richardson had been chosen as vice-president. Apologies were issued for the accidental release of the pre-prepared headlines and accompanying stories.
9.
Pauper Tigers
In 1989, the Richmond Australian football club, known as the Tigers, came last in the Victorian Football League. At the end of its miserable season, it announced a trading loss much larger than expected, putting the club dangerously into the red. This headline, a rare triple pun (playing on "Tigers", on their poor performance and on their poor fiscal status), was on a report of the story in an Adelaide newspaper.
en.wikipedia.org, forum.sportal.com.au, www.thehumorarchives.com, www.highbeam.com, www.iwu.edu
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