I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the titles to my blog posts...truth is, I don't spend a lot of time writing them either. I write fast, publish fast and then move on to other thoughts and activities.
A few days ago, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl wrote a suicide note saying that she wanted to be a martyr and then went off to commit the Israeli version of "suicide-by-police," which is often "suicide-by-soldier."
She succeeded...well, in committing suicide but my guess is the sad joke is on her because she's not a martyr to anything but ignorance and stupidity. I titled the article "Innocent Palestinian Girl Shot by Israeli Troops in Jerusalem" and a few things happened.
First, a lot of people, thousands of people, clicked on that link. One person condemned the Israeli soldiers for shooting her instead of hitting her with a baton or knocking her down (she was coming at them with a KNIFE! Do you want YOUR child to try to hit someone with a baton when that person is racing towards them with a raised knife? What are you stupid?). I'm happy that others answered his comments because my answer might have been less civil.
But what really bothers me is not the title, but the reaction/result of having used it. In particular, two things:
The first is that people condemned the article for suggesting that a terrorist is innocent. They did this because they didn't bother reading the article. The lesson for all of us is simple - titles are often intended to mislead (not that many of the articles that features such titles are much better). The major news sites are notorious for using a catchy phrase with mis-truths and half-truths and no-truths to follow. Pro-Israel friends of mine couldn't believe that I would write a post suggesting that a terrorist was innocent...and I didn't. Sadly, too many didn't read the article. The headlines was enough. It gave them information - the wrong information.
The second is that within a day, it became one of the most read posts on this blog of ten years. Ten years. So far, more than 18,000 people have seen the article. Which means...what? That all the years I've been writing about my beautiful country, my sons, my life here is of less interest than the death of one young Palestinian who decided to commit "suicide-by-soldier".
Now how depressing is that thought?
A few days ago, a 16-year-old Palestinian girl wrote a suicide note saying that she wanted to be a martyr and then went off to commit the Israeli version of "suicide-by-police," which is often "suicide-by-soldier."
She succeeded...well, in committing suicide but my guess is the sad joke is on her because she's not a martyr to anything but ignorance and stupidity. I titled the article "Innocent Palestinian Girl Shot by Israeli Troops in Jerusalem" and a few things happened.
First, a lot of people, thousands of people, clicked on that link. One person condemned the Israeli soldiers for shooting her instead of hitting her with a baton or knocking her down (she was coming at them with a KNIFE! Do you want YOUR child to try to hit someone with a baton when that person is racing towards them with a raised knife? What are you stupid?). I'm happy that others answered his comments because my answer might have been less civil.
But what really bothers me is not the title, but the reaction/result of having used it. In particular, two things:The first is that people condemned the article for suggesting that a terrorist is innocent. They did this because they didn't bother reading the article. The lesson for all of us is simple - titles are often intended to mislead (not that many of the articles that features such titles are much better). The major news sites are notorious for using a catchy phrase with mis-truths and half-truths and no-truths to follow. Pro-Israel friends of mine couldn't believe that I would write a post suggesting that a terrorist was innocent...and I didn't. Sadly, too many didn't read the article. The headlines was enough. It gave them information - the wrong information.
The second is that within a day, it became one of the most read posts on this blog of ten years. Ten years. So far, more than 18,000 people have seen the article. Which means...what? That all the years I've been writing about my beautiful country, my sons, my life here is of less interest than the death of one young Palestinian who decided to commit "suicide-by-soldier".
Now how depressing is that thought?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Sorry to require verification, but I'm tired of deleting comments in Chinese trying to spam the blog. Please bear with me and enter the code. Sorry.