Hilton Hed
I realize I might now be accused of being dismissive about the Big Journalistic Issues. But I've written the "Sky Is Falling" post before. And we've all read it, from my pen or others, a million times. If you really can't get enough of that kind of thing, however, be patient: I'm sure that there will be something along those lines up on Romenesko soon.
Anyway: Check out CBSNews.com's headline about the latest Paris news, now splashed across the top of the site. It's "Paris Hilton Is Free!" Not, you'll note, "Paris Hilton Is Free." There's an exclamation point in there.* You don't see exclamation points in headlines too often, for good reason. Just add exclamation points to the headlines of two of today's other top stories and see how they look: "Bush Set For Tough Talk With Putin!" "Man Drowns In Bid To Retrieve Cell Phone!" Um, yay?
So why put an exclamation point on the Paris story? Is it a ! of excitement? Or a ! of outrage? Perhaps. My take, however, is that CBSNews.com, in a moment of self-flagellation, is offering up a sly little moment of irony. This Paris story, after all, is pretty embarrassing for anyone who likes to think of news as a serious business, and the folks here simply couldn't bring themselves to plaster it across the site without throwing in a wink – an item of punctuation that says, "Hey, you don't care about this, right? But you're clicking on the story anyway. Which is cool! But not really!"
Note that I'm now using the exclamation point for much the same purpose – ah, the layers, they are just piling on. Regardless, this morning's exclamatory headline struck me as a subtle admission that this Paris saga is a bit of pop culture rubbernecking about which we probably shouldn't be too proud.
*Update: They took it out! I mean: They took it out. Whatever!