In my opinion I think quotes in general should be banned from being headlines. It’s been abused as a tactic for making inflammatory headlines with little factual basis under the technicality it just being the words of someone else.
It’ll be paraphrased from something a Tory said and I suspect the quotes cover the “paper” from libel since they can then claim it was opinion rather than fact
I read a while back that it’s to insulate the paper from any potential defamation lawsuits, the quotes are there to ensure the difference between “we believe the strikes are harming patients also this person says they must stop” and “this person believes the strikes are harming patients and also says they must stop”
It’s actually very common practice in the UK, most headlines make use of quotations to endorse a position by means of quoting an opinion and providing context to that opinion.
In this specific case it is of course bullshit, the language of the headline is deliberately worded to incite anger against the healthcare professionals and the quotes are added to preserve the emotive qualities of the headline when read by the layperson while insulating the paper from legal risk.
Why is written ‘harming’ in single quotes? Is this some opinion that someone has had that they are publishing as fact?
In my opinion I think quotes in general should be banned from being headlines. It’s been abused as a tactic for making inflammatory headlines with little factual basis under the technicality it just being the words of someone else.
Couldn’t agree more, you see it used a lot to punt far-right & clickbaity nonsense
Banned by who?
It’ll be paraphrased from something a Tory said and I suspect the quotes cover the “paper” from libel since they can then claim it was opinion rather than fact
Yes, the health secretary, it literally says so in the headline.
I read a while back that it’s to insulate the paper from any potential defamation lawsuits, the quotes are there to ensure the difference between “we believe the strikes are harming patients also this person says they must stop” and “this person believes the strikes are harming patients and also says they must stop”
It’s actually very common practice in the UK, most headlines make use of quotations to endorse a position by means of quoting an opinion and providing context to that opinion.
In this specific case it is of course bullshit, the language of the headline is deliberately worded to incite anger against the healthcare professionals and the quotes are added to preserve the emotive qualities of the headline when read by the layperson while insulating the paper from legal risk.
Yeah it’s in the first line of the article under the headline.