Ridiculous Titles for TV News Coverage

I saw an example of bad judgement today on the news. Sensationalism at its worst. The murder of a local bartender was presented with graphics that read "Cold Blooded Murder." Give me a break. Aren’t most murders, by definition, cold blooded?

It’s redundant. Someone doesn’t just walk around with warm fuzzies and gun another person down, do they? Same goes for “terrible tragedy.” When was the last time you heard of a wonderful tragedy?

Sometimes clichés or redundancies get into a news script because you are pressed for time and don’t have time to seek them out and fix them. But trying to label news coverage with sensational titles is just irresponsible. A good rule of thumb is... if you are struggling to give something a title, maybe it doesn’t need one. “Bartender Murdered” may sound boring, but it tells the story, it’s easy to write to, and it won’t be outdated. Managers will sit in an office and rack their brains trying to figure out a title for coverage, but often there’s no thought given to how easy it will be to write that title into the coverage. They seek input from other members of the news team for titles, then shoot down the most obvious ones that will work in favor of awkwardly worded sensational junk.

I can count the number of times my suggestions for titles of coverage were actually used on one hand. I hope eventually stations will see that those over-the-top titles only turn viewers off.