Sensational Headlines Might Mislead

Law enforcement agencies are government departments, dependent on taxpayer money, and like getting credit for good deeds.

News media likes sensational headlines because it gets them clicks and viewers.

A lot of people have conspiratorial and crisis thinking, meaning they are sure there's a crisis going on, and it is the result of a vast conspiracy.

Every once in a while, there will be a headline like this:

"68 Missing Children Recovered From Human Trafficking Operation, [Law Enforcement Agency] Says"

That makes it sound like there was a building with 68 children inside of it, where strangers would go and pay money to sexually abuse them, maybe "buy" them to take home.

Shocking, right? How evil!!!

Except... that's not really what happened. And thank goodness it isn't.

First, the "human trafficking operation" refers to program, or even just the press release, of the law enforcement agency, not some organized criminal activity. "From" should be "By," but that's still misleading. The "program" by the law enforcement agency could be a matter of a couple of people on the staff being told to go through some files and sort things out.

"Missing Children" will cause people to think we're talking about 9 year-olds who were abducted by strangers while they were in front of their home, or in some venue. In many cases, it is referring to teenagers, often 16 and 17 year-olds, who ran away from "home," whether home was headed by their biological or adoptive family or foster parents. Those teens might be mentally ill, they might be fleeing abuse, the might be trying to stay with a boyfriend or girlfriend, they could be crashing on a friend's couch or in their garage, they may have decided to trade sex for money/drugs, or they may be minors of any age, from infant to 17, who are the subjects of a custody dispute or "abducted" by a non-custodial parent. If Joe has his three kids with him, and refuses to hand them back to his ex Jane, that's THREE "missing children".

"Recovered" means that they are no longer considered missing or of concern. It can be as simple as the person turning 18 and saying "This is where I want to be, leave me alone."

The numbers, like 68, could be referring to cases spread across many months and a wide area. Your state's road department isn't going to get attention if it reports "We filled ten potholes today." But if they say "One million potholes filled!" that sounds newsworthy. But one million over how many years?

Nobody should be abused. Abduction and assault are horrible things. People who are a danger to their own children shouldn't have custody. Absent abuse, custody agreements should be honored. Runaways need to be protected. Drug addiction is awful. Please don't think I'm not concerned about any of those things.

But some headlines needlessly frighten or even panic people, and if the article itself is essentially republishing a vague press release about which no questions were asked, then people aren't getting enough information on what actually happened.

So what happens is that:

• Diverse situations are lumped together
• Things that happened months ago are lumped in
• A sensational term is applied 
• Some readers are very disturbed by the headline
• Anyone who questions the headline must be a conspiring predator in the minds of the panicked
  

Read and think critically.

Ignore the headline. Read the article carefully. What does it really say? Who are the sources? What questions aren't answered (who, what, where when, why, how)? Is there more to the story? Look for words and phrases that could mean things were very different than the initial impression.