The headlines often do not match the story - or, as in the case of the recent Kid Rock interview by Piers Morgan, the CNN news headline skewed the whole story. The headline reads: "Kid Rock: My Gun is Loaded, Ready." Yeh, he said that, but it was less than a minute's worth of a 10+ minute interview that covered a wide range of topics, not the least of which is Rock's dropping his concert ticket price to $20 so more people can afford to go. That is much more newsworthy in economic hard times than whether the guy totes a gun when he goes to Detroit. But since Morgan is on a gun control crusade, I guess that headline better suited his show's intent that day.
The news media is as much to blame for rumor-mongering as the rockers are for creating their own bad reputations. In this case, Kid Rock actually had a lot of intelligent things to say on many topics that certainly improves his reputation and he is very capable of articulating his viewpoint, whether or not you agree with him. That's much more interesting to me than whether he packs heat and the unbalanced approach CNN took to report on the interview was uncalled for. How about this as a headline: "Rocker as Accidental Philosopher - Kid Rock on Solid Ground."
If news, and the associated headlines, would get back to reporting the story as it actually played out and not just the stuff dedicated to scaring people, we, the audience, would be a lot better served, don't you think?
Very well said!!
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