Tank’s Take: Beware misleading headlines on the Internet

By MIKE TANKERSLEY

Ed. Note: River Region Sports begins a new feature with a look at media highlights and observations of Mike Tankersley, who has spent several decades as a writer, columnist and editor for several publications. He currently writes from Arab, Alabama after spending much of his adult life in the Montgomery area. He is also a regular guest on River Region Sports radio with Graham Dunn.

This has been brought up before, especially on Graham Dunn’s midday sports talk radio show on WTLS (River Region Sports), but this new wave of “journalism” being practiced in some corners of the Internet is just about to drive me crazy.

It is fake news, literally in some cases. At the very least, it should be called deceptive.

I don’t like it, and there’s nothing I can do about it – except maybe to stop calling up such stories to read them.

But here’s the catch. I can’t stop, because they keep reeling me in.

Two recent examples – in the last two weeks – perhaps explain what I’m talking about. First, there was a story about former Braves reliever A.J. Minter, who recently took a better contract offer from the hated Mets. So, two weeks ago, I saw a story online about Minter ripping the Braves.

That’s the kind of story that interests me. As a fan, I hated to see Minter leave Atlanta. But everyone who follows the Braves knew – or should’ve known – that re-signing Minter or Max Fried probably wasn’t in the cards. It’s just the way the business of baseball goes this day and age. Players leave for better offers all the time.

It’s sad and it’s a blow to the team and its fans. But it’s not earth-shattering. It happens every year, unless you’re a Dodgers fan.

But when a player says something negative on his way out the door, it could be a bad sign for your team. Has the front office lost its edge? Is management starting to get more stingy than in years before? I’ve had no reason to think GM Alex Anthopoulos has lost anything off his fastball when it comes to managing the Braves.

He’s never had the highest payroll but he does have assts, and he’s done everything he can to make the Braves competitive. He’s been right more times than he’s been wrong. And he already has won a World Series with the Braves.

So what in the world was Minter talking about that merited such heavy criticism all of a sudden?

Well, it turns out, Minter said no such thing. He said he loved his time in Atlanta, he loved the fans and he was thankful for the opportunity the Braves franchise gave him.

So what did he say? Essentially he said he doesn’t play for the Braves anymore and in fact he plays for their biggest rival, so starting now, he’s going to do everything in his power to beat the Braves. That’s exactly what the story said.

Gee, would you expect him to say anything else?

But the headline said Minter ripped the Braves. He did not. This headline wasn’t just deceiving. It was wrong.

As a Braves fan, I would have read the story if it had had a real headline, like Minter’s sorry he has to leave or Minter looking forward to new challenge.

That headline was deliberately deceptive to make readers rush to call it up. I don’t like that. It makes me very much distrust the source. But how do you know it’s a deceptive headline until you read the article? You can’t. But it’s a cheap-ass way to run your business.
The Minter story was bad but the most recent example of such misleading headlines has been in my newsfeed for days now. It said, Braves dealt bad Ronald Acuna news before season even begins.
Uh oh. What now?

To my relief – and anger – there was no “what now” to the story. Acuna will start the season continuing to rehab his injury, just like we were told last season after the injury occurred and at the end of last season. This was no injury update. It was just a statement of a fact we already knew. In this case the deception was deliberate.

I know and understand what these people are doing. While I was writing headlines for newspaper articles that we put on our website, we were encouraged to make use of the extra space for headlines that the Internet offers. Also, if you could get a key word in the headline that online searches would pick up – think Saban, or SEC or, yes, Acuna – then do it.

But don’t exploit it for cheap website hits. I know it’s useless to try to change things like this, so this is basically a warning to readers. Don’t be fooled again.

Speaking of fairness, I believe it’s OK for fans of both Oklahoma and Alabama to claim Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts as one of their own. Hurts made numerous on-field contributions to the Bama program, and maybe most significant of all, he showed the kind of class and courage all college football fans admire. I know I did. I know a lot of Bama fans who did.

That he went to OU to more fully develop his passing game was a very savvy move that Bama fans didn’t begrudge, because he showed class in doing so. Those passing skills were on full display as Hurts led the Eagles to a resounding Super Bowl victory. And those legs he showed at Alabama didn’t hurt.

Fans in both camps had to be pleased.

And to top it off, Hurts connected with former Bama star Devonta Smith on a bomb that was somewhat similar to the catch Smith made in the national championship game after freshmanTua Tagovailoa relieved Hurts. It seems like everything came full circle for the young TexaS.

It’s safe to say Jalen Hurts is feeling great this week about his entire career, which also includes a Super Bowl loss. Hurts is THAT guy college and high school football coaches will point to in the future about not giving up. Think long-term young guys, in football and in life.

“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the right time, we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9.