Read before you write

I don't know about you, but I think that headline writers ought to read news articles before they write headlines for them.

For the article below, here's the headline: "California's median home price falls 38 percent." Now in the body of the article, we read two different values for the price fall: (1) a 38% decline from December 2007 to December 2008 and (2) a 49% decline from the peak price in the spring of 2007. Isn't the 49% decline more important than the 38% decline? It sure would be if you bought a home in the spring of 2007! What's the point of matching prices by months? What information does that tell you? To gauge the frightful state of the home real estate market it is better to see how far prices have fallen from their peak. In sunny California, we're talking a loss of up to half--and the losses keep coming. Now that's a headline!

Read it here