The problem with headlines

Some recent headlines about a position taken by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were baldly wrong.

For example:

— “Mormon Church urges Utah not to bar ‘conversion therapy’ for LGBTQ minors” (CBS affiliate in North Carolina)

— “Mormon Church opposes Utah LGBT ‘conversion therapy’ ban” (South Florida Gay News)

First, some of you no doubt are frustrated at the use of “Mormon Church” in these headlines after President Russell M. Nelson specifically asked media outlets not to no longer use what he called an inaccurate nickname. He instead asked that they use the proper name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I wrote about this issue here a few months ago. Simply put, as someone who has written thousands of headlines for print publications, I know they require short terms. Change understandably can be slow. But news outlets go to great pains to avoid misnaming people and organizations in their stories.

The greater problem with the above headlines is that they are inaccurate. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not “urge Utah not to bar conversion therapy” nor did it oppose a “Utah LGBT conversion therapy ban.”

In fact, church leaders consistently have denounced conversion therapy over several years. The stories that prompted these headlines were about a statement by the church indicating that while it continued to denounce conversion therapy, it did not support a specific proposed rule to ban conversion therapy in Utah because its legal, political and Family Services experts believe the rule is faulty and a bad public policy.

That’s not nuance. Journalists must clearly state the difference between opposition to language in a proposal and opposition to the overall point of the proposal.

The worst headlines were these:

— “In a reversal, the Mormon Church now opposes Utah’s ‘conversion therapy’ ban” (Patheos)

— “Utah rule likely to ban LGBTQ conversion therapy despite objections of influential church” (KSLA)

The church did not reverse its position on a conversion therapy ban nor did it object to banning it. Instead, the initial proposed legislation the church did not oppose in February was replaced by a proposed licensing rule this fall that does not include what church leaders believe are important protections for therapists and clients of faith.

Some headline writers saw the word “opposed” and didn’t read any farther. That’s increasingly problematic in a world where many people don’t read past the headlines as they scroll through their Facebook and Twitter feeds.

The following are better headlines, albeit it with the same church name problem:

— Mormon Church opposes Utah’s ‘conversion therapy’ ban, calling it overreaching (HuffPost)

This one is the most accurate:

— Mormon Church says it opposes conversion therapy, but is concerned about rule to limit it (Metro News)

These kinds of headline issues crop up regularly in covering the church. Most notably, headline writers struggle to portray accurately the church’s position in support of nondiscrimination laws for LGBTQ people and, last year, the church’s position in support of legislation legalizing medical marijuana.

The internet is driving journalists to work faster as news arrives, and we post it online as quickly as possible. It remains vital that we do it responsibly, and that responsibility begins with the headlines.

What I’m Reading ...