Comment by taco_emoji

7 months ago

"Linkbait" implies it's hyperbole, but I would argue that the headline is a perfect description of the argument being made here.

Linkbait is about using tricks to grab attention rather than providing neutral information. Hyperbole is only one way to do that.

In this case "The man who" is a linkbait trope and "killed" is a sensational attention-grabby word. Composing them into "the man who killed" is linkbait.

  • The headline makes a promise and the article delivers on it.

    At this stage, I think your reading is idiosyncratic and not an actual problem with the headline in relation to the article.

    Editorialising it with a question mark that is not present in the article - which makes its case - is particularly inappropriate, as it makes it look like the article is asking a Betteridge question for a headline. This is you misrepresenting the article.