Headlines of the Day

Today's Huffington Post screams:

"WASHINGTON POST ELIMINATES BUSINESS SECTION"

which caught my attention, since our publication is a business pub and I would naturally be drawn to a headline like that, much as I would have something like "BUSH RESIGNS" a few months ago. Only problem: it's totally false. The WaPo has eliminated the stand-alone business section on weekdays, folding it into the A section. That's a cosmetic change, not a shutdown.

Just under that misleading head comes this:

"TMZ EXPANDS FINANCIAL COVERAGE"

linking to a NYTimes story that says nothing of the kind. TMZ, a fluffy celebrity coverage site, is simply covering financial scoundrels with the same kind of breathless prose it uses for Octomom and a variety of well-known, entertainers known more for their time in bars than in libraries. The tribulations of Bernie Madoff, whom it calls "the most hated man in America," is an example of "financial coverage."

The Roanoke Times' lead headline in the Saturday automobile section was this little tragedy:

"A voice of it's own"

My question: is "it's" a contraction or a possessive? Surely, the headline writer and the succession of proofreaders following that didn't mean "A voice of its own".