In the midst of all of the government drama, former Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on "60 Minutes" to talk about his health. Apparently, Cheney has suffered from five heart attacks, his first one when he was 37. After about two months of being sworn-in as vice president, he had a letter of resignation written just in case another attack would happen leaving him incapable to properly carry out his duties. He has recently undergone a heart transplant. However, I was more how CNN covered this story.
Normally, I wouldn't be entirely interested in this subject matter. Yes, I think it's great Cheney's heart is in better condition now. Modern medicine and procedures are truly a miracle. However, I clicked on the link to the story because I thought it read "Dick Cheney opens his heart." That sounds appealing, I thought. I wonder why a former vice president would be opening his heart to the media. Even though the title was truly "Dick Cheney opens up about his heart," the title was still meant to intrigue readers. I couldn't help but marvel at the tactics CNN used to increase readers' interest.
The most important things, most times, can be headlines. If the headline isn't interesting, what will push people to read the story in the first place? Truthfully, I wouldn't have clicked on it if I knew that's what the story was about. Like I said, I am very happy Cheney is in better health now, but it truly doesn't interest me. CNN sparked my interest, and I thought he was possibly was giving his interpretation on what was happening in the government currently, spoken from his heart. Nice move, CNN.
This is crazy. It is amazing that he is able to keep up a stressful job in politics with such a bad heart condition. It seems that the stress from the job would be a huge part of his problem. I am not sure that it is a good idea for him to keep doing it! You are so right though when it comes to headlines. I just scroll through my headlines and if it interest me, I click.
ReplyDeleteNews websites do seem to have a talent for coming up with attention-grabbing headlines for stories that are not even that interesting. Plenty of times when I've been on news websites they have stories about studies with "surprising" results and things like that, while of course the headline gives little idea just what the result would be. It can certainly get kind of annoying, but I guess it's a good tactic on their part.
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