Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Misleading headline of the hour

First, before we get to the headlines, are the first two paragraphs for an AP story on President Bush:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President George W. Bush, working to recraft his stratgegy in Iraq, said Tuesday that he plans to increase the size of the U.S. military so it can fight a long-term war against terrorism.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Bush said he has asked his new defense chief, Robert Gates, to report back to him with a plan to increase ground forces. The president did not say how many troops might be added, but said he agreed with officials in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill that the current military is being stretched too thin to deal with demands of fighting terrorism.

Here's the NY Times headline:

Bush Plans to Increase Size of U.S. Military

Here's the Washington Post version (far punchier than the NY Times):

Bush to Expand Size of Military

Now here's the headling from Yahoo! News:

Bush plans to put more troops in Iraq

Huh? Bush hasn't said anything about putting more troops in Iraq. He continues to play coy about "the new way forward." He instead is talking about increasing the size of the U.S. Army. Whether the new SuperSized army will be deployed in Iraq is entirely separate question -- one that is so obvious, it's hard to imagine what the Yahoo! News editors are thinking.

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