Dear Editor,
An observation was brought to my attention yesterday. The Guyana Times front page lead was captioned ‘Mining Camp Killings…Weeping relatives give DNA samples- appeal for justice.’ The Stabroek News front page lead was captioned ‘Emotions run high as…Lindo families give DNA.’ The details on page eight bore the same caption. The Kaieteur News and the Guyana Chronicle did not print the story.
I think the Stabroek News could have worded their headline a little better in order to make a little more sense and be grammatically correct. ‘Lindo families give DNA,’ I believe, was very misleading not to mention inaccurate if one is to really examine the headline and the details of the story in the true sense of the word.
The Guyana Times had a better headline.
In the quest to minimize words on the front page to capture readers’ attention and make the letters bigger and bolder, we cannot sacrifice accuracy and what makes sense grammatically.
The media also has to be careful when reporting these stories. We have to decide whether we’re going to use ‘Lindo Creek Massacre’ or ‘Lindo Creek killings’ or ‘Lindo Creek murders,’ all of which mean virtually the same. However, some consistency would be nice. We have the daily newspapers using all three headlines willy nilly.
Also there is the use of ‘Lindo Creek’ and ‘Camp Lindo’ and even ‘Lindo Creek Camp.’ Could these people make up their minds?
Mr Editor, read the Stabroek News headline over and over and see if the second portion doesn’t seem a bit odd.
Yours faithfully,
Leon J. Suseran
Editor’s note
The caption referred to was well within the boundaries of headlining conventions.
