If the NYT is the same as British newspapers, the person who wrote the article doesn't write the headline. It happens here too, and its really annoying because often the article has a much more nuanced picture than the headline would have you believe. In an era when people do read the article after reading the headline it's somewhat forgivable - getting someone's attention then they get the nuance, but in the internet era when people just read the headline it's anachronistic.

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kibwen 2 hours ago | parent [-]

> If the NYT is the same as British newspapers, the person who wrote the article doesn't write the headline.

This has been the case for essentially all newspapers since time immemorial. Reporters write the articles, editors write the headlines.

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js2 an hour ago | parent [-]

While true, NYT took a clear turn towards clickbait headlines in the last 5-10 years. It used to have more self-respect.

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jatora 19 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

You're fooling yourself if you think newspapers and news media in general haven't always been about attention-baiting.

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satvikpendem 43 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Blame the economics of the Internet. Companies use clickbait because it works, there have been many examples of this, and if a company wants to stay revenue generating in this day and age it must use clickbait.

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kibwen an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don't discount that it's possible that NYT headline policy could have changed in the last decade, but sensationalism when it comes to newspaper headlines is the historical norm. "Clickbait" is an ancient phenomenon:

"In A History of News, Mitchell Stephens notes sensationalism can be found in the Ancient Roman gazette Acta Diurna, where official notices and announcements were presented daily on public message boards, the perceived content of which spread with enthusiasm in illiterate societies."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensationalism

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reactordev an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

It’s all AI now

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donohoe 30 minutes ago | parent [-]

At the NYT? I don’t doubt AI is used in figuring out headlines but ultimately a human makes the decision.

	▲	falcor84 22 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Quite funny to think that we might have AI models meticulously nudging newspaper editors in order to carefully control the public's Overton Window about AI, playing some 5d chess.