Newspapers often make headline mistakes, including erroneous information or reporting events that never happened. Computer errors can also cause mistakes. The most famous misspelled headline in American history was the Chicago Tribune’s “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN” in 1948. Bad political headlines are common, especially during elections. Disasters and obituaries are also sources of bad headlines.
Newspapers make headline mistakes more often than many realize, but some bad headlines really stand out in newspaper history. Erroneous headlines carry radically inaccurate information or report events that never happened. In the modern era, such headlines are sometimes caused by computer errors, as technicians are eager to print the news and are missing something like a placeholder in a headline or a wrong headline thrown in to get an idea of spacing.
Arguably the most famous misspelled headline in American history appeared on November 3, 1948, when the Chicago Tribune proclaimed “DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN.” In fact, Truman won the 1948 US presidential election, and there’s a photo of the smug president brandishing a copy of the infamous newspaper to prove it. While initially quite embarrassed, as one might imagine, the paper later took the incident in stride, turning it into a running joke.
Many bad titles are political in nature. Citizens are constantly asking about elections and political issues, so many newspapers make mistakes in their haste. Especially in the case of a presidential election, it is common for two articles to be written in advance, allowing the newspaper to place the winner’s article as soon as a winner is announced. This sometimes means the wrong article gets published, as in 1948 and 1916 when Howard Hughes was announced the winner of presidential elections in several areas of the United States.
Bad Political Headlines also misreported various election results and vice presidential candidates, with Gerald Ford announced on the Republican ticket in 1980 and Dick Gephardt in 2004, when neither had accepted the slot. Errors are common in local elections, especially in newspapers with tight deadlines.
The wrong headlines also focus on disasters of public interest, such as the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and the Sago Mine disaster in 2006. In 1912, being privy to limited information, many newspapers confidently stated that the ship had been saved; only The New York Times was willing to step in and say the ship had sunk, which was later proven to be correct. In 2006, several major media outlets accidentally reversed the numbers of rescued and dead, proclaiming that all but one miner had been rescued, when in reality it was the other way around. In ongoing disasters, erroneous headlines that misreport the death toll are very common.
Another common source for bad headlines is the obituary page. Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur C. Clarke, Joe DiMaggio, Yasser Arafat, John Paul II, Benedict XV and numerous others were pronounced dead before their time. Incorrect obituaries are common when a prominent public figure has a serious medical condition, and are sometimes posted entirely by mistake, such as on the CNN website in 2003.
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