2014-10-14   Democracy students - misleading headlines

For several weeks the Hong Kong democracy students had been asking the Hong Kong government for talks, but the government refused. Then late on the night of October 2, the government announced it was willing to have talks with the students. So this headline was wrong: Hong Kong students agree to talks with government. It should have been "HK government agrees to talks with students". www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-02/hong-kong-students-agree-to-talks-with-government/5787206

On October 1, tens of thousands of students gathered at the Admiralty protest site, which stretched towards Central. Many media reports on October 2 referred to the absence of the police. I myself was there. I did not see even one policeman. So this headline was wrong: Bus loads of police arrive (in Central!) at Hong Kong protests.
www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-01/hong-kong-protests-bus-loads-of-police-arrive/5782050

Protests paralyse Hong Kong said this headline, whose story had the words "Banks and schools have been closed" - giving the impression that the whole territory was paralysed and that all banks and schools were closed. In fact only a very small percentage of schools and banks were closed.
www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-29/hong-kong-protests-continue-to-disrupt-city/5776294

This excellent analysis of the HK situation Protests fade in Hong Kong as demonstrators take stock was slightly spoiled by a misleading sub headline "As much of Hong Kong returns to work..." - which implied that many/most people had stopped work, and that many/most people still had not returned to work, both of which were false.
www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/07/hong-kong-protests-fade-take-stock-beijing-china