I don’t know whether headline writing is a low-paying job that attracts incompetent people or they’re under time pressure and can’t do a decent job. Or perhaps their bosses tell them, “Never mind respect for the reader, write clickbait!” A headline that I just saw on Yahoo News tops them all: “No, Donald Trump Isn’t Wading Through Hurricane Floodwaters, You Absolute Morons.” I don’t know why Yahoo decided it was a good idea to grossly insult all its readers, but I won’t reward them with a link. You know the search-engine routine. Here’s a screenshot, in case the people responsible have been sacked by the time you read this.

The article itself is reasonable. It’s about the latest fake photo making the rounds on social media. The people who write articles usually don’t control the headlines. In the right context — say, a website that regularly has fun with its readers — a headline like that could be funny. On a page which people turn to for the latest news, in the middle of a list of reports on airstrikes and climate trends, it’s an insult hurled at the readers.

There’s another way to read the headline, but it’s not much of an improvement. Maybe it’s intended not to insult the readers, but to invite them to think of anyone the picture fooled as an “absolute moron.” Most people just glance at photos on social media, not examining them carefully for signs of fabrication. It isn’t critically important to most people whether Trump waded into high waters for a publicity shot. People of normal intelligence could be fooled, and grossly insulting them is a poor way to point out their mistake.

Yahoo and other news sites, how about a little respect for your readers?

Update: The article is originally from a site called Futurism, which is fond of calling its readers absolute morons.