Outside the Beltway

BAD HEADLINE

James Joyner · Monday, August 25, 2003 · 1 comment

Wonder who the genius is that wrote this Boston Globe headline:

Big Shiite demonstration outside coalition headquarters, U.S. death toll stands at 276

The impression given is the the Shiites rioted and have killed 276 Americans so far. In fact, the two thoughts conjoined with the comma are totally unrelated:

Thousands of Shiite Muslims protested peacefully Monday night outside the headquarters of the U.S.-led coalition in Baghdad, charging the occupation force was lax on security and did too little to stop a weekend of ethnic bloodshed in the north and the bombing at the house of an important Muslim Shiite cleric in the south.

The U.S. military reported a soldier died of a non-hostile gunshot wound, bringing the number of soldiers killed since major combat was declared over to 138. A total of 276 soldiers have died in combat or by accident since the war began March 20.