Why context matters

Finding examples of poor journalism is like shooting fish in a barrel today, what with the stock market meltdown and all.

Here’s a headline from the front page of CNN.

It rather looks like advice, doesn’t it?

It’s not.

Five paragraphs into the story, we get the real context of the quote:

“Investors are having one reaction to the downgrade: sell first and ask questions later,” said Paul Zemsky, head of asset allocation with ING Investment Management.