Has online news perverted the wit of headline writing?

David Carr, who writes “The Media Equation” for the New York Times wonders the same.  In a world of search engine optimization, are we trading the classy snap of old school headlines for cheap name-dropping and keywords? Carr reminds us of the New York Post classic, “Headless Body in Topless Bar” in making his case. Seen anything that good lately? Didn’t think so. According to Carr, “the need to attract attention from computer-generated algorithms sometimes makes the headlines seem like a machine thought them up as well.”

For more on headlines, see the Media Equation.