The BBC knew it was about a bird

This is the headline for an article in the science section of the BBC:

“Great tits cope well with warming”

Not surprisingly, the article has been Digged over a thousand times.

The editors who write the headlines knew that an article about Great tits would grab people’s attention. Even if no one read the article.

But that means we trust just a little bit less right? This is another chink in the armor of news filters. Will this make me think twice about clicking on a BBC article? Probably not. But a few more great tit-like articles, and yes, I’ll trust a bit less.

The editor that wrote that story was trying to be funny. In the end, this editor chipped away that the BBC brand. Just a bit, but enough. and for the BBC, was that worth the hits?