I happened upon this tragic news story about the brutal death of a London teenager this morning.
When I first glanced at the page, all I saw was the big bold headline: "Jail for honey-trap murderer" and the portrait of the young man right next to it. My first thought was, "this young man must be the murderer they are talking about." Naturally, right? Okay I admit, it might also be a moment of reverse sexism, in which I assumed that the perpetrator of violence was male. But then I read a little further. I was mistaken - this young man was the victim!
I scrolled down a bit. There, below the fold, was the real culprit - the teenaged girl with whom this young man was smitten, who lured the him into a darkened cul-de-sac where he was beaten to death by gang members.
Thinking back to my days on the high school paper and lessons in page layout, my take is - either you write a headline that focuses on the victim, with the victim's picture placed on top, or your write a headline about the murderer, with the murderer's picture on top. This set-up is just daft, causing confusion all around and doing nothing for the young victim's memory.