When this news anchor’s car goes missing, people get worried. That’s the implication of the headline of Donovan’s post on the Toronto Sun, which that it was stolen from his driveway in Toronto. “Wrongfully accused TV host pleads guilty to couriering stolen SUV to Canada for Dubai auction,” the headline read.
Great headlines — mine! — go a long way in winning readers. So, thanks for the bad idea, folks. Don’t you love headlines, especially ones that involve criminals? I do, but it is a pretty lonely job.
Donovan, as the reporter points out, is not the crime reporter, though. His job is to deliver information to the news audience.
He called the mayor of Toronto into question by giving his address: “Mayor Rob Ford declined to say why the vehicle was left unattended in his driveway.” Those stories were about “spies” based in Turkey, and the mayor of Halifax, Nova Scotia, was not in on the details that Donovan did not reveal on air.
That was the big story, for what, ten seconds?
Vanity Fair
BuzzFeed
NPR
Wash City Post
NY Daily News
Just like that, the website scored nearly 10,000 page views. It racked up another 3,750 page views across the three stories.