An incident which took place outside the Israeli embassy in Ankara on September 21st was reported on the BBC News website in an article which carried three different headlines in the space of eight hours.
The BBC’s original description of the incident in which a man tried to stab a security guard at the entrance to the embassy and was then shot in the leg was as follows:
“Turkey attack: Man shot at Israel embassy in Ankara”
Obviously that headline led audiences towards the erroneous belief that the “man shot” was the victim of the “Turkey attack” rather than the perpetrator.
Following criticism on social media, over six hours after its original publication that headline was amended to read:
“Turkey attacker shot at Israel embassy in Ankara”
Two hours later the headline changed again – perhaps in an attempt to clarify that the target of the attack was neither a large bird nor a country:
“Turkey Israel embassy attacker shot in Ankara”
Notably, other media outlets appeared to encounter considerably less difficulty in coming up with a headline which accurately and concisely portrayed the story.
Reuters: Knife-wielding man shot outside Israeli embassy in Turkey: officials
Telegraph: Knife attacker shot attempting to storm Israeli embassy in Turkey
Al Jazeera: Turkey: Knife attacker shot in front of Israeli embassy
CNN: Attacker shot outside Israeli Embassy in Turkey
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