Danny O’Neil outraged over ‘father’ marrying ‘son’

People scanning the Internet for news this week may have found out a father married his son. At least, that’s what headline writers got readers to believe.

As it turns out the “father” and “son” are a gay couple. One man legally adopted his partner because it was the only way to be afforded any rights at the time. They dissolved the adoption and were officially married last Sunday in Pennsylvania.

How the headlines were phrased is a tactic that 710 ESPN’s Danny O’Neil said was completely unethical.

“I was furious at the headline,” he told KIRO Radio’s Tom Tangney. “I think it’s awful.”

A headline news outlets across the country used to get readers to click on the story demonizes and vilifies same-sex marriage, O’Neil said. What the headline should have read is something like: “Law finally catches up with relationship.”

“It’s clickbait,” O’Neil said. “It’s clickbait and I’m angry about them tricking me.”

In the writers’ defense, there are quotation marks around “father” and “son” in the headlines, Tom pointed out. But they do trick readers into clicking on the story, he added.

But how is a “clickbait” headline any different than a radio tease?

“It’s a matter of degrees,” O’Neil explained. “You don’t want to lie to people or evoke a reaction in someone that doesn’t reflect the nature of the story.”

As a side note, “clickbait” is one of 1,700 new words in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Tom said. That one he knew of before the addition. It was NSFW that had him stumped.