The family of woman’s right activist is suing Arches National park for $270 million in regards to her death. When I saw this headline, and I imagine you as well, thought the woman was climbing one of the famous rock structures at Arches National Park and fell to her death. That the family is looking for a payout in regards to the woman’s own stupidity.

Well, The Hill, you win today’s misleading headline of the week award. The reason being that she was killed when wind slammed a metal gate closed so forcefully it sliced through her car and she was decapitated.

The headline is misleading not because it is inaccurate, it misleading because it was written for the purpose of deceit knowing the assumptions that would result. The first line of the article further advances the deception by prominently mentioning she was a woman’s right activist. You won’t be surprised to find there are many people looking for reasons to eviscerate social justice proponents and the headline along with the first line of the article is a direct appeal to them.

Many of the people who click the headline or even manage to bring themselves to read the first paragraph of the article will come away with a serious misunderstanding of events and they will spread it far and wide on their social media platforms.

This is the danger of misleading headlines in general. Arches National park owes the family of the woman some money, I’m not sure if it’s $270 million or some other amount but there is not question in my mind that a settlement is in order.

Were you fooled? I was until I took the time to read the article and learn the facts of the matter.

Tom Liberman