. . . the front-page headlines of the day:
"28 Pages May Not Unlock Mystery of Saudis and 9/11," The New York Times, front-page lede, June 18, 2016.
"28 pages might be key to unlocking mystery of Saudis, 9/11," The Houston Chronicle, front-page, below the fold, June 18, 2016.
The kicker: It's the exact same . . . .
. . . news article by Times reporters Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane. The Times wrote and ran it; The Chronicle picked it up in syndication.
Headline watchers relish these sorts of funny conflicts, sometimes between newspapers, sometimes inside the same newspaper. They often bespeak carelessness, ignorance, and other human failings and faults.
Here, however, there's a reasonable explanation why two headline writers went in different directions. The key is in the verb phrases: may not unlock mystery and might be key to mystery could both be true.
Maybe the report will settle the mystery; maybe it won't.
One newspaper's headline writer goes all gloomy: may not unlock. The other, by comparison, is all sunshine: might be key.
Not as damning as first appears, but still, funny.
Credit to Lady Di for catching this one.
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