Why It’s Important to Read ‘Moore’ Then Just the Headline

By Ben Haber

April 7th, 2008

By Ben

The Associated Press had a great article this morning about a man, Michael A. Moore, who lost fifty pounds so he could donate a kidney to his best friend. Until he lost this weight, doctors would not allow him to be part of the procedure because he was pre-diabetic. Moore ended up chronicling his weight-loss on YouTube, so that he could keep his friend updated on his progress and give him hope.

When Boston.com picked up this story, someone wasn’t paying very close attention. Instead of reading the article, someone noticed the name “Michael A. Moore” in the lead paragraph, and automatically assumed that this story was about the well-known documentary filmmaker, Michael F. Moore.

On the business/technology page of Boston.com (an image of the page is below), there was a picture of Michael Moore the filmmaker, and a summary of the article which says:

Michael Moore documents kidney donation on YouTube
The documentary filmmaker donated his kidney to his best friend. To prepare, he lost 50 pounds and chronicled his experience on YouTube.

Although this seemingly does make sense – a story about the filmmaker Moore loosing fifty pounds for a medical procedure sounds like something very conceivable – this is a good lesson for all: Read the whole article before commenting.

Entry Filed under: Branding & Advertising,Digital Media Relations,Mainstream Media