Spotting a Non-Story Posing as a Real Story - Lesson 1

Okay, I need your help on this one. The following headline appeared on a FoxSports.com article late yesterday/early today: NFL investigating Packers bounty payments. Now, I'll give you a link to the actual story in a second, but first, I want you to see if you can come up with a good idea of what you expect this particular story to be about. Take a few seconds before you move on.

Done? Okay, here's the story: NFL investigating Packers bounty payments. Assuming this was the first you've heard about this story, is that what you expected to read about? I would guess you expected to read about Packers players being paid for injuring an opponent, or something a bit more heinous than simply holding a team or a player under 100 rushing yards in a given game, something that in football terms could simply be referred to playing good defense. While the definition of bounty can technically include the kind of simple incentives for good play being referenced in this article, clearly it is a word that has more provocative and sinister connotations. It evokes images of bounty hunters, of putting a price on someone's head, and the like. The average human being would call this sort of payment a bonus, or an incentive, or possibly even a reward, and stop at that, without the word bounty ever entering their mind. The use of the word becomes even more provocative when you know that one of the opposing players who was the subject of one of these so called "bounties" was injured while playing the Packers.

This story has not (yet, anyway) made front page news on any major sports site, nor have I heard it mentioned on multiple sports radio shows, so it's not currently eligible for the Overblown Non-Story of the Week award. It is, however, clearly a non-story. While the Packers may have technically broken an NFL rule that prohibits rewarding specific performances, it's a minor infraction that will likely involve at most a slap on the wrist.

I bring it up because, in conjunction with the coveted Overblown Non-Story of the Week award, I'm planning on putting together a good list of tell-tale signs that you're dealing with a non-story. This article is a perfect example of a feature that will undoubtedly make the list. If someone felt they had to use a misleading, provocative word like bounty in the headline to get you to read about it, I'm going to estimate there's at least a 95% chance you're dealing with a non-story. And if it's not a non-story, you're probably dealing with a headline writer who should lose their job.

It would appear that, at least for the time being, this situation has been appropriately given non-story status, even with the misleading headline that appears in virtually every occurrence of the story I've found on the internet. Working together, we can spread awareness, and help to ensure that other deserving non-stories meet the same fate.