A Festival Declared Dead While It Was Very Much Alive

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A Headline That Outlived Its Truth

By Sunday morning, Sept. 14, families were strolling through Panda Fest eating noodles and snapping selfies. At that very moment, one Charlotte outlet decided to tweet that the festival was “shut down.” The only thing shut down was their sense of proportion. Yes, the fire marshal closed the gates Friday night. Yes, that happened. But by Saturday morning the event had reopened. Pretending otherwise two days later wasn’t news. It was taxidermy — a living event stuffed and mounted for clicks.

Clickbait in the Wild

This is the modern hustle: shave off the context, flatten the timeline, and watch the traffic spike. The full article at least admitted Panda Fest carried on through the weekend. But the social post? Stripped of detail, it misled the public at precisely the moment they were deciding whether to attend. That’s not journalism. That’s the digital equivalent of leaving “closed” on the diner door while the cook is flipping pancakes inside.

What Gets Lost

It isn’t harmless. Vendors lose sales. Neighbors stay home. And readers — the people who trust you to tell them what’s happening in their city — are treated like dupes. When local reporting undermines the very community it’s supposed to serve, the cost isn’t measured in pageviews. It’s measured in empty chairs at a festival and one more notch off public trust.

What We Do Differently

At the Charlotte Mercury and Strolling Ballantyne, we don’t confuse Friday night with Sunday morning. If an event is shut down, you’ll hear it from us — promptly, clearly. And if it reopens, you’ll hear that too. Our job isn’t to trap readers in a stale headline. Our job is to keep them informed, even if that means doing the unfashionable thing: updating a story. We don’t leave people wandering Twitter like fools in search of the full picture.

What a Decent Tweet Looks Like

Here’s what honesty would have sounded like:

  1. “Fire marshal shut down Panda Fest Friday night. Gates reopened Saturday morning. Festival still underway.”
  2. “Yes, Panda Fest paused Friday. But it’s back open for the weekend crowd. Details here.”
  3. “Closed Friday evening. Reopened Saturday morning. Panda Fest rolls on. Unlike this headline.”

Short. Accurate. And crucially, not a disservice to the people who rely on you.

A Closing Note

If your headline can’t outlive a carton of milk, maybe don’t sell it as news.

About the Author

I’m Peter Cellino, founder of Mercury Local and publisher of the Charlotte Mercury and Strolling Ballantyne. This piece was fueled by coffee that probably should’ve been cut with water, but restraint doesn’t make good ink. And if you want to see how we’re trying to rebuild local news, check out our blog at mercurylocal.com/blog.

Fine print for those who like to rummage in the cupboards:

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