No more question marks in headlines.

December 2, 2025

Neera Tanden, president of Center for American Progress, asks a question of Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), 13 June 2025. Questions are fine, just not in headlines. (Photo: A. Kotok)

Here's an easy way to get through your daily media reading. Ignore stories, analyses, or opinion pieces with a headline as a question. Really.

This advice is based on my definiton of news: developments that tangibly affect the human condition. If the story reports on something important, the headline will say so.

I used this definition of news to produce Science & Enterprise for 13 years. Something real had to happen: e.g., research published, clinical trial begun, grant awarded, investment secured. As a result, S&E story headlines were in the form of declarative statements, not questions.

If a piece has a headline as a question, it's a good bet that writing is either click-bait or has little that's new. And if there's nothing really new, just more questions, you're probably wasting your time.

Now please understand: There's nothing wrong with raising questions. But if you're raising questions, at least try to provide some answers.

Give this advice a try for one or two days. You will be amazed just how much of your daily reading you can cut out. And you won't miss any real news: developments that tangibly affect the human condition. The only question will be: What will you do with that spare time?