Now here’s a reason why editors are a good idea in general but in practice…
Somebody somewhere at the Washington Post should’ve said that the title is inappropriate. The US Navy destroyer in question did not open fire. Using the term “opens fire” implies that there was a serious escalation leading to a large number of shots being fired.
You know what actually happened?
The destroyer fired three warning shots.
Three.
The crew of the guided-missile destroyer USS Mahan (DDG-72) fired three warning shots to ward off four armed attack boats coming at the ship at high speed, a defense official confirmed to USNI News on Monday.
Source: https://news.usni.org/2017/01/09/uss-mahan-warning-shots-standoff
*bolding mine
Yeah… so either the title is purposefully trying to be sensationalist or it’s just some bad reporting at the Washington Post. Regardless, it’s a bad title.
It’s small things like this that really add up over time… crap like this is exactly why people are pissed about “the media“.
By the way, if you ever see a news headline about an incident involving the US Navy… skip the media company and go to https://news.usni.org/
They almost always have a write-up and almost always have more detail than the media company.