Friday

Department of Stupid Headlines: "Many of Haiti's Most-Wanted on the Loose after Earthquake"

I came across this doozy in the Washington Post in an article about escapees from a Haitian jail and the havoc they are creating in the area in and around Port-au-Prince. "Most wanted" status, of course, implies that criminals are on the loose, which they are indeed now. However, the criminals were no longer "most wanted" when they were, in fact, incarcerated in the Haitian National Penitentiary when the earthquake struck.

"Most wanted" - on the lam.

"No longer most wanted" - incarcerated.

That sort of thing. Admittedly the 4,500 escapees are a serious problem to the stability of Haiti (I doubt that said outlaws are engaging in prosocial activities like a logistics job search) and they are certainly now "most wanted" individuals, but they were not "most wanted" on January 12, 2010.