>>> The above headlines are from articles about the antiwar demonstrations that took place across the globe on 15 February 2003. Compare the number offered by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to that offered by the US's Associated Press (AP) via the Washington Post Website.

Oddly, the text of the AP article mentioned "hundreds of thousands" of protesters. Later versions of this same article replaced that with "millions." Yet the headline never changed. Of course, the headline is the part of an article that is read by the most people. Only a small fraction of people who glance at a headline will actually read the article itself.

For the record, Agence France-Presse gave the following numbers for the protests:

"The unprecedented wave of demonstrations, involving eight million to 11.5 million people, according to various estimates, further clouded US war plans a day after they suffered a diplomatic setback at the United Nations."

Source: "Millions Give Dramatic Rebuff to US War Plans." AFP, 16 Feb 2003, 4:57 PM.

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