Why Did Headlines Turn Dry Report Into Controversial One Demanding ‘Let Older Drivers Run Red Lights’? – Forbes
Carlton Reid
“Elderly drivers may soon need mandatory eyesight tests after new safety recommendations,” stated an accurate but dull headline in the U.K.’s Daily Express on November 25.
The Daily Express was the only national newspaper to report on updated recommendations from the Older Drivers Task Force, an arms-length body created in 2014 and part-funded by the Department for Transport.
On December 2, the newspaper revisited the story with a new headline: “Let older drivers run red lights without getting points – controversial report.”
This “controversial report”—which had been described by the Daily Express as nothing of the kind a week earlier—does not mention red-light-running.