That may be true, however there is still quite a disconnect between the intended "quoting" and resulting 'scare quote' issue. Basically, without knowing the quote, it adds a pile of sarcasm to the title roughly equivalent to:
When something is quoted in a newspaper, it's just that: a quote. Unfortunately, some editors will pick quotes selectively in order to sensationalize the headline, but that doesn't mean a quoted phrase is meant to be suspect.
To wit:
Area woman "terrified" by Sex Predadtor - implies the woman, when asked, said she was terrified, not that "terrified" should be taken with a grain of salt.
Not necessarily. Try reading " 'brilliant' " as " described by his colleagues as 'brilliant' ", take into account the well respected people that he worked with and its a far higher compliment than the article writer, who is almost certainly not a programmer, could possibly offer.
wow, I couldn't believe it either. A scare quote headline with a full suicide note republished. I did notice no one at the Huffington Post would attach their name to this trash.
If you look at about half the comments in this subthread (including the grandparent of yours), you would see that these are not scare quotes — they're the normal kind of quotes, which indicate a quotation.
Not sure, but I think it's a journalistic convention. Since the person was not generally well known, the quotes indicate that it's something others who do know him say. They're not being sarcastic.
Yep. Newspapers have developed a kind of shorthand to deal with the tight space constraints on headlines. Putting a description of a person in quotes is short for "who has been called…".
But also, using quotation marks purely for emphasis/sarcasm is an informal practice, it doesn't belong in something like a news article (or an essay, legal document, etc. ).
Yes, but whether someone is brilliant or not is usually an opinion, and as such should not be stated as fact in news to the general public with almost no exceptions.
People like Einstein are the only ones who get the exceptions, and I don't mean any disrespect but this guy was simply not Einstein.
