Here’s the headline on a story in the Chicago Sun-Times: “Suburban Obama delegate quits over ‘divisive’ remark.” Here’s the subhead: “Says when she called black kids ‘monkeys,’ she was asking them to get out of tree.”

Being a newspaperman of many years, I know a thing or two about headlines. They are supposed to accurately convey the essence of the story. Now, any reasonable person would have a problem with a woman, whether an Obama delegate or not, calling little black children monkeys. If she did. Check out what she really said (emphasis added):

Ramirez-Sliwinski “came outside and told the children to quit playing in the tree like monkeys. The tree was not on Ramirez-Sliwinski’s property,” Carpentersville Police Commander Michael Kilbourne said.

Any reasonable person would have to agree that “she called black kids monkeys” and “she told the children to quit playing in the tree like monkeys” are two very different things. But most newspaper headline writers, reporters and editors are not reasonable people.