Peter Atwater: headlines "on the front page always confirm the bias of the reader"

When somebody picks up The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, whatever they do - and you can do it online - is to step back and say, as you're reading these headlines, "why are they here?"  "Why are these on the front page?"  And they're on the front page always to confirm the bias of the reader.  It is very, very rare that you'll see on the cover of The Journal, the Financial Times, the New York Times, something that is challenging, that's going to cause the crowd to step back.   What they want is for you to start reading and keep reading from there.  So the front page is telling you, "this is the consensus view."

So often you will have seen a story that a week ago was on page B-18 move to the front page of the B section, to move finally to the front page of the front section.  So that migration is telling you that the  story has legs, that it sticks and that the momentum is now peaking.  I think it's important to recognize that front page acreage is incredibly expensive.  So nothing can last there.  It hits and goes.  So this is the editors capitalizing on the frenzy, and once it's there it's done.

~ Peter Atwater, "Indicators Hiding in Plain Sight," interview with Grant Williams on Real Vision, 17:30 mark