Some real and recent headlines…
“Pink Slams Chris Brown For Lip Synching at Billboard Awards.”
“Christie slams Obama’s ‘preening” in Rand Paul Country.”
Jon Stewart Epic Slam of Fox News”
“Corey Booker Slams President Obama”
Each of those headlines could be shortened to one word: “Burn.” Or if you’re feeling randy, two words: “Aw, Snap!” A strong sign the headline and the story presented is focused on the fight in the story more than presenting actual news.
What they usually paint as a “slam” is often a calmly delivered,sometimes sharp, argument or rebuttal. A real “slam” is what is hockey player or WWE wrestler does: hit you hard and lay you out flat. Face-to-face contact where the person being “slammed” feels it. That’s not what’s happening here. Here it’s in the same sense that coming up with a snappy rejoinder right now for something a bully did to me in third grade is a slam. The jab and the target of the jab aren’t near each other in space or time. Same in the headlines above. So in the case of news, “slam” is a level of hyperbole that, in the context of news, is meant to sexy up a story. In reality, what it actually does is to distort the true importance of the story and the reader’s ability to judge if it’s actually worth reading for news. It’s a headline designed to attract those who want to see blood and not understand a story.
It’s conflict. And as I say in my book Does This News Make Me Look Fat, conflict is one of the additives added to news to make news more appealing to consume. Even if that news is not mentally or factually nutritious. Conflict to news is like a fight in a hockey game. Not germane to playing the game or scoring points. But when it happens, everybody stops and watches.
And that’s the purpose of “slam” in headlines. To say, “Look a fight’s breaking out!” And like hockey fights, it turns a ordinary process into tabloid spectacle. And while someone may go to the penalty box, but the game isn’t helped or moved forward by focusing on the fight. That’s why reading stories with “slam” usually prove to be reading distractions more than helpful news.