Yesterday morning, the Morning News put up a short piece by former pop music critic Thor Christensen, who is still a pretty regular contributor, regarding all of the deaths in the music world in 2016. The piece is fine. Straightforward.
What stuck out to me, though, was its headline, pictured above. David Bowie and Prince are obvious choices, but Glenn Frey? He’s not even the most notable member of the Eagles. When I think of Glenn Frey, I think of this Adam McKay short. Bowie and Prince were icons. Glenn Frey — you know, I don’t have the time or inclination to fully get into this, but Glenn Frey was not. I honestly forgot he died this year, either proof of his relative lack of impact or the sheer amount of times 2016 has kicked me in the jeans. Even if I was to be generous and allow that, yes, to some, he was a swaggering stubble-bearded god of safe wankery, in no way does he belong in the same triumvirate with Prince and Bowie, and no one could argue that.
It’s clear what happened: whoever wrote the headline for the piece literally took the first three names and inserted them into the headline in that order. So, whatever. I made a joke about it on Twitter. If you scroll down, you can see someone tweeted at me that a lot of people would have included Merle Haggard instead. AND THEN …
The Morning News actually changed it to include Haggard.
Did my Twitter account make this happen? Probably not, but maybe so. You know, it’s almost the holidays, so let’s say, yes, absolutely, this was all me.
