The Burr in the Burgh

If you read a headline that said, Irish Favour Legalising Abortion, what would you assume would be the substance of the article? Doesn't this headline lead you to think that, gee, I dunno, the Irish people are in favor of legalizing abortion? Is that a fair assumption, do ya think?

Well, what if you then actually read the article and the first sentence said: Irish voters under 35 strongly favour legalising abortion, but if a referendum on permitting abortion was held now it would be defeated, according to an opinion poll.

The rest of the article goes on to give statistics showing that though the young and hip crowd would like a referendum on the current law, in fact, the majority of the Irish people are against it. Don't you think the more sensible title of the article should be: Irish Don't Favour Legalising Abortion?

What's up with that?

My thanks to Jivinjehashaphat for this.