Enough with the clickbait, New York Times

What is clickbait?

Simply put, it is a headline or graphic designed to generate interest that leads to a story or article that does not deliver the promised content.

If the headline is “Disney+ cancels a Star Wars show” then the article needs to tell you what show is being cancelled. Yes, it’s designed to make you click, but it delivers what it says it will deliver.

Now that the New York Times knows that most of its readers are online, its headline writers have gotten good at catchy headlines. That’s fine, because it usually delivers what it promises.

Not any more.

Here’s some New York Times clickbait

Here’s how the link for an opinion article appeared on the New York Times home page:

And here’s what you see when you click through:

There is a video, but there’s a bunch of promising text under it. So maybe I can read what Lichtman predicts without having to watch the video. The text starts like this:

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are scheduled to debate on Sept. 10, but the 2024 presidential election is already in the bag — at least according to Allan Lichtman, the American University historian who’s been dubbed the Nostradamus of presidential election predictions for his near-perfect 40-year track record.

Mr. Lichtman was among the few to accurately predict Mr. Trump’s victory in 2016 (earning him a Sharpie-scribbled note from the candidate lauding the “GOOD CALL!”). Immediately after the first 2024 presidential debate, between Mr. Trump and President Biden, Mr. Lichtman was also quick to warn that Mr. Biden dropping out of the race could be a “tragic mistake for Democrats,” leading him directly into an online battle with the forecaster Nate Silver. The confidence is rooted in Mr. Lichtman’s simple, history-driven model, which tunes out polls and pollsters and instead focuses on 13 true-or-false questions that he says hold the “keys” to the White House.

Now we’re primed to see what this modern-day Nostradamus has to say about the 2024 election. So read on. And on. And finally, at the end of the article, this:

And that’s what makes it clickbait. An article whose conclusion is . . . watch the video? What is this, TV Guide? I want news, not video entertainment. Go screw yourself, New York Times. I don’t have time to watch 7 minutes of exquisitely produced video of a 77-year old guy explaining his method. Put the news in the lede.

Since you probably don’t have time, either, I’ll tell you (spoiler alert!) that Lichtman says the majority of his “keys” to the election predict that Kamala Harris will win.

Feel free to watch the video if you want. But I just saved you 7 minutes that the New York Times was ready to squander . . . along with its reputation for actually telling the news, rather than treating us as “eyeballs” to be passed around from article to video to, dare I say it, Wordle.