Washington Post To Shut Down

Now that's an attention grabbing headline. And it's true: at some point, they'll shut down their printing press for maintenance.

Evidently, the Post is not above similar tactics to bring readers to its stories. Today's WAPO caught our attention with this story: "Empty Vehicle Left Near White House For Days." Well, it certainly looks from the headline like law enforcement is falling down on the job and endangering the life of the First Family in the process.

Only it turns out the vehicle in question was at 15th and M Streets. That's about a block from the Washington Post's headquarters, so maybe a danger to their intrepid reporters. But it's nowhere near the White House, at least in terms of some kind of car bomb danger.

Our guess is that "Empty Vehicle Left Near Washington Post For Days" just didn't have the same ring of a serious news story.

The story itself is not too interesting either, unless it's a really slow news day--the car was stolen and police ticketed it three times, instead of figuring out that it belonged to a military student. Indeed, it sounds more some of the satire we'd expect to see in the Onion.