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I always thought this was for precisely the oppposite - i.e. that news headlines (edit: I mean whole articles) were more often "A Florida Man has been arrested" because they were not allowed/didn't have the names.


I think using the term "Florida Man" is a meme now and probably carries more weight than using the accused's actual name.

From the wikipedia article:

> Miami New Times claimed that freedom of information laws in Florida make it easier for journalists to obtain information about arrests from the police than in other states and that this is responsible for the large number of news articles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Man


I understand now, the headline reads "Florida Man arrested" and then the article will have "Bob Bobbinson was arrested today for ..."


How many headlines about non-public figures have you seen that include someone's name?

"Tim Jones has been arrested" isn't exactly an informative headline.


Well that's just taking things too literally. I meant the whole article would use "Florida man" instead of a name.


I Googled the name hoping to prove that wrong, I wish I hadn't.


The headline is usually "A Florida Man has been arrested" because news stations all around the country dig through Florida public records to fill space when their local news is slow. It says "Florida" because it is not local to the outlet that is publishing it. Local news usually says "local man" or specifies a locality.




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