With some chagrin, I read an article in the Europe edition of Stars and Stripes titled “Congress heads back to work with record-low disapproval rating” (Jan. 18).

I was momentarily elated, until I read the article, which gave a disapproval rating of 84 percent! If that is a record low, it means that Congress has never enjoyed more than 16 percent approval by the American public. The ghost of Richard Nixon would be no doubt pleased to hear that.

I suspect the writer of that headline meant a record-low approval rating (of 13 percent, according to the article).

Does anyone at Stars and Stripes proofread headlines? How is it possible for a headline to indicate exactly the opposite of what the article states?

I realize that many of the current generation of journalists are too busy playing video games to pay any attention in English class, but I would expect some intelligent adult supervision. Evidently that’s asking too much in this day and age.

Paul G. Liebeck

Bamberg, Germany

Migrated