Movies dramatize the dashing foreign correspondent running to cover a violent act. And reporters are trained to write gripping narratives to capture readers' attention. So Gelf can forgive newspapers for occasionally forgetting that a tragedy like the London bombings is real life and not stagecraft. But it's another thing to explicitly call the horrific acts "drama," as several articles did in the past two weeks. There may be a natural tendency toward voyeurism among readers following such a story from across the Atlantic, but that doesn't mean newspapers should feed that unfortunate tendency.

Here's a sampling of poor reportorial and headline-writing judgment:

New York Times, July 8: "Witnesses Post Instant Photos on the Web to Capture Drama"
[That headline appeared in the print edition and in many other newspapers that picked up the report, but the Times's own web version of the article wisely cut off the headline after "Web."]

Minneapolis Star Tribune, July 8: "9/11 witness lives through another drama"

Guardian, July 13: "A day of drama"