I'd be lion if I said there was an uproar

USA Today offered a story today on the reception by Christians of the new film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Here are a couple of relevant quotes:

Liz Strand, 31, of Minneapolis says she usually watches movies at home, via Netflix, but Narnia got her out to the theater.

"I have read all of The Chronicles of Narnia roughly 20 times, starting when I was in third grade, continuing up until my last reading of it this August," she says. "When I first heard the movie was being released, I wasn't sure I wanted to see it because I was worried it wouldn't live up to my expectations. (But) I loved it."

Strand says the religious message is there. But it is "up to the reader/viewer how much they want to read into it, which is part of the fun. C.S. Lewis wrote a great story that can appeal to anyone, yet has many allegories if one wants to make the connections."

Lily Lord, 8, of Falls Church, Va., finished reading the book with her mother the night before the movie opened. "It's a really good movie," she said. "They made it seem just like the book." Lily says she identified most with Lucy Pevensie, who discovers the wardrobe that takes the children to Narnia, because Lily, like Lucy, is the youngest of four.

Mom Cyndee Lord, 47, says the movie got raves from all of her children, ages 8 to 15. "They loved it." And the connections to Jesus "didn't really make any difference to them. I told them and they said 'Oh, really?' "

OK. People who like the Narnia story saw the movie and liked it. The Christian imagery didn't bother them. Nice story, but not exactly front-page news.

But let's talk about the headline on the story, shall we?

Back in my newspaper copy editing days, if I had worked this story, I might have written a headline along these lines:

'Narnia' viewers welcome film's faithful treatment of story
or
'Narnia' makers please fans by sticking to book's plot

In short, I would written a headline that would have put a positive spin on the film's premiere--not because that's the way I would have wanted people to think about the event, but because the story itself warranted such a headline.

But the USA Today copy editor who handled this story did something different. Here is his or her headline:

Little religious uproar from 'Narnia' opening

I have two thoughts about this headline. First, it seems to me that the copy editor was expecting an uproar from Christians, and the news (in his or her mind) was that the Christians' reaction was unusually meek. In other words, the news was what didn't happen rather than what did occur. (Actually, as far as I can tell from the story and from others I have read, there was nothing resembling an uproar, even a "little" one.)

Second, I have a strong suspicion that this copy editor fell into one of the classic errors of the trade. He or she thought of a cute play on words (using uproar to describe the reaction to a movie that prominently features a lion) and couldn't resist using it. I would applaud the subtlety of the play on words, if that is what it was. But in this case, the copy editor needed to resist the temptation to use the word uproar because it did not fit the facts.

Oh, well. At least the Christians didn't cause an uproar. Of course, it's possible that those who saw the film were 'lion' about their impressions. You never know.