## Summary > *"Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word 'no.'" Betteridge's Law of Headlines is a quippy maxim that, though far from being axiomatically true, describes the tendency of sensational headlines [[Just Asking Questions|phrased as questions]] to be false. This is evidenced by the fact that any journalist writing such a headline would phrase it as a statement if they had sufficient evidence to make the claim outright. ## History This rule of thumb is named after Ian Betteridge, a columnist who wrote it in response to a TechCrunch article titled *"Did Last.fm Just Hand Over User Listening Data to the RIAA?"* It has also been called *"Davis's Law"* and the *"journalistic principle."*[^1] [^1]: Per [Wikipedia.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines)