I am becoming increaingly perturbed by the use of inverted commas in headlines...

[MrFibble]

Why do they do this? I notice this particularly on the BBC website. The sections in inverted commas do not appear to be quotes and for some reason I find the use of inverted commas suggestive of doubt. Examples can be found at the link below:

BBC world news

Mind you, I doubt the story about the 'global surge' in Rhino poaching as it's non-existent here in Luxembourg and so I can guarentee it has not surged!

So, am I 'missing the point' or do I have a point?

Apologies for the typo in the title .

It's lazy journalism, but it's too signify that the words inside quotes are not facts, but someone's view - ie it is not the voice of the publication saying there is a global surge, it is the opinion of someone else. Common across all written media, and I agree quotation marks should be reserved for actual quotations.

it's a quote from the report, mentioned in the main story, that's how i interpret it. if not, then yes, misleading.

I did see something along the lines of 'alleged' assault. Which sort of cancelled out the point that the assault was alleged doesn't it? (I think)

yes Ikloo, so they are suggesting that the assault was alleged. So does that mean it was stated as fact, maybe...

saw a menu recently talking about sandwiches made with 'real' ham...er what?

yes, iklboo, you're right: alleged means it may or may not have happened "alleged" means they're pretty sure it happened but they can't say that yet.
it's a face in a headline.

unless they just don't know what alleged means.

That's what I thought. It implies that the assault isn't actually alleged in a 'we-know-something-you-don't-know-but-can't-tell-you-or-we'll-get-sued' kind of way

That's alright, a journalist the other day was interviewing someone who had been electrocuted.

Obviously it was someone who had only had an electric shock, otherwise the interview wouldn't have been possible.

A slight aside here; what's the difference between inverted commas and quotation marks? I am perplexed.

inverted commas is another name for speechmarks (quotation marks)
they can be " or ' ("is usually when quoting a speech or writing speech down: He said "i'm going". and ' is usually used when you're just highlighting something (or implying something: he 'said' he was going [ie he didn't go even though he said he intended to]) ' is also used to mark a sepeech within a speech : He said "I'm going and she said 'I'm going too', but she didn't".)