Here is the entire news event: Trump will give a speech on Thursday. That's it. Content unknown. He says it's “really, really big news” about “free and fair elections,” plus “a couple of other things.” An announcement OF an announcement — zero calories, all trailer. Which makes the headlines a perfect lab experiment: with no facts available, every word in them is a choice. * AP's choice: “Trump will speak on elections in primetime address after pushing debunked conspiracies.” The fact-check rides in the headline itself, like a movie poster that prints the Rotten Tomatoes score. AP's story adds that audits and reviews — several run by Republicans, including his own first-term Justice Department — found no significant fraud in 2020. * CNN's choice: “Trump says Thursday address will focus on 'free and fair elections.'” The sales slogan, chauffeured into the headline inside quote marks. To be fair to CNN, its first paragraph calls the speech “yet another high-profile opportunity for the president to dispute the results of the 2020 election he lost.” The honesty is in the building — it just wasn't allowed upstairs, where the headline lives. * Fox's choice: a video item titled “President Donald Trump to address the nation on Thursday.” A date and a time. That's not a headline, that's a calendar invite. * What might actually be in the speech, per the wires: newly declassified material about voting machines and alleged foreign meddling. Trump was already warming up the act on Monday — AP notes he “repeated baseless claims of voter fraud in the Los Angeles primary race for mayor,” telling Newsmax that Spencer Pratt lost his primary because of fraud. The warm-up set usually tells you something about the main show. * When there's no event yet, a headline can't describe — it can only position. AP positioned itself next to the record. CNN positioned itself next to the quote marks. Fox positioned itself next to the remote control.