In the case of the pizza CEO, the headline is what is misleading, making the apology sound like an admission.

In the case of the representative, it's a case of the denial sounding like an admission.

For the pizza man, it is CEO of Papa John's, John Schnatter, who rightfully apologized for an employee (or ex-employee, as he noted) leaving a voicemail of a customer after butt-dialing him and going on a racist rant about his supposedly low $5 tip... not that low for a $15 order, by the way.

Talk about stupid. The delivery man and the co-worker who laughed at the rant were fired, and Schnatter apologized. All seems right and proper.

However, the long-embattled CEO (fighting weakly against Obamacare by threatening the hours of his employees, being targeted by Deadspin for appearing drunk at the NCAA Final Four) did not get a nice headline.

"Papa John's CEO apologizes for racist rant," read clickondetroit.com's headline. Ouch. I saw that and thought, well, there he goes again.

The subhead clears it up, but the headline on the homepage had me thinking he was the racist, something I based on prior news coverage about him in recent years. I don't think he's racist, but he is from the South and he's had headlines about intoxication and the president. Throw in the restaurant business, and one thinks of Cracker Barrel and Waffle House lawsuits.

Glad to know he's toeing the right line here, though I still prefer Papa Romano's.

Next up, Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann says she's quitting Congress, well not quitting, but she's not running for reelection, having squeaked out a meager victory in 2010.

The often-embattled Congresswoman posted a youtube video explaining reasons that did not impact her decision to leave the House.

It is not because she fears losing. It is not because of investigations into prior campaigns expense reporting, related to her short-lived attempt at the presidency. She goes into deep details about expectations she had her staff obey laws. She says that "eight years is long enough."

The weird thing about the video is that it is polished and filled with background music that it sounds like a campaign ad. Less than a minute in she starts the denials, making me think she is fleeing the scene. So what does she have planned next, TV commentary and a book, or some other seat? I'm guessing she's cashing in.

Here is the video:

He was just 58 and he was beloved by many in his country.

Venezuela's oil makes the passing of Hugo Chavez an international story. It's a huge story because he was one of the handful of significant world leaders to challenge the U.S., putting him on the side of Cuba and Iran, traditional enemies to many traditionalists.

Of course, many of the people in those countries would love most things American, I suspect, but their leaderships like the animosity between us. Iran and their leaders hatred of all things Israel are the truly scary parts of the equation.

Most news outlets, it seemed, handled the Chavez story with regular respect, noting the illness, the treatments, the trade between us and them, and the speculation of what the death will mean first to relations and also to their internal stability.

The DrudgeReport's headline, "Hell's A-Burning," went a bit far even for them. Such glee in their snark. It matches the NY Post's headlines, Hugo to Hell Now.

Such snark minimizes his impact, yes, but ignore is to ignore key changes in the world, as the leader had a significant impact not just in his country, but in that region.

Now, a little smart humor works best, always, such as this:

George Takei

Well, no one lives forever. When Hugo, Hugo.

I wouldn't call it the B-1 curse.

Plenty of teams and players have graced the front of our wonderful sports section and gone on won games, trophies, and championships.

But when the timing is off, I do notice. We finally had a nice column from our excellent Detroit Pistons beat writer, Dave Pemberton, on Sunday, the most important day of the week for newspapers, especially their printed product.

"Pistons finding ways to win tight games," Pemberton's column's headline proclaimed.

On Monday morning, with the Sunday paper on my desk to ensure that Sunday's content missed on Sunday's web site received proper play on Monday morning, the biggest day and time of the week for the newspaper's digital product.

Headline on the home page: "Pistons fall at home to lowly Bobcats in OT, 108-101 WITH VIDEO"

The four-game winning streak was gone. Oh well, we tried to promote the team, and I'm optimistic they are still on their way up. I'm even rooting for a playoff birth, still, kinda, though it's anchored in realism.

At least they are making it worth watching.