6th Most Romantic People in the World ?

Update: Fadi Chahine, online editor ar the Daily Star has responded to this post in the comments section.

This morning, I was taking a look at the Daily Star’s “Most popular articles” column, and at #1 I found this story:

Lebanese 6th most romantic people in world: report

And by “report”, the Daily Star ostensibly meant “completely subjective and random top-ten-list by a travel website vaguely associated with CNN that regularly publishes link baits and fluff pieces with titles like ‘Top 10: The biggest lies in Bollywood’.

I understand when normal people flood twitter and facebook with links to that post. It boosts our Lebanese International Celebrity Syndrome and gives us something (regardless of how dubious) to be proud of on valentines day. It’s fun and it starts conversations.

What I don’t understand is when a respectable newspaper misrepresents that story and makes it sound like some sort of scientific study in which we were objectively declared the world’s six most romantic nationality (for whatever that means).

Does that mean the Daily Star is not allowed to get into the clicks and pageviews bandwagon that this story is guaranteed to provide? Of course not. But for heaven’s sake put it in your gossip page alongside celebrity news, Guinness world records and other lowbrow fare.