In The Headlines

William Zinsser has an amusing but depressing piece on the tendency of the New York Times to feature headlines of the "Yes, But" format.

The pattern is:

Positive Trend
Faces Unhappy End

You see it all over the press, but I suspect the Times does it the most. He has lots of real examples.

But then he imagines how the Times would have spun the events of 1776:

JEFFERSON WRITES ‘DECLARATION,’
BUT BRITISH VOW ARMS BUILD-UP

Are their headline writers simply hedging their bets?
Must every announcement come with regrets?