I have "no idea" where they pick up using quotes like that. Jesus that drives me nuts. :D

If you "liked" that, you'll "love" this:

http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com/

I believe I've seen that one once or twice before. All of this makes my ears bleed. Yes, my ears. It's that nuts.

this site is amazing

PLEASE DO NOT THROW TOWELS IN THE "TOILET"

I have to laugh, otherwise I'd cry.

BBC News seem to have some internal rule that every headline "must have" a ridiculous quoted excerpt. I can see how someone could then derive a habit of quotation-for-emphasis from practices such as this.

(Naturally, today, they appear to be writing normally. But I'm sure there are other offenders.)

Interesting. Once I start treating the "quoted" material as "italicized" it vaguely starts to make sense. Relatively speaking, at least.

Quote signs in headlines are shorthand indicating something someone's claimed that the news organization not been able to fully confirm - they aren't (necessarily) reported speech.