SMH Headline an Example of "Underdogma"--Written So as to Drum Up Sympathy for "Underdog" Taliban

"Battered but defiant, Taliban offers hopes of talks," reads the header in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Memo to SMH headline scribbler who's apparently in the throes of "underdogma": if the Taliban is "battered," that's a good thing. ("Defeated" would be even better.)