> Apple, betrayed by its own law firm
Honest question: what is the comma doing in this headline?
Honest question: what is the comma doing in this headline?
Edit: oops, but that's not what this headline did. Nonetheless, the headline seems reasonable to me as a native speaker.
The equivalent to your example would be, "Law firm betrayed Apple, its client."
Lincoln assassinated by John Wilkes Booth
There's an implied "to be" verb, generally "was". This is very common in headlines.
The comma introduces a parenthetical phrase describing Apple, implying Apple is going to do something:
Apple, betrayed by its own law firm, countersues with gusto
Apple, ["who was"] betrayed by its own law firm, believes the best revenge is living well