I would just like to point out that erik's post makes no reference whatsoever to sarcasm.

It's really implied by his reference to circlebroke, which, I understand may be somewhat obscure. Here's an example from their front page.

I'm not sure what threads you're referencing but "shit show" is fine - as I mentioned above, "Humour is allowed but must be evenly spread". Shit show is a word to describe conflict, not one users side. If it's "Two users are having meltdowns in /r/grilledcheese" that's again fine both for commenting on both of them and being a pun. "Become agitated" is definitely on the scale because that's talking about one user not a conflict. Also the difference here is that you are posting about a massively posted topics, and the title appears to be contradicting what the OP actually said in the drama.

About a month ago I removed a similar on the line fence thread a while ago which had nothing to do with gender as titles that directly contradict what someone said in the drama. This is a similar situation, except additionally it's on a topic the community has said loud and clear they want to crack down on.

What about descriptions of entire subreddits and their reactions to certain events

Good question. I'm generally more lenient to picking on users than picking on subreddits because we get so much more repeated content trying to disparage subreddits than we do people repeatedly trying to disparage individual users.

Take these sample title from a pro-Gamergate/SRSSucks run subreddit:

Reddit votes GamerGhazi one of the worst subs. Watch as they respond with confused anger and fanciful conspiracies.

Meal supplement/protein manufacturer doesn't capitulate to SJW demands. Obviously this makes them bigots. Ghazi is salty about it.

These titles were submittted with the aim to disparage the subreddit /r/GamerGhazi. In comparison SRD submissions aim is to cover conflicts within a subreddit. Saying meltdown or butter explosion or whatever is exempt as that's what the sub is about, conflict. Choosing a side in the conflict is what is the problem. Conflicts have multiple parties, and titles in the best case portray both sides of the conflict from their perspective. Titles in the best case trying to find the spot where if you asked both parties in the conflict "does this describe the situation" they'd say yes. If your title is aimed at saying "So much drama in /r/askreddit!" that's ok, if your title is aimed at saying "So much racism in askreddit it caused some drama!" then that's not.

Sorry this isn't as concise as I'd like I'm just pressed for time, bias in headlines it's a complex topic and SRD sure isn't the first to deal with it. Funny article for example.