How do I remove HTML and special charaters using jQuery?

Answer 1

The question was changed to ask something completely different after this answer was posted.

See @T.J.'s answer for a solution to the new question.

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Do it with — gasp, shock horror — vanilla JavaScript!

var $headlines = $('.headlines'),
    headlineText = $headlines.text(),
    replaceText = headlineText.replace(/•/g, '');

$headlines.text(replaceText);

or, slightly sexier syntax:

$('.headlines').text(function (index, text)
{
    return text.replace(/•/g, '');
});