my lede collection

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Wed Nov 20, 2002 2:19 pm

A colleague and I have been collecting bad ledes that have been submitted by local or wire desks. To qualify, the lede must have made it to the copy desk.There are many. I'll parcel them out to avoid bad lede overload. Also, I will remove the reporters' names. Here are a few: DUANESBURG - The three-vehicle accident on State Route 20 Thursday afternoon resulted in a 7-year-old girl being rushed to
Albany Medical Center by a LifeFlight helicopter with a head injury.---Spectacularly debauched, scatologically obsessed, ugly, French and dead, Serge Gainsbourg may be the least likely pop star of 2001.
------ Knight Ridder LEXINGTON, Ky … Relief for men with erectile dysfunction might be just a breath away soon
with a newly patented nasal delivery system for Viagra.---- Through folklore and song, we can hear the poetry of our nation's foundering fathers.-----
I think this miscreant went to one of my college frat parties:WHITE PLAINS … A man blamed for the discharge of more than 120 million gallons of
unchlorinated sewage has been sentenced to work on the sloop Clearwater, which plies the
Hudson River for an environmental group.----TROY … She may dance naked at bachelor's parties, picking up money off guests' foreheads
with her buttocks, but there is a line that should not be crossed, a place she should not be
touched.
Many more to come. We never run out.[ November 20, 2002: Message edited by: blanp ]

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Wed Nov 20, 2002 2:35 pm

Spectacularly debauched, scatologically obsessed, ugly, French and dead, Serge Gainsbourg may be the least likely pop star of 2001.I don't know. Maybe I'm getting weak, but that one's not so bad.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Wed Nov 20, 2002 2:41 pm

On appeal, you may be right.I guess I was testy the day I added it to the list.

KfitzR · **Posted:** Thu Nov 21, 2002 1:20 pm

Blanp is right. That's a terrific lead. I'd read on.

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Thu Nov 21, 2002 3:51 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
[b]Spectacularly debauched, scatologically obsessed, ugly, French and dead, Serge Gainsbourg may be the least likely pop star of 2001.I don't know. Maybe I'm getting weak, but that one's not so bad.[/b]<hr></blockquote>Ten years after The Doors singer's death, Rolling Stone magazine ran this headline beneath his photo on the cover:
â€œJim Morrison â€“- Heâ€™s hot, heâ€™s sexy, and heâ€™s deadâ€

gullyj · **Posted:** Thu Nov 21, 2002 5:04 pm

A desker at Toronto Star (Sadly, the name was changed last week from The Toronto Star as part of a redesign. Damned consultants.) also collected bad leads. Here are some that never saw newsprint:* A 14-year-old boy faces six sex-related charges and police investigating indecent assaults on women in the Chester-Pape subway stations expect many more to be laid.* A weeping, 56-year-old mother was sent to jail for nine months yesterday and ordered to repay her employer the $88,861.48 she took to keep her mother in beef and oranges and her son in university.* The Ontario Humane Society seized a dozen deformed and defenceless chickens yesterday in an Aurora barn.And from the wire services:
(c) 1988, Los Angeles Times
BROWNSVILLE, Tex. - The early wind of Hurricane Gilbert keened across the brown rind of the Texas Gulf Coast on Thursday as it aimed its deadly eye at the lowland between here and Corpus Christi and threatened death and destruction across the underbelly of the state, possibly as early as thisafternoon

ADKbrown · **Posted:** Thu Nov 21, 2002 9:18 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by canuck:
* A weeping, 56-year-old mother was sent to jail for nine months yesterday and ordered to repay her employer the $88,861.48 she took to keep her mother in beef and oranges and her son in university.<hr></blockquote>Was this included as one of the worst of all time because of the reference to beef and oranges? Or am I missing something?

gullyj · **Posted:** Sat Nov 23, 2002 2:24 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by ADKbrown:
Was this included as one of the worst of all time because of the reference to beef and oranges? Or am I missing something?<hr></blockquote>The sheer volume of information in the lede got it on the list but the puzzling beef and oranges reference put it way over the top.

Testy Copy Editors

my lede collection

Who is online

What They're Saying

Useful Links