What am I? A bad lede

jbm · **Posted:** Tue Aug 26, 2003 6:23 pm

Local reporter, being grandiose:I am loved, I am loathed. I am immeasurably influential and controversial. I offer a sure road to success, yet not all respect me. I make a mistake, I make the headlines. I am a product of years of thoughtful planning and politicking, but I occasionally find myself floating in a toilet bowl.What am I?Answer: a textbook.

Phillip Blanchard · **Posted:** Tue Aug 26, 2003 7:53 pm

Wait. How far did that get?

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Tue Aug 26, 2003 8:00 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by jbm:
Local reporter, being grandiose:I am loved, I am loathed. I am immeasurably influential and controversial. I offer a sure road to success, yet not all respect me. I make a mistake, I make the headlines. I am a product of years of thoughtful planning and politicking, but I occasionally find myself floating in a toilet bowl.What am I?Answer: a textbook.<hr></blockquote>the answer was disappointing. was hoping the lede was a columnist's confession.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Tue Aug 26, 2003 10:36 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by blanp:
Wait. How far did that get?<hr></blockquote>***Hopefully it was floating in a toilet bowl 90 seconds after hitting the rim.

jbm · **Posted:** Tue Aug 26, 2003 11:52 pm

I wish I had better news, but these things tend to get into our paper. We're starting to encourage copy editors to protest ledes on the basis of sheer awfulness, but it's not exactly a standard procedure yet. Otherwise, this wouldn't be in the paper either: CARDIOLOGISTS AT THE Texas Heart Institute recently spent three days aboard a special bus refining their skills on a new device designed to catch potentially lethal debris released during angioplasty on bypass grafts.
The device is as special as the bus.

Bumfketeer · **Posted:** Wed Aug 27, 2003 12:17 am

That's nice. Encouraging people to do their jobs.
That's like encouraging a grocery clerk to ring up your food.I don't understand why papers hire copy editors and then discourage them from editing.

tommangan · **Posted:** Wed Aug 27, 2003 9:12 am

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Bumfketeer:
That's nice. Encouraging people to do their jobs.
That's like encouraging a grocery clerk to ring up your food.I don't understand why papers hire copy editors and then discourage them from editing.<hr></blockquote> Our job isn't necessarily to edit, it's to get the pages to the press on time. Time spent battling to save columnists from themselves is time that could be better spent writing better heads or making sure the people in the picture are identified correctly. It's a columnist's constitutional right to be an idiot; why fight a battle that can't be won?

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What am I? A bad lede

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