Trivializing tragedy

Oeditpus Rex · **Posted:** Sat Jan 10, 2004 3:39 am

From the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, via Google news:
<blockquote>quote:<hr>Fort Lauderdale Â· A Hollywood woman was crushed to death Friday morning when her SUV plunged five stories after crashing through a barrier wall at a downtown parking garage -- the same garage where city officials discovered serious structural problems last year.<hr></blockquote>
Same story, different lede (Miami Herald):
<blockquote>quote:<hr>Dan Kent was exiting a stairwell onto Southeast First Avenue in Fort Lauderdale Friday when a 2 Â½-ton sport utility vehicle plunged five stories, landing practically at his feet.<hr></blockquote>

Gatekeeper · **Posted:** Sat Jan 10, 2004 2:21 pm

As a reader, either lede would have piqued my interest.

Wayne Countryman · **Posted:** Sat Jan 10, 2004 3:46 pm

I worked for the Fort Lauderdale paper for five years during the 1980s, when the Herald began writing almost every story as a narrative. If a Herald story lacked a clear, straight headline you either read a long way to find out what the story was about, or you grunted and turned the page. Many grunters switched to reading the Sun-Sentinel. Many reporting staffs emulated the Herald's.

Peter Sibley · **Posted:** Sat Jan 10, 2004 4:02 pm

Plunging SUV
nearly hits man
leaving stairwellThe Herald lede deserves it.[ January 10, 2004: Message edited by: Peter Sibley ]

Rio · **Posted:** Sat Jan 10, 2004 10:36 pm

<blockquote>quote:<hr>Originally posted by Wayne Countryman:
I worked for the Fort Lauderdale paper for five years during the 1980s, when the Herald began writing almost every story as a narrative. If a Herald story lacked a clear, straight headline you either read a long way to find out what the story was about, or you grunted and turned the page. Many grunters switched to reading the Sun-Sentinel. Many reporting staffs emulated the Herald's.<hr></blockquote>Interesting perspective. I know one paper that was at the point of getting carried away with narrative ledes, probably because somebody read something in Poynter that said newspaper had to do this. Newspapers are losing readers, you see, and the inverted pyramid somehow became the fall guy. Fortunately, cooler heads eventually prevailed.I also find it interesting that the narrative-laden paper Wayne mentioned is the Miami Herald, the same paper that came up with a redesign so goofy that it needed a special section just to explain to readers how to find stuff.Such anecdotes only makes me increasingly leery of all these trendy fixes for what's "wrong" with newspapers.[ January 10, 2004: Message edited by: Gary Kirchherr ]

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