Awful Halloween leads

No, it's either straining at gnats or it's being more concerned about the reaction from your coworkers/social media followers/anonymous message board members than anything else.

Refusing to write a holiday lede, or getting angry at their existence, does not define you up or down.

 

Having standards for ledes -- even if you can't see, understand, or comprehend their purpose -- is not "straining at gnats."

 

This is where there has to be some level of discussion, complete with reasonable give-and-take.

There's one lede to this day I regret allowing. (Even if I remembered the whole thing, it wouldn't be posted.) It fell into the category of "No one outside the newsroom would notice." A couple of people did notice and said something. I acknowledged its awfulness. The writer probably got thrown under the bus a little, but not much.

If your newsroom is just about ignoring things because "no readers will notice," then those discussions don't happen.

 

So, what is the purpose of the Haloween lead? To make sure people are aware of the day?

It's not creative. It's not clever. It's leaning on aspect that almost surely had no impact on the game.

 

Haven't layoffs pretty much eliminated most staffers who have been around long enough to understand how trite they are and willing to cuff some young'uns ears and say, "C'mon, I know you're better than that?"

 

Even if you think it's OK to get cutesy with a Halloween lede, because it really works with the game you are covering, consider that yours may not be the only story in the sports section that day. (And the likelihood that one team was "tricked" and another was "treated" is above 99 percent.)

So if all six high school games covered had Halloween ledes and two college previews as well, how does that make the section look?

Or if six stories come in on deadline with Halloween ledes, just know that it's going to turn your copy desk into rampaging zombies!

 

It wasn't necessary because we wouldn't have written them but we always received "No Stupid Holiday References" type reminder.

 

This is a good time to revisit the Washington Post's pretty comprehensive list of stupid cliches and phrases to avoid:

200 journalism cliches — and counting

 

So uhh how do you guys feel about the TV weatherman wearing a costume then? Same?

 

Always like the "sexy cop" outfit.

 

I'm opposed to holiday-themed leads for the same reason I used to rant about silly sports-themed leads when I was a news slot and metro reporters would cover a major sports story for 1A ("The local franchise struck out/hit a home run in its bid for public funding for its stadium proposal). It seems like an easy way out.

My philosophy is "never say never," but I'd say holiday leads should be used sparingly (a former boss had a "one per every holiday season" limit). And even then they'd have to be really fresh and creative -- not the typical "Tis the season" or "Christmas came early" drivel.

 

I would likely groan at it, but it would have the advantage of being seen on the actual holiday, as opposed to someone reading a dead tree on Nov. 1 that has already moved ahead mentally to Thanksgiving/Christmas.