worst leads you have seen

Anything AP.

 

When a story starts with "For the...", I rarely get to the third word.

 

I recently had the desk change my lead and insert that.

 

No, you DI'N'T!!!!!
Seriously? What did you do when you saw it?
I would've had to kill someone or at least take hostages.

 

No killings, no hostages. I saw the lead was changed, read the rest of the story, checked out the rest of the paper, then went on with life. There's no point in being angry at the desk when you have to put out a paper the next day, and the day after that.

 

I used a Christmas lede... Maybe someone could let me know if it sucked or not because I'm hoping not.

Joe Smith won't be home for Christmas.

(story about hockey player going to Europe for Junior championships)

 

Mustang: That's OK, I think. It gets the job done.

Jeremy: Come on. You asked somebody for an explanation of why that was necessary, didn't you?

 

It may have been like

Joe Smith won't be home for Christmas, but all his gifts came early in '07.

Although the second part may have been a separate sentence. Either way, the kid was in Europe and had a bunch of honors in 07.

thanks so far for the input.

 

" ... both on and off the field."

 

Why?

 

I once had a part-timer go down and cover a soccer game and her lead was:

"Hillbilly High ended its game with Missing Tooth Christian just like most fans thought they would - with a loss."

 

This is the way the season ends, not with a bang but with a whimper.