Worst lede ever

Reminds me of a story about a senior women's golf tournament at one stop.

A player was quoted. She was complimenting the winner.

"Esther is just so consistent," Smith said. "She just never screws on the golf course."

As opposed to all of those players who just stop in the middle of a round for a little action.

Just a bad combination of a writer leaving out a critical word and the desk not catching it.

 

I once worked with a full-timer who did the same thing!

 

And in a wire story today about the late Crocodile Hunter:

"Steve Irwin died doing what he loved best..."

Yep, I'll bet his last thought was, "crikey, there's nothing quite being stabbed in the heart by a stingray!"

Is it laziness or a lack of creativity or both that causes writers to pen bullshit like "he died doing what he loved"?

 

Certainly, it could be both. It also could be something far less sinister — them trying to make sense of a situation that is inheritently hard to understand.

To some, death is more noble if it occurs in the pursuit of their chosen passion. People rationalize it as being less tragic that way.

To me, you're just as dead whether a stingray jabs you through the heart or you choke to death on a krikey nugget at Wallabee's Drive Thru.

And your kids are just as fatherless.

 

At least he didn't say they just "pissed excellence."

 

Did they pay that guy in cash or money?

 

I once was haunted by a man named Lee ...

 

Sirs, Madames,

As the Friendless know, I once gave this lead to a fellow at the end of his tether and he used it with the appropriate attribution.

"For three periods fans at the Corel Centre thought they were getting screwed. It just took a little four-on-four play to loosen things up, said Bard."

And another ... Andreas Dackel was driven by Eric Lindros into the plexiglass and knocked out of a game.

His head still banging, Andreas Dackel said that when Eric Lindros hit him he "felt like a beagle."

In fact, the accented Swede said that he "felt like a beetle."

YHS, etc

 

In the same vein, though not a lead, the prep editor here likes to tell the story of an intern who covered the state's (now nation's) top high school team.
English was a second language to the intern and he wrote a story quoting the head coach/demagogue as talking about the "pie in the sky."
What the coach really said was "the sky's the limit."
Intern stuck by his guns, prep writer insisted that the coach wouldn't use that phrase (tho his midsection showed he did indeed enjoy pie and other baked goods.).Prep guy called the coach and asked to repeat the quote.

Said intern probably still doesnt understand the difference...

 

I've dealt with enough bad ledes over the years, but none was worse than one of the first I ever wrote for my college paper. I was still very green and had trouble coming up with a lede for a soccer game I didn't attend (road game).

I mentioned my dilemma to my roomate and he suggested that I just put "Sex" because that'd get a lot of people to read it. So I did, thinking that by the time I finished the rest of the story I'd have a lede in my head.

Well, I forgot to change it. Sent it to the editor. I think he was more amused than anything. Can't remember if he wrote another one, or I did, but unfortunately for readers of the State U Daily Wildcat, it wasn't "Sex."

 

Johnny Tennis Player was a glass of orange juice short of breakfast in a double bagel victory over Jimmy Tennis Player to reach the semifinals of Wednesday's city tennis tournament.

 

From a terrible high school football game in an October long past, a stringer files this lead:


RottenCrotch High successfully defended the honor of homecoming queen Mary Jane RottenCrotch with a 55-14 win against OtherSchool.