« Voice of Panic, part 2 | Main | Hoyt Hits Nail on Head; Will Nail Listen? »

February 22, 2008

Supposed Sex is Sexier Than No Sex

It is not possible that Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times, is a stupid man. You can't get where he's got and be dumb. But that doesn't mean you can't say dumb things (re: reaction to the McCain story):

And, frankly, I was a little surprised by how few readers saw what was, to us, the larger point of the story. Perhaps here, at the outset of this conversation, is a good point to state as clearly as possible our purpose in publishing.

I'll be happy to sponsor Mr. Keller to take our JRN270 Introduction to Journalism class as a refresher. Here's what he'd learn: The lead to a news or news analysis article is supposed to be the most important new development or the most important context in which to understand the news. If you smear the lead with mud then dirt is the context of the story. The time to "state as clearly as possible our purpose in publishing" (i.e. what is the news?) was in the lead paragraphs of the article.

The New York Times led with sex.

And not even good sex. It led with anonymously-sourced maybe-sex that the public is supposed to trust that the NYT got right.

Sorry. No thanks. Not buying that snake oil.

No. Bill Keller is not stupid. He instead suffers an affliction all too common among journalists, especially those at the "top" of the profession--arrogance.



Posted by acline at February 22, 2008 12:19 PM | | Spotlight