I shall be extremely careful when I post any narrative on this forum! Even,
apparently, linked narrative may lead to my downfall.
:-)
On Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 6:31 AM, Bob Whitmire <bwhitmire@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>wrote:
> Feature Writing 101. Blech!
>
> Feature stories are to be immediately distinguishable from hard news
> stores by their soft and squishy ledes. Heaven forfend that the writer
> spill some actual details of the story in the lede. No, the writer must
> entice the reader into the story by teasing him, tickling his fancy, as it
> were, and drawing him in to the mushy, gushy details to follow. All written
> in a light and breezy style, which again clues readers that they aren't
> reading real news, but made up news of the "Hey! Check this out!" variety.
>
> The other entrance into feature that I hate with a passion that waxes
> purple is the anecdotal lede, which features more puff pastry before
> getting down to facts. "Chris Barker always starts his day at the kitchen
> expresso machine before sitting down at the breakfast nook with . . ."
> blah, blah, blah!
>
> Sigh. Perhaps that's why I don't read as much news as I used to. The news
> itself is depressing enough, never mind the squishy still with which it is
> presented. (And don't get me started on hard news, where the purpose of the
> lede now appears to be to share the unholy crap out of the reader, even if
> there's nothing to be afraid of.
>
> Journalist No More Bob
>
>
> On Jan 13, 2013, at 7:12 AM, Chris Barker wrote:
>
> > But that article: who teaches American journalists to use that awful and
> hackneyed device to start a story? It's prevalent on the TV as well as in
> (virtual) print and I find it depressing. Worse than that, it's coming
> Over Here . . .
>
> --
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--
Bob Adler
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