Journalism students worldwide are taught about the importance of balancing light and shade in their work – to strive for that “light touch” that news editors crave to cut through page after page of death and misery.
The “drop intro” is the keystone of the art; a signal to the reader that nothing so important has happened that you can’t wait until the second, third (or sometimes even lower) paragraph to be told. And by jove we can have a jolly good time together while we get there. (Just like we’re having here, Monkey hopes.)
So with it being Valentine’s season, you can see what the top of this otherwise bread-and-butter Washington Post crime report was trying to achieve.
The lede on this @washingtonpost story is a crime against journalism pic.twitter.com/CnTHHf4Lmp
— Toby Harnden (@tobyharnden) February 16, 2015
But on a crime story – really? And underneath a dead-straight headline – really?
Monkey is loth to ridicule the bylined writers, as sometimes it can be a well-meaning subeditor or news editor who attempts to inject a bit of sunshine high up a story. But their faces should be as red as that fire truck.
Have you seen a worse intro than that?
[Monkey grabs tin hat and prepares for someone to throw some of his own bad writing in his face]
