Most of you might recall the incident in which our former president George W. Bush, had a shoe thrown at him while giving a farewell speech at the Baghdad news conference. al-Zaidi's charges of assualting a foreign head of state could leave him sitting in jail for up to 15 years. If convicted this could lower the rate of unnecesarry shoe throwing.
Anyway, in class we worked a great deal on learning how to create a lede and deciding what kind of a lede to go with. The first part of the lede is as follows: When Iraqi journalist Muntathar al-Zaidi took the stand Thursday, he said that he hadn't planned to hurl his shoes at President George W. Bush, but the sight of the smirking leader at a Baghdad news conference got the best of him.
In the beginning of the lede it tells who the article is about, what, where and why. I think it is a good lede that has setup the structure to now go into an anecdote or more detail about the incident in which it does. In this one sentence, it is short and general, but to the point where you want to read more to find what is going on. I know not all leads need to answer so many of the five W's but in this case it worked. I think the lede is not easy to create, but it can get easier with more time put into it.
The next part of the lede uses colorful quotes to really depict a picture and reason for Zaidi to have thrown the shoes as he did. Colorful quotes such as, ''He had an icy smile with no blood or spirit,'' and "I was feeling the blood of innocent people moving under his feet." Not every source is going to give such great quotes but these were definitely statements that helped give this story an edge.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
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I really like that lede, too! It's quick and snappy, sums up the story nicely, and it made me laugh! I think that is a great example of a good lede in the papers.
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