I argued not long ago that The New York Times had a bad day.
Aug. 29, on the other hand, was a good day for the paper, featuring six front-page
stories, each with a lead worth thinking about.
Katherine Zoepf begins with a tight scene out of Damascus about how women are leading an Islamic revival in Syria:
Enas al-Kaldi stops in the hallways of her Islamic school for girls and
coaxes her 6-year-old schoolmate through a short recitation from the
Koran.
"It's true that they don't understand what they are memorizing at this
age, but we believe that the understanding comes when the Koran becomes
part of you," Ms. Kaldi, 16, said proudly.
Out of Rwinkwavu, Rwanda (great name),
Celia A. Dugger also begins her story with a brief anecdote:
Bill Clinton worked the crowd of AIDS survivors, clasping the
outstretched hands of children alive because of the AIDS medicines his
foundation donated.
Inside the rural hospital here that he recently helped renovate, where
Rwandans were hunted down and killed during the genocide he regrets he
didn't try to stop as president, Mr. Clinton heard people once skeletal
from AIDS tell of their resurrections to robust health.
But do not think that the
Times has gone all
anecdotic (anec-dotty?) on us.
Kirk Johnson writes out of Boulder,
Colo.:
The case against John M. Karr in the 1996 killing of
6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey collapsed Monday when DNA tests refuted Mr.
Karr’s claims that he had committed the crime.
Harder still is
the lead out of Baghdad by Damien Cave (another great name) and
Edward Wong:
At least 20 gunmen and 8 civilians were killed
Monday when the Iraqi Army battled fiercely for hours with members of a
militia loyal to Moktada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric, in
Diwaniya, Iraqi officials said.
Out of South Dakota,
the ever-productive Monica Davey gives us a lead
with an slightly sibilant overview:
With parts of South Dakota
at its epicenter, a severe drought has slowly sizzled a large swath of
the Plains states, leaving farmers and ranchers with conditions they
compare to those of the Dust Bowl of the 1930's.
Which leaves only Jason DeParle, who begins
his political profile of
Indiana Republican Mike Pence this way:
He supports tax cuts and
the war in Iraq. He opposes stem cell research and the Medicare
plan. He is the master of his movement's medium, talk
radio. Jesus Christ is his personal savior and Ronald Reagan his
political idol.
None of these overtures will be enshrined in the News Lead Hall of
Fame, though each, in my opinion, works well enough. More
important and instructive is the variety of approaches permitted by
Times editors. It turns out that the front page of
The New York
Times is a big writing tent.
So, how should a good report or story begin?
-
With the news?
- With an anecdote?
- With a decent quote up high?
- With an overview?
- With the number of dead?
- With a single sentence?
- With four sentences?
- With alliteration?
- With unusual language?
- With plain language?
- With parallel constructions?
Readers will find in the Aug. 29
Times leads all of these approaches -- and
more -- which proves that you need lots of tools on your
workbench. One day you need the hammer. The next day, the
feather duster.
