Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Forbidden ledes and other delights

Would somebody like to explain the reasoning on this one?

It's official: Charlotte is now the center of the NASCAR universe.

Did we think that somehow all the Evil Lede gunk would be magically washed off? Or that because this was clearly the Most Super-Enormous Important Sports Story since, oh, 2003 or so, the readers really, really needed the "It's official"? Or is there a secret project under way to try cliche ledes on every story in the paper?

It's official: Gov. Mike Rounds signed legislation Monday banning nearly all abortions in South Dakota!

It's official: Republicans in Congress are trying to limit the scope of any investigation into how President Bush's secret domestic-surveillance program has operated!

It's official: The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that the government can force colleges to open their campuses to military recruiters!

No, no, no. Forbidden ledes are barred under all circumstances. How many editors failed in their duty to stop this lede before it hit the dead pine trees?


Meanwhile, debate rages over this entry:

No sweat: S.C. was actually a little cool last year
Good morning. Today's Lowcountry forecast is for another gasping hot one. The high will be 110 degrees. The heat index will be 130, a little cooler on the beaches. Records for today are ...

Last year was one of the hottest on record worldwide, researchers say, a finding that has touched off another round of are-we or aren't-we global-warming debate. But in South Carolina, it was one of the cooler years on record.

Don't bother to shiver. The average 2005 temperature ranked 70th out of 110 years on record, but the temperature was 64.35 degrees Fahrenheit - a smidgen above normal. And researchers say that relative coolness actually could have been caused by warming in the world's oceans.

The National Aeronautic and Atmospheric Administration's Goddard Institute for Space Studies says the temperature rose 1.4 degrees worldwide in the 20th century, 1 degree of that since 1970.

Meanwhile, long range climate forecast models suggest the more SPF in the sunscreen the better. The two leading models disagree only on whether temperatures or heat index will climb higher.

Interestingly enough, while there was a cooling trend in the state inland in the past century, there was a warming trend - as much as 4 degrees- along the coast.

"We recognize there's a cooling trend, but is it a significant trend? No," said Hope Mizzell, state climatologist.

It kind of goes on and on and on from here. If anybody can figure out where exactly it's going, or what it's doing in the newspaper, pls advise.

2 Comments:

Blogger melissa angle said...

I didn't realize Charlotte WASN'T the center of the NASCAR universe.

11:14 AM, March 07, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

An explanation for that lede might be that we've been running "unofficial" stories for more than a week - several anonymous sources saying the hall was coming to Charlotte.

2:34 PM, March 07, 2006  

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