Horrid lede in SC paper

[sctvman]

The paper in Myrtle Beach had an article about a HS soccer game in a beach town between them and another beach area opponent. The lede in this article was really bad.

Perhaps Osama bin Laden should have tried hiding in the Myrtle High's soccer goal, because no one has been able to find the back of the Seahawks' net in weeks.

What do you think:

http://www.thestate.com/2011/05/13/1817340/myrtle-beach-boys-soccer-shuts.html

 

[Batman]

Whenever you try to go for the topical lede as applied to sports -- especially high school sports -- it never seems to end well.
Did enjoy this picture of the goalie giving an opponent the stinkface, though:

 

[Ace]

Nothing that editors haven't been lopping off high school games for 100 years.

Guess we're going to miss editors.

 

[YGBFKM]

What does this mean for the latest Alabama recruit?

 

[Sam Mills 51]

Guess McClatchy didn't need those pesky deskers.

How the mighty have fallen ... NO WAY that happens a few years ago with the staff that publication had.

 

[Stitch]

At least it's from a stringer and not a staff writer.

 

[JackReacher]

Wasn't that guy a columnist?

 

[dirtybird]

Wasn't that guy a columnist?

For nearly 14 years

 

[Gator]

As you get older, you learn to stay away from crap like this. About 10 years ago, my first year in the business, I was 22 years old, trying to be funny, and wasn't. It was something like this:

"Super star soccer player from Podunk used one of his flip throws, which are deadlier than Anthrax, to set up the game-winning goal."

Oops.

 

[dooley_womack1]

All I can think of is Black Ops attacking that team's goal, with helicopter being blown up in the penalty area.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Nothing that editors haven't been lopping off high school games for 100 years.

Guess we're going to miss editors.

Well said, and very true.

Inexperienced writers write **** like that all the time. Any decent editor would have changed that within seconds...

 

[SF_Express]

I hope I don't get into trouble for this, but I kind of had admiration for the attempt here. I certainly laughed out loud.

Doesn't mean it belonged, but just saying...

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Early in my career, I worked with a copy chief who was by far the best I worked with during my career. We got him out at the bars one time for someone's going away party and one of the agate guys asked him what was the worst thing anyone had tried to get past the desk and he just sat there and held court and we all had tears rolling down our faces we were laughing so hard at some of the **** that experienced writers at a major metro had tried to get into the paper.

 

[SF_Express]

Plaschke wrote some beauts when he was younger.

Here's the thing: This is good for a laugh now, and it wasn't a great idea, but I generally find that the writers who try these kinds of things and fail when they're younger are the ones who wind up being pretty good at this. So in this case, I'm laughing with this guy, not at him. Hopefully, he'll learn.

He might read this site, but I won't name him, and I think he'll laugh if he recognizes himself (I hope). I had a writer once who wrote:

"Podunk High's loss to East Podunk on Friday night was akin to the sinking of the Titanic."

And I said, "Ernie, 1,200 people died on the Titanic."

And he said: "Oh. Well, how about the Hindenburg."

But here's the other thing. THIS WEEK I had a veteran guy reference the Hindenburg in a very passing way, and it fit, so I left it.

Which says ... what? Not sure.

 

[YGBFKM]

A veteran writer at a stop early in my career was the staff workhorse and one of the nicest guys you'd ever meet. But he had a habit of trying to make every lead a play on words. Most were harmless, if not effective, and as a youngster I rarely rocked the boat. The glaring exception was the time a feature on UK receiver Craig Yeast was submitted with a lead about how the local team had to be wary of developing a Yeast infection.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I worked with a columnist who was kind of known for (at least by those at the paper) for alliteration in his ledes. Most of them were brilliant. I remember being in the office and reading one off a proof and saying, "Damn, he's good at that." and having the copy chief say, "Yeah, the ones that make it in are great. The ones that we cut out, not so much..."

 

[Steak Snabler]

Whenever you try to go for the topical lede as applied to sports -- especially high school sports -- it never seems to end well.
Did enjoy this picture of the goalie giving an opponent the stinkface, though:

Reminds me of the basketball scene in "Along Came Polly":

 

[Jesus_Muscatel]

Stringer, writer, columnist, college writer, old dude putting out the retirement home newsletter, blogger, editor (what's dat???), gossip hound, whatever .... this is a ****ing abomination.

 

[ColdCat]

stringer or not, the SE still looks at it before he puts it on the page, right? At some you have to put your foot down and say "there's no way I'm putting that in my section"

 

[JJHHI]

Guess McClatchy didn't need those pesky deskers.

How the mighty have fallen ... NO WAY that happens a few years ago with the staff that publication had.

Except he was part of that staff. This isn't a young kid stringer. He was the columnist for that paper a few years ago.

Terry is a good writer, and by all accounts, a good guy. Don't know what he was thinking here.

We share copy with them - the opposing team was from our coverage area - and we changed the lede.