Well, according to Jimmy Breslin, what’s wrong with journalism today is “fifty-seven word ledes.”
“That’s all that matters” Breslin told a reporter for Campaign Desk. “I’m supposed to read that in the morning? They hit a comma and it’s like the start of the sentence. They all went to colleges and they want to show how smart they are, so they put four commas in the lede. It’s the worst. They ought to kill themselves.”
We guess that, by that rule, Dan Rather’s lede the other night should have been “We didn’t check for forgeries.”
By like token, John Edwards was right on with his convention address when he allowed that “Help is on the way.”