Good Lede
Rolling Stone
The Vampire Squid Strikes Again: The Mega Banks' Most Devious Scam Yet
by Matt Taibi
"Call it the loophole that destroyed the world. It's 1999, the tail end of the Clinton years. While the rest of America obsesses over Monica Lewinsky, Columbine and Mark McGwire's biceps, Congress is feverishly crafting what could yet prove to be one of the most transformative laws in the history of our economy – a law that would make possible a broader concentration of financial and industrial power than we've seen in more than a century."
Taibi's lede works as it sets the scene 15 years in the past by playing on the reader's pessimistic nostalgia. Yet, he is setting his article up not to discuss those events that vividly stick out in our mind with no impact on our life, instead, he is going to discuss a law that has repercussions within the economic cycles we endure every day. While Taibi is stubborn and probably arrogant, he excels in pairing a title and lede to give the reader a taste of what to come but never enough to fully satisfy their appetite.
Bad Lede
CNN.com
Facebook goes beyond 'male' and 'female' with new gender options
by Brandon Griggs
"You don't have to be strictly a man or a woman on Facebook anymore
In a nod to the "it's complicated" sexual identities of many of its users, the social network on Thursday added a third "custom" gender option for people's profiles. In addition to Male or Female, Facebook now lets U.S. users choose among some 50 additional options such as "transgender," "cisgender," "gender fluid," "intersex" and "neither.""
This lede, coupled with the title simply explains the whole story. On the homepage of cnn.com there was no desire to read past this point in the article. A different approach would have been to approach the repercussions of this change in our evolving society. Instead it reads like a tweet.
"You don't have to be strictly a man or a woman on Facebook anymore
In a nod to the "it's complicated" sexual identities of many of its users, the social network on Thursday added a third "custom" gender option for people's profiles. In addition to Male or Female, Facebook now lets U.S. users choose among some 50 additional options such as "transgender," "cisgender," "gender fluid," "intersex" and "neither.""
This lede, coupled with the title simply explains the whole story. On the homepage of cnn.com there was no desire to read past this point in the article. A different approach would have been to approach the repercussions of this change in our evolving society. Instead it reads like a tweet.
Taibbi is amazing, and that lede works well for me; feels anecdotal.
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