Try saying this lede — from the Wall Street Journal’s Digits blog today— five times, fast, aloud:
A heated, multimedia gay-marriage discussion spanning YouTube, blogs, Twitter, Larry King and The Hills ensued after Miss USA contestant Carrie Prejean answered a question about the topic during the pageant’s question-and-answer period, sparking more than one million views of the clip, debates on cable news and even a tweet from Britney Spears.
Phew. (And the award for Forcing All of This Week’s Most-Googled Words Into A Single Sentence Without Regard For Reader’s Comprehension goes to…)
I can't say "lede" at all. This revision of a long-established term has apparently been devised for the benefit of readers who don't know whether "lead" is pronounced "leed" or "led."
Well,anyone who has spent even two weeks in Journalism 101 has no problem with the pronunciation, and the highly esteemed Columbia Schol of Journalism is absolutely the last place on the planet that should be tolerating "lede."
So there.
#1 Posted by Lee Gooding, CJR on Wed 22 Apr 2009 at 09:00 PM