A Tale Of Two Newspapers

As Mary Katharine Ham wrote last night, “for an idea of why the New York Post sells newspapers, check out this lede:”

Four home-grown Muslim terrorists hell bent on blowing up two Bronx synagogues and shooting down a military plane have been arrested following a massive, year-long investigation, sources told the Post.

In contrast and not at all surprisingly, Rod Dreher writes that the Gray Lady’s reporting is the very definition of burying the lede:

Domestic terrorism! Why would anyone want to blow up synagogues? What possible motive might there be? Let’s read on in the Times account:

The arrests capped what officials described as a “painstaking investigation” that began in June 2008 involving an F.B.I. agent who had been told by a federal informant of the men’s desire to attack targets in America. As part of the plot, the men intended to fire Stinger missiles at military aircraft at the base, which is at Stewart International Airport, officials said.

Oh good grief, it gets even worse. Who are these men, and why might they have wanted to carry out such acts? Come on, Times, give us a clue! You read and you read, and not until after you’ve plowed through nine paragraphs and 476 words — longer than most editorials — do you come to the following sentence:

They are all Muslim, a law enforcement official said.

This is what is called “burying the lede.” Some editor in that newsroom found this to be an inconvenient truth, and tried to hide it. You can practically hear the Times cringing when it has to disclose this fact, which most fair-minded readers would find rather pertinent.

“Trust me on this, if you are depending on the mainstream American media to keep you informed about radical Islam in America, you are going to stay in the dark”, Dreher adds. It gets worse — read the whole thing, here.