Above The Fold

There is, in newspaper parlance, a term that refers to what appears first to a potential reader. That potential reader is one who would buy a paper on a newsstand. Not the one wet and mangled underneath your car in your driveway. Because this term was coined long before home delivery.

So it comes as no surprise that the most important article in any given newspaper, smack-dab on the front page, should be the one that sells the paper. And what was on the front page this morning, above the fold, of the Mormon-church-owned Deseret News? This:

Election has spurred hate

I put that in bold text so you wouldn't miss it. That this headline should be above the fold doesn't surprise me any, considering the source. But wait, there's more.

The "source" of this article is not from the Deseret News, nay, it's from the Boston Globe. I know not what's above the fold in the Boston Globe this morning. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that of all the articles the Deseret News could have put above the fold is this one.

Assuming the Deseret News thinks this should be the lead article, the article that should grab the attention of whomever should see it on a newsstand, or in a coin-operated newspaper box, should it not have the largest headline? THAT article is below the fold:

The largest headline is about a Lehi, Utah, police officer who was shot in the head during what should have been a routine traffic stop, if not for a severe mental illness that made the shooter paranoid. She was later shot and killed by backup officers who later arrived at the scene.

That the Deseret News, using whatever logic they had in the news room that day, chose to use a hate-mongering tactic as they did, is deplorable. The officer injured in the line of duty should, and does, deserve more, than to be considered less important than an article retelling something that happened six months ago.

Oh, one other thing... also above the fold, top-right-hand-corner: Whoopti-doo, the Utah state license plate is officially 100 years old this year. News worthy? Hardly.

Just what kind of news-gathering is going on at the Deseret News, to put THAT particular graphic on the front page? Be it known that's not MY emphasis on the numbers. WTF?

There's no brilliantly stimulating anything at the Deseret News.

It's all BS.