Drowning: Peanut Barrel Rule

Like I was saying, this exercise is one that's usually tripped up previous 200 classes.

In my fall class, many people went off the rails was in identifying what was the latest AND biggest news. This class was no different.

Many of your ledes were like this one:

This morning, the police department released the name of the man who died trying to save a 10-year-old boy from Nichols Lake.

Let's lean on the Peanut Barrel rule: what are you most likely to say first? That the name of the dead rescuer was released? Or that the boy he was trying to save died today? What do you think?

I'd say the latter is clearly more impactful and newsworthy than the release of a name. The latter (a death) is clearly a more momentous happening than the former (the release of a name of someone we already know is dead and isn't a particularly well-known public figure of any sort).

So I liked this lede much better:

The East Lansing Regional Medical Center announced today the boy who was pulled out of Nichols Lake after he waded too far from shore yesterday has died.

. . . and this one, too:

Edward McGorwan, the 10-year-old boy who nearly drowned yesterday in Nichols Lake, was pronounced dead this morning, according to Dr. Catrina Lowrie from the Regional Medical Center.

(I do have a nit-pick with the second of these two ledes, though -- is it right to say the boy "nearly" drowned? After all, he did end up dying. Could you have found a better phrase to replace that word, like "was pulled from the water?"

Of course, the best lede would try to incorporate BOTH latest happenings, while giving preference to the death over the naming. That's what this lede did:

It was announced that 10-year-old Edward McGorwan died after being taken off of a respirator this morning,m and the man who died trying to save him from drowning at Lakeside Park's Nichols Lake yesterday was 30-year-old William McDowell.

This lede is a bit long and wordy, but see how that says everything that needs to be said, and hits ultimate outcome(s) the best?