Basic Ledes: Finding The Right Tense

In writing for print versus writing for broadcast, there's always been a difference in how we tense our words.

In broadcast, there's an emphasis on writing as if the audience is getting the news exactly when you're saying it, and in a short amount of time after it took place; for example, you'd write that a fire leaves a pair of children dead.

But in print, we write knowing that the reader will get the message long after we typed it up, and long after the event actually occurred: e.g. a fire left a pair of children dead.

For the purpose of this class, I'd prefer that you wrote in a print style. But be aware of the differences.