Great Moments in Journalism: A Ticket to the Boneyard
Great Moments in Journalism aims to capture all those chin-scratching, face-rubbing, WTF moments we see all too frequently. Join the hunt.
Well, the polls have closed, and your winner is Sarah E. Richards, for her terrific "if it bleeds, it leads" essay in Slate. We'll be sending along a DivaCup as a token of our esteem.
Today's nominee comes from the Philadelphia Inquirer's coverage of the National Funeral Directors Association's 125th Convention and Expo, which was held recently in that city. We understand that this is a shitty assignment to draw, and points to Alfred Lubrano for trying to make something of it other than the usual dry coverage, but, really, there's no excuse for this:
Death pays, baby, because it kindly stops for us all, as Emily Dickinson once said. Nobody gets out of here vertical.
Yeah, thanks, Kojak. Read on for some interesting facts about the problem with keeping fat folks in the box. Unrelated fact that you may not be aware of: Pretty much all of Emily Dickinson's poems can be sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas." Now that you know that, you'll never be able to unlearn it. You're welcome.