

Original Associated Press Report of Lincoln's Assassination - JacobAldridge
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/91fed0359cc245f0960322a5e7bac56a/ap-was-there-original-ap-report-lincolns-assassination

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drb311
Contrast the vivid storytelling here with the modern approach taken to JFK's
assassination, which begins:

"President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot and killed by an assassin today.

"He died of a wound in the brain caused by a rifle bullet that was fired at
him as he was riding through downtown Dallas in a motorcade.

"Vice President Lyndon Baines Johnson, who was riding in the third car behind
Mr. Kennedy's, was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States 99
minutes after Mr. Kennedy's death."

[http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1122.h...](http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/big/1122.html)

The JFK story gets us to the facts but quickly bores. Lincoln's takes a while
to get going but holds attention right to the end. Masterful.

~~~
sosuke
I was struck by the same feeling, that this piece was a gripping read on what
was already a gripping story to tell. His "brain was oozing out" was a point I
stopped and read again. What changed the style of reporting I wonder?

~~~
drb311
I googled the question. Weirdly, the answer uses Lincoln's assassination as an
example. It was the fulcrum event between new and old. Here's how the inverted
pyramid report of his death began:

"This evening at about 9:30 p.m. at Ford’s Theatre, the President, while
sitting in his private box with Mrs. Lincoln, Mrs. Harris and Major Rathburn,
was shot by an assassin, who suddenly entered the box and approached behind
the President. "The assassin then leaped upon the stage, brandishing a large
dagger or knife, and made his escape in the rear of the theatre. "The pistol
ball entered the back of the President’s head and penetrated nearly through
the head. The wound is mortal."

[http://www.poynter.org/news/media-innovation/12755/birth-
of-...](http://www.poynter.org/news/media-innovation/12755/birth-of-the-
inverted-pyramid-a-child-of-technology-commerce-and-history/)

The technological driver wasn't the addition of new media but the telegraph,
which meant news stories took on a new urgency -- and editors had to make
quick cuts to stories close to print time as they decided which stories
deserved most column inches.

Will the Internet kill the inverted pyramid approach? There is no longer any
cost associated with column inches printed or characters transmitted.

~~~
moioci
The cost is measured also in reader's attention. The implicit contract with
the reader is that if you just read the first paragraph, you won't miss the
essential fact in para 5.

------
js2
In 1956, an eye witness to the assassination was on a game show, which itself
is now on YouTube:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_iq5yzJ-
Dk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_iq5yzJ-Dk)

There's something about how this bridges the past to the present that I find
deeply fascinating.

------
jlewallen
Great read, thanks. One sentence in particular stood out to me: "... a sharp
report of a pistol was heard, which merely attracted attention, but suggested
nothing serious until a man rushed to the front of the President's box." I
found myself contrasting the initial reaction with likely reactions in the
modern era. I'm going to guess that in many places in the US, many wouldn't
know that they had heard a gun shot. Also, I suspect the reaction would be
different in those that knew what they heard.

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logicallee
The comments on this article are pretty good. I know the lede is only buried
five sentences in, but the report really _does_ sound like it's going to
critique the play and performances of the first two acts before it gets around
to recounting what happened in the third.

