t yet entirely formed, or when disclosure would tend to defeat or embarrass them, is quite as weak as it is undignified. But this reticence may be carried to far, and lead to more mischief than it is designed to prevent.” It is important to note that these lines come not from an editorial, but from a story on the front page of the paper and that this is not a follow up to a news story about the administration’s decision to be more careful with its secrets. The news was presented as both a means of informing readers of recent events, and as a form of entertainment as recreational reading.On the same page of the same paper as the previous selection were included several news bites that strongly resemble what would now be leads to news stories. These bites follow immediately after the headlines, which are listed in order of importance in the left-most column of the front page. The bites resemble a teaser in television news. One almost expects to read “details at eleven” after each item. For example, the first item, following the headlines of the same paper, under the heading “Our Washington Dispatches,” states, “The officers of the District Militia were yesterday ordered to have a meeting at 10 o’clock this morning, in consequence of information relative to a contemplated movement for the seizure of this city by the Secessionists under McCullough.” This passage shows a semblance of the now almost cliche’ who-what-when-where-why model for a lead sentence in a news story and as such indicates that the more modern form of news reporting exists, but does not yet dominate the news hole, as news stories written in this manner are still the exception.Also on the front page of the same issue of the Times is a story bearing the headline “A Clue to the Destination of One of the Ships” . This story’s lead also does not follow the who-what-when-where-why format tha...
