Buried lede
The most important fact appears late or briefly while less significant details lead.
Specimen
The conference covered housing costs, infrastructure, and planning. Midway through, the mayor confirmed three schools would close.
Fabricated passage — teaching example designed for clarity.
buried lede — school closures are the news; they appear as a footnote
Dissection
Midway through, the mayor confirmed three schools would close.
- key fact buried in paragraph five
- lead given to secondary detail
- position determines perceived importance
Field notes
- Family
- Framing & omission
- Habitat
- political reporting, local journalism, press-release-driven coverage
- Frequency
- found in 11% of analyzed articles
- Confused with
- Selective framing , Omission
In the wild
"After covering the opening remarks and audience questions, the report mentioned the plant would close in January."
Local news, regional daily, February 2026
"The minister discussed several priorities before noting the program had been quietly cancelled."
Political reporting, national broadsheet, April 2026
Why it works
Readers weight information by position. What comes first is treated as most important — burying a fact reduces its perceived significance.
Counter-move
Scan the full article. What would a neutral editor have led with?
See it flagged in real articles while you read.
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