In broadcast journalism terms, what is meant by "burying the lead"?

Question

In broadcast journalism terms, what is meant by "burying the lead"?

Answer 1

The key question is: What's the most important part of the story? That's what should be at the beginning of the story. It's especially true in broadcast writing, since you don't have much time to make a point. If it is not, you have "buried the lead."

Give you a funny example: a friend and I were at the Texas Book Depository in Dallas. There is a plaque on the outside wall about the building's history. A sentence about Kennedy's assassination is in the last sentence of the script. My friend, a journalist, blurts out, "Talk about burying the lead..."

Answer 2

It means moving the "who,what,where,when and how" of the story (the essential elements) from the first paragraph of the script down to the middle or end of the piece or structuring the story in such a way that the essential elements are hard to figure out.

Answer 3

hmmm ... It means that you want to spring to fame & fortune by interviewing someone and then burying them close to, but not exactly on top of Jimmy Hoffa, then be know as the last interviewer of ...... Sanjaya...?

Dude...... I don't think that's gonna do it.