“Burying the Lead” in Most Front Page Articles of Today’s New York Times: Journalism Affected by Literary Fiction

What is “burying the lead”?

“A lead paragraph (sometimes shortened to lead; also spelled lede) is the opening paragraph of an article, essay, book chapter, or other written work that summarizes the main idea.

“Journalistic leads emphasize grabbing the attention of the reader. In journalism, the failure to mention the most important, interesting or attention-grabbing elements of a story in the first paragraph is sometimes called “burying the lead.” Most standard news leads include brief answers to the questions of who, what, why, when, where, and how the key event in the story took place…” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead_paragraph

There have long been certain works of literary fiction that are not readily understood, because they are not written clearly. Since the authors had also written things that were quite clear, it was evident that the lack of clarity in these particular works was self-indulgent and/or intentional (and/or a manifestation of the author’s multiple personality trait). How could it be intentional? Because some such works have won major awards and/or prestigious praise.

Indeed, such writing has even affected journalism, where “burying the lead” used to be a sin, but is now the fashion.