Al Gore Master Class



February 10, 2001



BOB GARFIELD: Al Gore's new job not only benefits students and the press in a slow news season, it also perpetuates an institution that had been fading from public discourse -- the Al Gore joke. Herewith, On the Media's secret tapes of office hours with Professor Gore.
MAN AS AL GORE: You know in my years as a reporter I came up with a system for writing a news story you may find helpful - what I call the inverted pyramid technique. Under my plan, you start out with the most essential information -something I like to call the lead; then proceed to lay out the facts in descending order of importance. That way the reader can easily read as much or as little as possible before getting on with their busy day. Readers like Dorothy Jimenez of Ypsilante, Michigan who spent several days thoroughly confused by a story that opened with feature-y details -- who was the man sitting on the porch? Why is he eating salsa? Wait! This story is about Nafta! It just didn't make sense. Now to start addressing the specifics of your story, in the third graph you write that she turned on the light. Wouldn't it be more exciting if we moved that up and said she invented electricity? Now on into your second graph, you write...