never mind your news; here's my news

By ( articles ) | Jun 30, 2010

Question: How do you insert a mention of the sex-abuse scandal into a story about new appointments to the Roman Curia?

Answer: Gratuitously.

AP takes the prize, for putting the reference to the scandal in front of the actual news in the lede:

Preoccupied for months by the clerical sex abuse scandal, the pope on Wednesday shuffled the Vatican bureaucracy before heading off on vacation.

There’s no evidence—in the story that follows or anywhere else—that concerns about the sex-abuse scandal caused Pope Benedict to delay today’s appointments. So why is that phrase inserted at the very opening of the AP report?

Well, somebody is preoccupied.