Monday, September 29, 2014

Final Ledes: Don't Assume

I think we did in this lede:

Despite being involved in a minor car accident caused by cell phone distraction Wednesday, state Rep. Constance Wei continues to fight a ban on cell phone use while driving.
The problem I have is that, while we know that she's fought the ban up to know, we really don't yet know based on the information we have on hand that the crash has changed her mind. We're assuming it has.
And in journalism, we can't do that. Either the facts are there and we know, or the question is still unanswered and we don't know. This falls in the latter.
If this was a real story situation, probably the first question you'd want to ask Wei is if she has any second thoughts about her political position. I think there's a good chance that this lede would end up being right. But we're supposed to know we're right when we hit the "send" button.   
Let's be sure we go with what we know, based on the evidence on hand.

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