Mental Floss

7 Post-election Day Newspapers that Buried the Lede

By David K. Israel

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I've been trying to order The New York Times Nov 5th edition for a few days now. Each time I hit the site's store, there's so much traffic, they can't complete my order. Maybe I should consider buying these 7 newspapers, which would undoubtedly be a helluva lot easier to score. As you'll see in the screenshots, the announcement of Obama's victory is either buried beneath the fold of the paper, or otherwise marginalized at the header, in a sidebar, or accompanied by a photo so small, you could easily mistake it for any other front-page story.
Have a look at these (you can click each newspaper image for a larger version):

1. Lake Sun Leader, published in Camdenton, MO - Ahhh, the Lake Sun Leader, where cleavage trumps all. (click image to enlarge)

2. Highlands Today, published in Sebring, FLA - Talk about a slap in the ballot box. Looks like Sherriff Benton is the bigger story in this town. (click image to enlarge)


3. Rockdale Citizen, published in Conyers, GA Nothing against Richard Oden, who might have made history in Georgia (though I really doubt it), but don't you think the Obama story below the fold at least deserves a photo? A thumbnail? Lo-res? B&W even? Geez. (click image to enlarge)

4. The Courier, published in Russellville, AR - Snap! Obama loses another face off to a local Sherriff, who gets the prime real estate. (click image to enlarge)

5. The Appeal-Democrat, published in Marysville, CA - Okay, by a show of comments, who thinks the woman pictured is somehow related to the publisher? Yikes. Even the photo in the advertisement at the bottom of the page is larger than that of Obama. (click image to enlarge)

6. Bemidji Pioneer, published in Bemidji, MN - I don't know folks, for a progressive college town with strong technology and art influences, you'd think Bemidji could come up with a better photo of the preceding evening's historic events. (click image to enlarge)

7. The Mississippi Press from Pascagoula, MS - The only mention of the election is the talking crab at the bottom of the page that says, "Thank goodness the election is over. I thought the dadburn campaigning would never end. Think I'll vote absenting ballot next time." (FYI: dadburn is a polite way of saying the impolite version of goshdarnit.) (click image to enlarge)