And the winner for the best Pulitzer Prize lead in 2018 is….

And the winner for the best Pulitzer Prize lead in 2018 is….

I roam through the land of Pulitzers looking for a decent lead, much like Diogenes did with a daylight torch in hand, searching for an honest guy.I'm glad to say that I've identified three candidates deserving of honorable mention in addition to the winner and runner-up.

Poynter has urged me to present an unofficial Best Pulitzer Lead award for the fourth year running.The only things up for grabs in this contest are bragging rights and lunch for the winner.

Admittedly, leads are sometimes overvalued.Even a mediocre lead will draw in and hold the attention of readers when a story is big enough or sensational enough.

Lead-writing has become more challenging due to magazines and websites that are now eligible for various Pulitzer Prizes. Naturally, mags have bigger columns than rags, which encourages longer, more in-depth leads.Additionally, websites with multi-media presentations and flashy gadgets appear to have several starting points: a lengthy caption, followed by a blurb, an editors comment, and last, I suppose, the lead.

Do not fret.

After going over each of these factors, I have identified five Pulitzer leads that merit your particular consideration.I'll try my best to explain what works and what doesn't in each case.

The following are the standards I applied in 2015, 2016, and 2017.With a few exceptions for leads I simply didn't want you to miss, they still hold true:

Why is a lead a good lead?I appreciate the image used by John McPhees, where he compares a lead to a flashlight that you beam into the story's well.You only need to see far enough to understand what you are getting into; you don't need to see all the way to the bottom.

Yesterday afternoon in Washington Square Park, a 17-year-old kid chased his pet squirrel up a tree, setting off a chain of events that resulted in 22 arrests and eight injuries, including five police officers.

I doubt if I have come across a lead this year that compares to that one. Kindly make your own judgment. (Play the dramatic soundtrack.)

Julie Johnson of The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, California, is the 2018 Best Pulitzer Prize Lead winner.

After putting a family in a police car and heading back to his truck, Cal flames Battalion Chief Gino DeGraffenreid thought he heard someone yelling in the midst of the fierce wind and flames in the hills northeast of Santa Rosa.

As he turned to follow the speaker, he saw them: a pair dressed in essentially nothing, freezing in the middle of an unprecedented inferno that was spewing smoke and showering flames.

According to DeGraffenreid, they were drenched. They had leaped into the pool after hearing a smoke detector go off, and they had spent the next hour or so there attempting to avoid the heat.

After dressing them in T-shirts, he loaded them into his vehicle and drove with the police down Michele Way to Mark West Springs Road. It was an excruciating journey, full of heat and fire, through a burning neighborhood that had already been completely destroyed of everything that had previously been so familiar.

According to DeGraffenreid, all of the visual landmarks—the homes, the fences, the funny Volkswagen bug—were gone.

Analysis: This is a far rarer kind of lead—a narrative action lead—than anecdotal, in my opinion.The plot opens in media res, or in the middle of things, just like in the old epics.It gains by having a major news source that is also a major player.He is the story's protagonist as well as a secondary narrator who captures the essence of the heroic deed and the uniqueness of the ensuing desolation, which is defined less by what remains than by what has vanished, like that silly Volkswagen bug.

I'm beginning to believe that the folks in Etowah County are reading from a different Bible.

Perhaps Roy Moore banged on it so forcefully that the words became jumbled.

Let's hunt.

Analysis: During my three years of teaching in Montgomery in 1974, I developed a deep appreciation for progressive editorialists in Alabama. They are renowned as a group for their humor, their sporadic outbursts, and their bravery in voicing unconventional opinions, particularly when it comes to racial issues.John Archibald is someone I have never met, but he seems to be part of the tribe. To locate this treasure, I had to comb through his Pulitzer portfolio a little.His leads are generally less pointed and more "come on over and set a spell" in nature.One-sentence paragraphs are his preferred length.This gives his columns a lot of calming white space that is pleasant to the eyes and ears.Puns are difficult to use yet worthwhile to try in headlines and leads

1. GQ freelancer Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah's profile on racist mass murderer Dylann Roof:

He was sipping Smirnoff Ice from a bottle while sitting next to the chapel and felt compelled to shoot them.

A young man, a little girl, eight ladies, an elderly clergyman, and a rising-star preacher comprised this little prayer group. But they were an issue for him. He thought that because they were African Americans, they were raping our women and occupying our nation. Taking out his Glock handgun, he calmly opened fire on the twelve persons gathered in the Mother Emanuel AME Church basement while their eyes were closed in prayer, killing nearly all of them.

Analysis: I like how the first paragraph's length was increased to match the second paragraph's length.Although writing this appears archaic, the author succeeds in creating a story that touches on all Five Ws and H.By the time the unimaginable disaster occurs, we are aware of every detail of the news and information leading up to it, including who, what, where, when, why, and how. The writer can recall the specifics, including the names of the rifle, alcohol, and church.She ends important sentences with poignant phrases, such as "a little girl," "shoot them," "a problem," "taking over our country," and "almost every single one of them dead." She has a feel for the melodic quality of her words.The term nearly seems to portend something strong that will save a survivor.

2. New York Magazine's Jerry Saltz on Criticism:

Four American firsts have united destiny, dignity, respect, and art on the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth to remind us that our nation is a symbol of love, hope, and something greater than the chaos and misrule that have emerged from under the surface and seem to define who we are and who we will be. Today, four images of love may be found at the National picture Gallery in Washington, D.C.: the first official picture of an African-American president created by a black artist, and the first portrait of an African-American First Lady created by a black female artist.

Analysis: This article is lengthy—nearly 100 words—even for a magazine, but its architecture gives it balance and readability.The paragraph is divided into two sentences, with four instances in each.Four human and artistic virtues—destiny, dignity, respect, and art—are at the top; four significant figures in American racial progress are at the bottom.The author explicitly states that there are four shots of love so that we don't miss the two foursomes. One-syllable words appeal to me, especially when they are used to convey a powerful idea about who we are and who we will become.Commentary that is encouraging just when we need it.

3. The Arizona Republic and USA Today Network for Explanatory Reporting (this one is the final I list because it isn't really a lead at all, in conventional terms).It's a text block, or super-blurb, that draws readers into an important undertaking.I thought it was worth your time because it was so wonderfully done.):

Construct the Wall. A campaign was propelled by three words.

Could it be done, though? How much would it cost? What would it achieve? We're looking for answers because of this groundbreaking new report called The Wall.

It was an enormous task. We drove and flew the entire border. Interviews with migrants, farmers, families, tribal members, and even a human smuggler were conducted by over thirty reporters and photographers. We accompanied Border Patrol agents at sea, in a tunnel, and on the ground. We marched alongside vigilantes and flanked ranchers. We searched through official maps and battled for property records.

You may examine every section of barrier, see overhead footage of the whole border, and even take a virtual reality tour of the border in this article. Even Nevertheless, advancements in technology would be useless if they didn't improve our mutual understanding and comprehension of the problems.

To get all the updates on what we discovered, scroll below. Alternatively, just go exploring now. Must we erect a wall? We want you to come learn, talk, think, and make a decision.

Analysis: The first paragraph contains eight words, followed by a string of inquiries that always give the writer's voice a more conversational tone.Most of the sentences are brief.The language moves at a good, leisurely pace that is easy to understand thanks to all those periods, which act as little stop signs. The verbs flew, joined, patrolled, walked, and scoured are the source of the action.It surpasses McPhees' expectations for a strong lead: it provides a clear glimpse into what is going to happen.

An edited image appeared in a Facebook post that appeared to be a screengrab from a popular TMZ video.

A wide range of free news from various sources is now available to readers. Instead, news organizations are emphasizing upscale local news.

Although deepfake detection technology is advancing, researchers claim that solutions for audio deepfake identification are still lagging behind.

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