Burying the Lead

I worked in the newspaper business for 10 years. I taught reporting and editing for four years.

So I feel qualified to say what I'm about to say.

The New York Times' political blog, "The Caucus," buried the lead today.

It reported that former President Jimmy Carter "walked right up to the line of endorsing Barack Obama, but, nope, stopped just short of actually crossing it."

Then, after using several paragraphs to explain Carter's non-endorsement in comments to a Nigerian newspaper, the blog reported that "Hanoi Jane" Fonda has vocally endorsed Obama in full view of the press in this country.

There may be those who disagree with me, but I think that, while Fonda's "endorsement" was about as informal as this sort of thing can be (given, as it was, as the response to a question from the paparazzi at the Los Angeles restaurant where she had just dined), anything that Fonda says is a punch in the stomach for many conservatives and some centrists who still remember her visit to North Vietnam in 1972.

It should have led the story.

Some people have forgiven Fonda, choosing to think of that episode in her life as symbolic of the deep divide that the Vietnam War had carved in American life.

Twenty years ago, Fonda said, " I was trying to help end the killing and the war, but there were times when I was thoughtless and careless about it and I'm very sorry that I hurt [Vietnam veterans]."

But there are many who still react with deeply felt emotion when she says or does anything political.

Also, Fonda is a feminist of long-standing. I suspect that many of Hillary Clinton's supporters assumed Fonda would be in their corner. If that is true, her support for Obama must seem like betrayal to many of them, even if she has given no indication whether she ever was a Clinton supporter.

I admire President Carter, but, knowing his history as an advocate of civil rights, his apparent support for Obama doesn't surprise me.

And I think most readers, whether they were alive when Carter was in the White House or not, tend to dismiss Carter as irrelevant, a former president who was denied re-election by a landslide.

This in spite of a post-presidential career that has been more brilliant than most.

Fonda's support for Obama is, however, a bit of a surprise, for a couple of reasons.

And the response that she remains capable of provoking makes her a political lightning rod.

She should have been the lead.