Stacking News When Everyday is Crazy Time

Everyday is crazy time in the news business these days. How do we decide what comes first? Just the other day while I was freelancing, I saw the story pass through that the new President of France’s email had been hacked (two days before the election). This to me was a HUUUUUUGE story. But the person running the newsroom did not agree. They didn’t want to get caught up in the “Minutia” of every bit of the election. Whaaaat? The news writer on duty did and she kept needing the manager and voila’ they wrote it up and were soon leading the day (and the next one) with this story.

But what if it were a B.S. story and it never really happened? We have protections for that, this is a giant story that needs attention. And it’s a giant story if it’s #fakenews too.

But how about when that story happens, then it doesn’t matter, poof, onto the next. How do we know when it doesn’t matter? When the person who has the most to gain from said hacking loses and concedes and then us journalists move on to the next scandal, right?

What if there’s that story, AND the James Comey story and a raid at say, an FBI office of a GOP operative? What takes precedence? The election story is over, the Comey story has legs, but goes second here, and the raid at the FBI office becomes my lede story.

Now add a fire into the mix, a giant fire, say, near the White House? What leads now? I have an answer, what say you?