Sexual harassment attorney accused of sexual harassment!! With kinky details enclosed – it’s a perfect tabloid story. Both New York papers took a similar angle for the lede…
Jose Martinez’s lede from the New York Daily News:
The founder of a Manhattan law firm dedicated to empowering women is a chauvinist pig with pierced genitals who wore a bondage collar at work…an explosive new suit charges. [Ellipses added for dramatic effect.]
Under the headline “ANTI-BIAS CRUSADER HAS ‘KINK’ IN ARMOR“, Dan Mangan’s New York Post lede is virtually identical:
A leading lower Manhattan women’s-rights lawyer watched porn at his desk, discussed his “pierced genitalia” and wears a “slave” collar at work as part of a sadomasochistic relationship with his girlfriend…a shocking sex- harassment suit alleges. [Ellipses added for dramatic effect.]
I personally have seen how the Daily News and Post have made up bogus facts to bolster their stories, so I don’t know what to make of this. Most important, their ledes are dishonest – while factually accurate. From a distance – where I am, it’s kind of funny to see the detailed allegations laid out with the disclaimer briefly hanging onto the sentence at the end – but for those involved it must be infuriating.