By Tracy Dingmann

In the world of journalism, one of the worst things a newspaper can do is to “bury the lead.”

The expression refers to the unfortunate – and usually inadvertent – practice of burying the most important information far down in the story.

Besides going against common sense, burying the lead defies newspapers’ traditional and time-honored “inverted triangle” way of reporting a news story – in which the most important stuff comes first, with the details decreasing in significance as the story goes along.

Features and sports stories can meander a bit – but news stories are supposed to get right to the point.

That said, I don’t believe I have ever seen a newspaper bury a lead as spectacularly as the Journal did on July 16, in its front-page, banner story “Union Protest Turns Rowdy: Police Called When Protestor’s Noise and Profanity Disrupt Church Service.”

I do understand that some folks at St. Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church were upset by some of the things that went on during a union demonstration at a business next to the church and its on-site day school.

Church officials asked the demonstrators to be quiet during Mass and to refrain from using dirty language. Apparently, noise from the demonstration continued and the church called police.

Fair enough.

But you had to read all the way to the last paragraph of the story to find out the disposition of the church’s complaint against the “rowdy” protesters.

“No report was filed by APD.”

Huh? The Journal published a banner story about a “rowdy” protest that resulted in a church complaint -  and no police report?

I don’t get it. Or maybe I do. Because the Journal buried some more really important information in that story – one that might help explain why it put it on Page 1.

Check out this paragraph about the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, the Los Angeles-based union that was behind this and other local Carpenters union protests at businesses around Albuquerque. (Typically, the protests feature a sign that says “Shame On…” followed by the name of a business the union is targeting for allegedly not meeting unspecified labor standards.)

“The council, which has almost completed building a $20 million training center at I-25 and Comanche NE, has yet to provide details to the Journal about the protests and how sites are chosen despite multiple requests for comment going back to at least April 2009.”

Hmm. Also, there’s this: “Shame on You, Union,” a March 10, 2010 Journal editorial slamming the Los Angeles union for its “thuggish behavior” and refusal to tell the paper why it is organizing the various protests.

Local business people say the protests are giving the construction industry, in particular, a black eye and driving away customers who may think the business is a bad employer. Some say the union is targeting good businesses just to pick up more dues-paying members.

Several local businesses have had enough and are counterprotesting. One has turned “Shame On Carpenter’s Union” banners against the pickets.

The union’s pathetic strong-arm tactic is itself shameless. Customers should cross this ersatz picket line and patronize the besieged businesses that are being targeted by this thuggish behavior. (Emphasis mine.)

Sounds like Journal editors might be just a little bit annoyed with this particular union.

But that’s a horrible reason for burying the lead in a news story.