Categories: OLD Media Moves

Bloomberg reporter wrote 18 leads for Supreme Court rulings

Bloomberg reporter Greg Stohr, who wrote the stories today about the Supreme Court rulings, had 18 different leads covering a wide variety if possibilities, reports Erik Wemple of the Washington Post.

Wemple writes, “The conventional wisdom on speed, alas, hasn’t prevented news organizations from going fast. Following the release of this morning’s Supreme Court ruling in the DOMA case, here are the finish times of some key organizations:

Bloomberg: 10:01:13 Reuters: 10:01:32 AP: 10:02:27

“All three organizations confirm those times.

“The winner among these outlets, Bloomberg News, put a three-person team on today’s rulings: Supreme Court reporter Greg Stohr, who’s been on the beat since 1998, plus editors Laurie Asseo and Bob Drummond. Once the decision became available this morning, Stohr grabbed it and hustled over to the cubicle in the Supreme Court’s press area, where he worked with Asseo and Drummond to assess the document and what it said.

“Stohr checked that the ruling said ‘affirmed.’ He checked on the headnotes. He checked how the various justices lined up on the decision. Then he and the team pushed out their take on the situation.

“Total elapsed time: 30 seconds. Says the 46-year-old Stohr in an interview with the Erik Wemple Blog: ‘I’m going to guess that it was something like 30 seconds between the time that they gave us the opinions and the time that the headlines went out.’

“That’s not to say, however, that Stohr’s work on the story started this morning at 10:00 a.m. No, he began working on the story a month-and-a-half ago, he says. Much of the work consisted of thinking through all the intricate legal scenarios that the Supreme Court could possibly concoct in deciding the DOMA case and the Prop 8 case, which also made news today. The brainstorming process, says Stohr, ultimately yielded 18 story ledes and many more headlines — all of which were ready for publication this morning.”