News leads (ledes) in practice

I would like you to visit and read a major daily online newspaper in class today. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the New York Times, The Washington Post, The LA Times, the Chicago Tribune, etc. Quickly find the one newspaper that you want to and are able to browse (some papers ask you to sign up for free accounts, if you want access to this paper take a brief period of time to do this, otherwise move on) and read through their news section. Read four or five articles in their entirety. Then select one and evaluate the elements of news that apply and its lead. To evaluate something is to identify it and examine its effectiveness. Do that for both the elements of news and the lead in the story you've selected. You will need to post your response as a comment on this blog and link to the story. 

First Amendment Considerations in the news

• read the following two stories: one about a man who thinks Muslims might not deserve first amendment rights, and one by a man in charge of putting together the Cordoba Center, a Muslim community center near ground zero in New York City.
• respond to the two articles in a comment to this post discussing the pertinent first amendment issues raised in the article. Where do you stand on the issue of the Cordoba Center being built? Why?