Power Of The Editor

Here it is Friday, afternoon, and as if I had nothing to prepare for Shabbat, I returned to the computer for another "quick look" and found this little article.

New Kadima Camp May Challenge Olmert


(IsraelNN.com) A new camp is forming inside the Kadima party, and commentators say it may challenge Ehud Olmert's leadership of the leading party. The group of eight Knesset members will meet Friday in the home of MK Yitzchak Ben-Yisrael. The other members are MKs Otniel Schneller, Menachem Ben-Sasson, Amira Dotan, Michael Nudelman, Yohanan Plesner, Shlomo Mula and Shai Chermesh.

The purpose of the meeting, according to one of the MKs, is to decide who can best lead Kadima if Olmert loses his current position. "If we discover that Tzipi Livni can preserve Kadima as a large party we shall have to look at the possibility of supporting her," the MK told Maariv-NRG.

All of the members of the group are placed between slots 20 and 30 on the party's list of candidates for Knesset, and would thus not be elected if Kadima gets less than 20 seats as current polls predict.

The first couple of paragraphs make it seem rather benign, just the usual political maneuverings. Then we get to the last paragraph, which tells a very different story.

All of the members of the group are placed between slots 20 and 30 on the party's list of candidates for Knesset, and would thus not be elected if Kadima gets less than 20 seats as current polls predict.

I would edit the article very differently. I'd start with the information in the last paragraph, that Kadima MK's who just made it into the Knesset after the last elections are panicking, because the polls show that Kadima's prospects are for many fewer MK's. Therefore they are organizing to try to get the strongest possible replacement for Olmert, because they don't want to lose their jobs.

Considering that most people don't make it to the end of even these short articles, I think my approach is better.