Man found covered in BBQ sauce

Jul 7, 2008 by Dan Taylor    2 Comments    Posted under: News

Grand Rapids, Battle Creek, and Kalamazoo locale TV affiliate WWMT published an excellent example of Pulizter Prize winning journalism last thursday by running what I find to be the story of the week.

I think the best thing to do here would be to simply reprint the article, as there’s no way I could possibly descibe the lack of transitions, puns, metaphors, or even proper flow.  Check the original article here, as some of the comments are even better than the article itself:

APPLETON, Wisc. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – A couple telephoned police in the middle of the night after finding a man in their basement covered head to toe in barbecue sauce.

“He told the officers that it was urban camouflage,” said the homeowner.

This happened in Wisconsin.

The homeowners say they woke up to whistling sounds.

The husband grabbed his shotgun and headed toward the basement where he found the sauced-up intruder.

He held him at gunpoint until police arrived.

The guy told officers he covered himself in barbecue sauce because he wanted to hide from the government.

He now faces burglary charges.

Now ladies and gentlemen, I may not be up for a William Randolph Hearst award anytime soon, but I DO know that even I could have written this story a bit better.  I realize it’s journalism, but hey…with a topic like this…I’m certain that this reporter could have taken just a poetic liberty or two.

Update: It seems as though our friends at WWMT have one truly incredible reporter on staff.  The BBQ article is apparently NOT the only article written in this style.  Have a look at their stellar reportage of a Peaceful ending to a standoff in Kalamazoo.  One almost wonders…are they doing this on purpose?  They certainly must be getting traffic/page view reports through the roof.