How many Ps in Chappaquiddick?

Editor & Publisher tracks the first mention of Chappaquiddick in a roundup of obituaries:


It's always fascinating to see where obituaries first bring up what might be called the biggest (sometimes single) black mark on a notable person's life. Just last week we looked at when news outlets first mentioned the Plame case in covering the death of Robert Novak. So where did leading outlets place the first mention of the Chappaquiddick accident in their obits of Ted Kennedy? E&P's Sam Chamberlain provides the following count. The liberal Boston Globe mentioned it much earlier than the conservative Boston Herald.

NY Daily News- 13th graf

Associated Press- 7th graf

Boston Herald- 10th graf

Boston Globe- 5th graf

NY Times- 14th graf

NY Post- 14th graf

Washington Post- 9th graf

Wall Street Journal- 6th graf

LA Times- 12th graf

Chicago Tribune- 12th graf (same obit as LA Times)

Miami Herald- 10th graf

Reuters- 18th graf

USA Today- 19th graf

Politico- 24th graf

The Hill-NO MENTION

Roll Call-25th graf

National Journal-11th graf

Times of London- 8th graf

My sister: The obituary cliché

Sometimes standard obituary clichés are true, as you will see in "Alana Baranick's The Dash Between" column titled "Rosalie Miltak Sims and Obituary Clichés" at ObitsOhio.com in what amounts to a eulogy for my sister, who died May 16, 2008.

At the end of the column, I added a link to that long list of obit clichés that Claire Martin compiled and posted on Obituary Forum last year.