Burying the lede
Disclosing an inconvenient fact in a place, at a time, or in a form where almost no one will notice it, so that the speaker can later say it was disclosed.
Disclosure and communication are different things, and the device lives in the gap. A fact can be released on a Friday evening, in the eleventh paragraph, in a footnote, in a filing no journalist reads, on the day of a bigger story, and be technically public while remaining practically secret. The audience does not learn it; the speaker's record shows it was announced.
The name comes from journalism, where the "lede" is the opening sentence that carries the news, and "burying" it is the beginner's error of putting the important fact at the end. The device is the error done on purpose, and its most quoted description is a 2001 memo from a British government adviser sent an hour after the attacks on New York: "It's now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury." Exploits Availability Heuristic and Salience Bias.
Historical examples
On 11 September 2001, Jo Moore, a special adviser at the Department for Transport, sent an email within an hour of the attacks in New York suggesting it was "a very good day to get out anything we want to bury," such as councillors' expenses. The email was leaked the following month, she resigned in 2002, and the phrase entered the language as the name of the device.
"Spin Doctor's Email Sparks Outrage," BBC News, 9 October 2001; Oborne, Peter. The Rise of Political Lying. London: Free Press, 2005.
The "Friday news dump," releasing unwelcome announcements late on Friday when newsrooms are thin and readers are away, is an acknowledged practice in Washington and in corporate communications, common enough to be studied. Analyses of federal agencies' release timing have found unfavourable rules and reports clustering late in the week.
Gross, Hans. "Friday News Dumps: The Timing of Corporate Disclosures." Working paper, University of Chicago, 2018; deHaan, Ed, Terry Shevlin, and Jacob Thornock. "Market (In)Attention and the Strategic Scheduling and Timing of Earnings Announcements." Journal of Accounting and Economics 60, no. 1 (2015): 36–55.
In advertising and commerce
The material fact in a financial product is disclosed in the prospectus, on page 40, in the risk factors; the fee is in the footnote; the exclusion is in clause 17. Consumer regulators require "prominent" disclosure precisely because disclosure that is merely present was found not to reach anyone.
Federal Trade Commission. .com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising. Washington, 2013, on the "clear and conspicuous" standard.
Find a long official statement or report. Where is the most damaging sentence? How far did you have to read to find it?
In the wild
Short examples of the technique at work, each with what to notice. The same examples are questions in the quiz, where the answer is not given away.
The recall notice was posted at 5:45 pm on the Friday before a holiday weekend, under a headline about a new product line.
What to notice. Disclosed, timed and placed so that almost no one would see it.
A 2,000-word press release on the merger mentions in its final sentence that 400 jobs will go.
What to notice. The important fact is placed where readers stop reading; the headline is about something else.
"We disclosed the fee." It appears in a footnote on page 38 of the agreement.
What to notice. Technically public, practically hidden; the placement is the device.
Sources
- Oborne, Peter. The Rise of Political Lying. London: Free Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0743275606
- deHaan, Ed, Terry Shevlin, and Jacob Thornock. "Market (In)Attention and the Strategic Scheduling and Timing of Earnings Announcements." Journal of Accounting and Economics 60, no. 1 (2015): 36–55. doi:10.1016/j.jacceco.2015.03.003
- Federal Trade Commission. .com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising. 2013.