Newsweek's Gideon Bible piece is easily the shortest story we've read for class thus far, and as such, it lacked a lot of the depth of some of the articles. I thought it was still a pretty good read, even if I have a small criticism.
I understand that this is a trend piece to show that fewer hotels are stocking their classrooms with Bibles, but it would have been nice to get a quote or two from a staunchly religious hotel mogul arguing in favor of keeping Gideon Bibles around. A longer piece would have no excuse not to include a few paragraphs from someone with that viewpoint.
For what it is, though, this is an interesting story, albeit one without much to dissect. The lead is a good, somewhat newsy one, and it does an excellent job of setting up right away what the story will be about. In a sense, the lead also serves as the nut graf and the Colonel Trautman moment all at once. The first paragraph introduces the story, tells what it will primarily be about, and drops a few "shocking facts." It makes sense due to the story's short length, and it's done pretty effectively.
The tone is pretty objective and uncommitted, though the aforementioned omission of any real opposition is problematic. The kicker tries a little too hard to be cute and isn't very effective, but it still fits the content of the story.
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