Journalism (or as Atrios would say, "Journamalism")

Now as I understand it, a good newspaper article is supposed to put out all the really important facts of the story -- the who, what, where, when and why -- in the first paragraph or two, leaving the more mundane details to follow. That way, the harried reader can get the substance of the article quickly and move on to other matters without getting lost in the details.

So it is with the New York Times. In a front page article about the kerfuffle over Graeme Frost today, the newspaper begins with the wingnuts charges about the Frosts:

...when Democrats enlisted 12-year-old Graeme Frost, who along with a younger sister relied on the [Schip] program for treatment of severe brain injuries suffered in a car crash, to give the response to Mr. Bush’s weekly radio address on Sept. 29, Republican opponents quickly accused them of exploiting the boy to score political points.

Then, they wasted little time in going after him to score their own.

In recent days, Graeme and his family have been attacked by conservative bloggers and other critics of the Democrats’ plan to expand the insurance program, known as S-chip. They scrutinized the family’s income and assets — even alleged the counters in their kitchen to be granite — and declared that the Frosts did not seem needy enough for government benefits.

Okay readers, it's time to move on. The Democrats have done it again. They're giving money to the welfare queens who are driving their Cadillacs home to their mansions in the Hamptons. Move on.

At this point, you have to turn to page 16, where the article continues. And, it isn't until you've read halfway down the page, after the paper has gone into to further detail about what the wingnuts are charging, that you come to this:

As it turns out, the Frosts say, Graeme attends the private school on scholarship. The business that the critics said Mr. Frost owned was dissolved in 1999. The family’s home, in the modest Butchers Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, was bought for $55,000 in 1990 and is now worth about $260,000, according to public records. And, for the record, the Frosts say, their kitchen counters are concrete.

Certainly the Frosts are not destitute. They also own a commercial property, valued at about $160,000, that provides rental income. Mr. Frost works intermittently in woodworking and as a welder, while Mrs. Frost has a part-time job at a firm that provides services to publishers of medical journals. Her job does not provide health coverage.

Under the Maryland child health program, a family of six must earn less than $55,220 a year for children to qualify. The program does not require applicants to list their assets, which do not affect eligibility.

In a telephone interview, the Frosts said they had recently been rejected by three private insurance companies because of pre-existing medical conditions. “We stood up in the first place because S-chip really helped our family and we wanted to help other families,” Mrs. Frost said.

“We work hard, we’re honest, we pay our taxes,” Mr. Frost said, adding, “There are hard-working families that really need affordable health insurance.”