It has been almost two years since I last took part in my Front Page Friday postings. That’s embarrassing. However, it is time to revive it. I apologize for the absence, but I’m excited to revive it. So, is the debut of the new Front Page Friday.
New York Post
If you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, I’m sure you’ve heard about the the cruise ship accident that took place last Friday off the coast of Italy. The captain, Francesco Schettino, abandoned ship without helping his crew or passengers.
In short, he was a giant pansy.
Or, as The New York Post cleverly stated on their front page Wednesday, he was a chicken.
As you can see, the play on words of “Chicken of the sea,” which is of course a reference to tuna, captures the essence of the story perfectly since he was a person whose job consisted of being on the sea and was clearly a chicken. This is especially true since the captain claims he fell off the ship and into a lifeboat before being ordered back to the ship by the Italian Coast Guard.
Luckily for the passengers, the rest of the crew stepped up and made sure things were dealt with.
Schettino is an embarrassment to captains everywhere. What a worm bag.
As for the journalistic side of this, it is fantastic. They covered the page, which is tabloid-sized, with a photo of the captain. Then they overlaid the “Chicken Of The Sea” across the bottom. Then, they put a pull-quote on the page that demonstrates how frantic and serious the ordeal was.
The refer takes the reader to the story on the inside by using a vibrant pink color to draw attention to the page numbers of the story.
This is a great way to cover an international story. I applaud the Post for it. It is funny, clever and tells the story perfectly.
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Well, I hope you enjoyed this installment of Front Page Friday. It won’t be the last. I’m going to get back into the groove of things and begin highlighting at least one page a week. Hopefully, I will even have a few extra front pages to share each week.
