Why does the text in the post start halfway through the text in the link?

People sometimes do this to call attention to the part of an article that they found most interesting.

Kind of annoying to have to click the damned link if the text can just be in the body of the post.

Copying and re-posting the entire body of a copyrighted work is sometimes considered bad form. Some forums ban it outright. Even where it’s not illegal or banned, not everyone likes to do it.