Two stories taking up most of Page 1 and the front of the Local section in The Record of Woodland Park today seem out of place. They easily could have been reversed, giving readers a compelling Hurricane Katrina success story on the front page.
Instead, readers are lectured by Road Warrior John "Drivers' Best Friend" Cichowski on Page 1 about the dangers of walking along highways such as Route 4 and Route 46. Is this front-page news? New Jersey saw only 157 of the 1,200 pedestrian deaths cited for the metropolitan area in 2006-08.
The profile of an African-American woman in Paterson who was displaced by Hurricane Katrina, which took her father, doesn't quite fit the Local news section. It reads more like a North Jersey story, with data on other survivors. It just goes to show how unlikely it is for black people to get on the front page of the former Hackensack daily unless they are charged with murder or some other heinous crime.
The rest of the Local section is silent on any news of Hackensack, Englewood or Teaneck -- the three most diverse communities in Bergen County -- unless you count the obituary of a woman who ran the old homeless shelter in Hackensack. The Record's move out of River City seems to have shifted the focus of news-coverage to the west, such as the story today on the Garret Mountain deer hunt -- near the paper's new headquarters.
The placement of stories continues to grate. The sanitation problems at a city of Passaic Mexican cheese factory and the opening of a new hamburger restaurant in Montclair -- essentially two food stories -- appeared this week in the Business pages, where the latter seemed like a big, free advertisement.
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After reporting on the Bergen County Schools Superintendent for months, why did the Record not report on the scathing auditor's report given at last night's meeting, detailing all of the misdeeds. Guess it was too much work for the editors and reporters who are much more interested in Passaic county news these days. The Record of Woodland Park is correct!
ReplyDeleteThe Record stopped covering most night meetings long ago. For years, the early deadlines prevented the paper from including late meeting or sports news. Now, I agree, it is sheer laziness.
ReplyDeleteI'm shocked. Shocked! Went to the diner today and had to read the Record since another customer walked off with the waitress's NY Post, and I turned to the Religion page. With all the churches and temples and mosques and storefront Come-to-Jesuses in Bergen and Passaic Counties, there was a half-page story about a rural church in Kansas! Kansas! From McClatchy wire service. What a colossal waste of space and slap in the face of the paper's readers. Keep up the good work, Mister Eye on the Record.
ReplyDeleteI may change the name to "Eye on The Wretched."
ReplyDeleteApparently no pride or sense of responsibility in what was once known as the "fourth estate." This paper is an "estate of disrepair."
ReplyDeleteYes. The paper is in a shambles. The editors are incompetent, the owners indifferent.
ReplyDelete