Polishing turds

Image by Hoboken Condos via Flickr

Try as they might, the lazy, incompetent editors at The Record of Woodland Park can't hide their desperation when Sunday night rolls around and they have absolutely nothing worthy of Page 1. Then, they scramble to cover their asses and try to find any story with a few photographs they can dress up for its front-page debut.

Today, they grabbed a story that belongs inside Local on a subject the paper long has neglected: recycling. Not only is about recycling, but it's about Paterson and other urban centers, with apparently no relevance to Bergen County. As my dear, departed colleague Michael Thaler used to say about some stories he handled as a copy editor: "You can't polish a turd."

Besides all that, this turd is poorly reported by Staff Writer Meredith Mandell, who normally is a hard worker. But here, she neglects to discuss the financial arrangement between a private collection company and its municipal partner. Does cash-strapped Paterson get any money from the sale of all these recyclables?

The only other story on A-1 today is another gentle handling of Republican Governor Christie, who in less than a month has alienated union members, public schools and teachers, mass transit users and the middle class, while catering to the wealthy and corporations, such as the Borgs and their North Jersey Media Group, publisher of the former Hackensack daily.

I forgot to mention how Herb Jackson, the paper's Washington correspondent, described Christie in his story on A-4 yesterday as admitting "during the campaign he struggled to hold down his weight." Only during the campaign? Not for many years before that as U.S. attorney? And has he really "struggled"? What a hoot.

It's that kind of "public relations reporting" (the reporter wants to stay in the good graces of his overweight subject) that throws cold water on calls by Michelle Obama and others to make ending childhood obesity a priority. The Record's editors have long refused to launch an obesity project that could benefit readers.

For yet another day, today's paper contains no news -- not even police news -- about Hackensack, Englewood and many other important towns.