Image via WikipediaNews coverage of minorities has never been a strong suit at The Record. Recall how Editor Frank Scandale got rid of his only Hispanic columnist and, several years later, his only black columnist. Or look at the racial makeup of editors and reporters -- only a handful are Latino or African-American.
Since the move of North Jersey Media Group and its flagship daily to Woodland Park from Hackensack in 2009, the focus of news stories also seems to have shifted west and north -- leaving only scattered municipal coverage of Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood, the three most diverse communities in Bergen County.
For example, when is the last time you read a story about Englewood's segregated elementary and middle schools or a positive report on its large Jamaican community? Is this anyway to treat the city where you grew up, Publisher Stephen A. Borg? (Photo: Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack.)
Today's front page reflects Scandale's jock mentality -- most of it is squandered on the U.S. hockey loss at the Winter Olympics. It also downplays a more far-reaching story that the "odds of obesity appear stacked against black and Hispanic children starting even before birth, provocative new research suggests." A Page 1 item says the full story -- all eight paragraphs -- is on A-5.
The obesity epidemic is -- if you'll excuse me -- the elephant in the newsroom at The Record. The lazy, incompetent editors have resisted for many years launching a project on this important health issue. Food Editor Bill Pitcher also hasn't broken any new ground here.
Instead, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in staff salaries to keep alive a vendetta against Michael Mordaga, former chief of detectives for the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, producing a single, weak story on the front of Local in December after nearly three years of sleuthing.
Now, judging from the scarcity of bylines from two municipal reporters -- Monsy Alvarado and Shawn Boburg -- Sykes has them chasing another "great story." Alvarado and Boburg -- along with Jean Rimbach and others -- worked on the Mordaga fiasco. Rimbach likely has the fewest bylines of any reporter working for Sykes.
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i hope you understand that there is more to diversity that just blacks and hispanics?
ReplyDeleteOf course, but The Record devotes a lot of coverage to other minorities such as Asians. It seems most comfortable covering the mostly white suburban towns -- places like Mahwah, West Milford, Ringwood and so forth.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous is correct in pointing out that there is more to diversity than blacks and Hispanics. In fact, the Record is proving successful in creating a new class of minority: Readers.
ReplyDeleteLOL.
ReplyDelete