More prize-winning journalism

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Wow. Check out that prize-winning photo on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park. Editor Frank Scandale really knows his journalism. Three Wayne police officers -- one armed with a refreshing drink -- are shown standing around with gas-station workers.


When you're locked into putting a big, color photo on A-1 every day, you're going to run a lot of crap. Today is a perfect example of why Scandale is unfit to be editor. He was the one who relegated Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin's unique, flag-raising photo on 9/11 to a back page -- in favor of the same image every other newspaper and TV station had.


What's next for a front-page photo? People waiting for a bus in Hackensack or a train in Secaucus?


You'd think the looming budget confrontation between Republican Governor Christie and the Democrats who control the Legislature would be enough for a strong Page 1, but the story is crowded into a two-column space. Now, the governor wants to cap local property tax increases at 2.5%. I thought he promised to cut property taxes.


There's more coverage on Page 1 of the drunk-driving accident after a soccer game in the Meadowlands, but instead of reporting whether the nine injured pedestrians had been drinking at the game, Staff Writer John Brennan turns out a piece about the alcohol policy at the new stadium worthy of a highly paid public relations man. An editorial on A-12 refers to the accident as a "tragedy."


I really don't care about two of the three A-1 stories -- a dozen, possibly related holdups and the injured pedestrians -- and the stuff I do care about is consistently ignored, like any news about Hackensack outside of the Police Department or suspended Chief Ken Zisa.


You also won't find any Englewood news in Local today (the last story from that community ran April 22) and Teaneck gets a brief on L-3.


The A-1 story about 12 holdups belongs on the front of Local and women hailing a law to help others with postpartum depression would have made a good front-page story in its place.


But women aren't always held in favor at The Record. The newspaper paid Bill Pitcher, its new food editor, $70,000 a year when he was hired in 2006 -- even though he was 31 and didn't have any food-editing experience. Patricia Mack, his predecessor, who had 20 years of food-editing experience, was paid thousands less. That's depressing.


 Jerry DeMarco's Cliffview Pilot.com has a link to a video that illustrates the dangers faced by police officers, such as the Wayne cop who was grazed by a suspect's bullet. (The A-1 story could have been far more dramatic if it led with a retelling of how he pursued the suspects even after he was wounded.) Click on the following link:


How'd you like to be a cop for the day?

(Photo: New and old stadiums in the Meadowlands.)