Image via WikipediaThis morning, readers picked up The Record of Woodland Park, hoping for detailed coverage of last night's Hackensack City Council meeting on the suspended police chief, and the latest on Governor Christie's drastic state aid cuts and his unprecedented attack on the judiciary.
All those stories are here, but how they were played tells you volumes about the desperation of the lazy, incompetent editors to sell papers.
The noisy, packed meeting in Hackensack is promoted at the bottom of Page 1 -- which several days ago was almost completely devoted to the arrest of Police Chief Ken Zisa -- but the story gets pushed back to the Local front. Also squeezed to the margins of the front page are a proposed 74% cut in state library funding and the constitutional crisis over Christie's rejection of state Supreme Court Justice John Wallace, who is African-American.
So what's the big news today? The inept, would-be Times Square bomber is talking to investigators (and paint is drying on houses all over North Jersey). Is this really such a big deal? Look at that terrific photo. Six investigators, some of them on their cell phones, on a porch in Connecticut. Wow. A real prize winner, if I ever saw one.
I guess this is an example of the "responsible journalism" practiced at North Jersey Media Group.
Are the editors trying to minimize Christie's slash-and-burn campaign? Why not finally give voice to Hackensack residents on Page 1 after a virtual blackout on any city news outside the Police Department for many, many months?
Look at the high court decisions the governor criticizes: affordable housing and special aid for school districts to ensure a thorough-and-efficient education. Both benefited minorities, and the justice Christie rejected is the only black on the court. See a pattern there?
Except for the Hackensack Council meeting story on the front of Local, there is no news from Hackensack, Englewood or Teaneck.
As for coverage of the council meeting itself, there was way too much background information and not enough on what happened at the meeting. An editorial on A-12 -- citing conflicts in Bergen County -- calls for the state Attorney General's Office to take over the Zisa investigation.
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Hey, the less Hackensack news the better far as I'm concerned. It's tough enough to get one of the four meters in front of the Hackensack post office without a News12 New Jersey van camped outside gobbling up two of the meters. Throw that Zisa guy in jail already and let's get back to normal already, eh?
ReplyDeleteYes, I saw that van in those spots. Plus there was a reporter's car with New York plates in another one of the four spots. But that's no excuse for neglecting Hackensack. Did you ever ask yourself why the paper has never done a story on the Hackensack Post Office being one of the few without a parking lot for customers?
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