Take this job and shove it

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Road rage and air rage on the same front page. What a neat package The Record of Woodland Park presents today. 

But I'll bet there are subliminal messages here from the sub-editors who have to work under the suffocating leadership of Frank "Castrato" Scandale and micromanaging head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes. Take this job and shove it.

How many times did I hear an editor in the Hackensack newsroom muttering under his breath that he'd like to run down Sykes in the parking lot, as barely 10 feet or 15 feet away, she shrieked with laughter, oblivious that she might be disturbing others. Her computer carried a name tag, "Deirdre 'Laughs A Lot' Sykes," as if anyone working there needed an explanation.


Scandale lords over the front page, running sports and the so-called business of sports in place of real news. He also loved to tell the news copy desk how to write headlines, though his own column writing was pedestrian and full of cliches. He'd even ban certain words from A-1 captions or headlines.

Scandale also liked to stifle challenges to story content, accuracy or completeness from the copy desk. At one point, he even forbid copy editors from calling reporters at home with questions. Coincidentally, four corrections and a clarification appear on A-2 today.


There's real North Jersey news below the fold today as the impact of Governor Christie's education budget cuts become more apparent. Staff Writer Leslie Brody reports 80% of school districts will have fewer teachers.


The Local news section is a disappointment for another day. The Englewood and Hackensack reporters both have stories about the police on L-1 and L-3, respectively. There are no stories about Teaneck. For Giovanna Fabiano, this is her first Englewood story since July 24. I hope she had a restful vacation.

For Monsy Alvarado, this is her fourth story on Hackensack cops in five days. On Aug. 5, she wrote nearly a full column to say a lieutenant's hearing may be delayed, because of legal maneuvering, and today, her story reports that, indeed, the hearing has been put off. 

It could have been a brief, but Sykes and Alvarado love to give the finger to Hackensack readers. Next, they'll be mooning residents of the city where the paper was founded and prospered for more than 110 years, before Publisher Stephen A. Borg precipitated an identity crisis by abandoning 150 River St. headquarters.


Staff Writer Shawn Boburg's byline has started appearing again, meaning he is back covering his towns, after months of being banished to investigative hell by Sykes, along with Alvarado and Staff Writer Jean Rimbach, who averages one byline a year.