Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Tom Troncone throws his own going-away party

Tras un triatlonImage by ojoqtv via Flick
What you'd look like after one of Tom Troncone's nitrate-laden brats.


Tom Troncone, an assistant assignment editor at The Record of Woodland Park, held his own going-away party Saturday at his home in Hillsdale.


Troncone, whose last day was Friday, originally was rumored to be going to Bloomberg News in Manhattan, but may have decided to go with Patch, the online, local news service from AOL (or is it, LOL?).


Troncone once worked as a police reporter under Jerry DeMarco, who at the time was law-and-order editor on the assignment desk in Hackensack. DeMarco sat next to his boss, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes.


The barbecue was extremely well-attended by newsroom staffers, including Sykes and Projects  Editor Tim Nostrand.


With those two attending, let's hope for the sake of others Troncone didn't run out of food.


See previous post: You call this local news, Deirdre?
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21 comments:

  1. Guess it would be too much to expect accuracy from this toilet bowl of a blog, despite how you vilify good people every day for far, far less...

    So, to correct you, I didn't go to Bloomberg.

    And my "own going-away party" was Saturday, not Sunday. And we screened Gartland's terrific documentary on the last year of Yankee Stadium.

    The food was plentiful. Beautiful brats and German franks. Lot's of good beer, too. See, that's what friends do, but I'm figuring you wouldn't know that.

    I cannot possibly tell you how much respect I have lost for you in the last year.

    We never had issues with each other, so just please me leave me out of this.

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  2. I stand corrected on the day.

    You probably heard you would have to work your ass off at Bloomberg and be expected to eat in the company cafeteria, not go out for lunch. So where are you going?

    "Beautiful brats and German franks"? No doubt from meat pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones, then preserved with harmful nitrates. No. That's not what friends do.

    I never needed your respect and don't now.

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  3. hey thats the most pompous thing toms written since his obnoxious and over long farewell message.

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  4. Hey Victor, I did you a favor. I told Trombone, "That blog may be a toilet bowl, but at least it doesn't overflow like the ones at the Record."
    Imagine that ... a request for accuracy coming from an assignment editor at the Record. Best of luck wherever you go, Tom. Good to see you lift the veil of anonymity now that you can no longer be fired for getting caught reading the "Eye on the Record."

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  5. My "going away" party was actually Thursday night at Poors. So even the title of your post is inaccurate. Saturday was a screening. And I was the night editor, not an assistant assignment editor.

    So, let's see, that's what? Four factual errors in just four graphs?

    Given that I've informed you about numerous inaccuracies, you probably should take this post down. And as usual, your conjecture is wrong.

    Let's just end this. It's a waste of time.

    http://karlehmer.com/bratwurst.aspx

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  6. Night editor? What, they gave you a title to distract you from being relegated to the night shift for so many years. You took dictation over the phone, right? If it was such a great job, why did you leave?

    Why don't you call Karl Ehmer and ask them how the animals that go into their bratwurst are raised. It will make you throw up.

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  7. Victor's obligation to accuracy passed on his last day at The Record. Actually, the day before, since I remember that he called in sick on his last day.

    Good luck at Reuters, Tom!

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  8. My obligation to accuracy has never changed. This blog is as accurate as I can make it. No one can argue with that.

    I do occasionally employ satire, and I can get nasty and call people names. I hope my readers recognize satire when they see it

    Journalists are supposed to have thick skins, but the prima donnas at The Record are just a bunch of cry babies who hate being accountable to the public because they don't want anyone to know how lazy and irresponsible they are.

    Well, that's tough shit. I'm here to expose what a crappy job the editors are doing, while the greedy Borg sibs plan a big killing on selling the Hackensack property.

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  9. Ha! That goodbye note WAS obnoxious and pompous. Reading it, you would think the guy won an Oscar or something instead of just quit his deadend job.

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  10. I'd love to see Tom Troncone's goodbye note. Does he plug Karl Ehmer's bratwurst?

    But I'll bet it couldn't rival Bill Pitcher's 50 random [pompous] thoughts that he posted on the Second Helpings blog before he left (was that in April?).

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  11. "We forget it sometimes but the role we play is vital to the very fabric of our society. This room is filled with tremendously smart and gifted journalists who could have used their skills solely for personal enrichment in other walks of life, but who chose instead to answer a calling."

    -- Former Record night editor Tom Troncone

    Barf.

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  12. Now I know why I couldn't sleep last night.

    Barf is right. Who does he think he is, Ben Day?

    Fabric of our society? I guess he means the rags Liz Houlton wears or the tents Deirdre Sykes hides under.

    "Smart and gifted journalists." There are plenty of those, but they are relegated to minor roles by the drones, including Sykes, Tim Nostrand, Jim McScreamy. Rich Whitby, Christina Joseph and Francis Scandale.

    You were right to lower case night editor before Tom's name. It's bullshit. What did he edit? Toilet paper? Did he actually make decisions about what went into the paper?

    Answer a calling? Yeah. Your family is calling and asking you again why the F you're working nights for so long.

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  13. FYI:

    I've made a couple of corrections to the original post on Tom throwing his own going-away part, per his objections.

    Is he now at Patch, the AOL local news service? I didn't know there was anyplace that covered fewer North Jersey towns than The Record.

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  14. Following this post (in three parts) is Troncone's farewell message in near-entirety (contact information he provided has been stripped out). It's not quite accurate to call it pompous; sycophantic is the more appropriate characterization. He's clearly buttering up the egos of his now-former co-workers in case the AOL thing bombs and he has to come back to The Record to lick his wounds. No bridge-burner, he. Anyway, here's the message (The Pete Hamill quote at the end was part of it):

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  15. From: Troncone, Thomas
    
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 6:40 PM
    
Subject: A Fond Farewell.

    Friends,
    I want to thank each of you from the bottom of my heart for making the past six years the most rewarding of my career.

    I started here in August 2004, the week after Governor McGreevey resigned. On my first day, I was sent to the home of a Livingston doctor who was claiming he had a relationship with Golan Cipel. He would only agree to be interviewed in Hungarian, and I don't speak Hungarian. Somehow I managed to get inside with a Daily News reporter and interviewed this crazy man as he sat in his boxer shorts. So it began.

    The next six years were filled with plane crashes, triple homicides, superfund sites, corruption arrests and accident cutlines. I will always look back on these years with great fondness.

    We forget it sometimes, but the role we play is vital to the very fabric of our society. This room is filled with tremendously smart and gifted journalists who could have used their skills solely for personal enrichment in other walks of life, but who chose instead to answer a calling. This county and this state are better because you did.

    We're going to have a spirited, friendly competition in the coming years, and I hope that it will bring out the best journalism in each of us. I'll never have a cross word to say publicly about The Record or the people who make this place go. I feel honored to have worked here.

    And I'd be remiss if I didn't signal out a few people for some special "thank you's"....

    ReplyDelete
  16. Deirdre [Sykes], who gave me a chance to be the night editor for the past four years, and who is the steady hand guiding the incredible journalism produced at this newspaper. Your skills as a newswoman are only surpassed by your kindness and compassion. Thank you for everything D. I can't say that enough.

    Frank [Scandale], who threw me a life jacket while I was drowning in the cold and dark Gannett waters, I've learned a great deal from your calm leadership and unflappable news judgment. I'm a better journalist today because of you. And I'd jump at the chance to work with you again somewhere down the road.

    Will [Lamb], who day in and day out performed like a true pro no matter what I threw his way, thank you. You made my job so much easier. I'm not sure if people realize how important you have been to this news organization over the past five years. You put up with me every night. I mean, that pretty much says it all, right?

    Dan [Sforza], Deb [Vial], Christina [Jospeh] & Rich [Whitby], your dedication to the journalism we do on this assignment desk should never go unnoticed. You've not only been my colleagues, I consider you my friends. Thank you so much for always being there.

    To the reporters who I have supervised -- Kibret [Markos], Peter [Sampson], Mike K. [Kelly], Justo [Bautista], Will [Lamb], Giovanna [Fabiano], Nick [Clunn] -- thank you for your hard work, professionalism and, most of all, your friendship.

    I'm still going to be around and I live right in Hillsdale, so I hope I get invites to all sorts of Record functions.

    You can reach me at [email address omitted].

    For those of you stopping over tomorrow for the screening of Mike Gartland's documentary, the addy is [address omitted]. You can start showing up around 3, we'll start grilling sometime after 4, and Mike's film will screen sometime around 8-8:30. My cell is [phone number omitted].

    Again, thank you, and I wish you all the best.

    Tom
    ****************************************************************
    "A job on a newspaper is a special thing. Every day you take something that you found out about, and you put it down and in a matter of hours it becomes a product. Not just a product like a can or something. It is a personal product that people, a lot of people, take the time to sit down and read." -- Pete Hamill.

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  17. That's it. It only required a two-parter.

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  18. I didn't know Tom Troncone was so skilled at masturbation -- of others, that is.

    His praise for Sykes, Scandale, Joseph, Kelly, Sforza, Whitby and Fabiano is a true bridge-building exercise, with one eye on the scatter-shot AOL operation's future or lack of one.

    That Pete Hamill quote is profound. Written journalism is not "like a can or something"? Did he mean, something like the turds produced by many of the people Troncone singles out for praise?

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  19. Tom Troncone is a fag!

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