Missing the big picture -- again

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A police officer burned to death in his 1995 Jeep Cherokee after he was rear-ended by a drunk.

The Record of Woodland Park seems to have a knack for missing the big picture, hobbled as it is by office-loving editors who have worked for the paper for a decade or more without learning much about North Jersey.

Editor Frank Scandale's focus has been on what he accomplished in Denver before he came to the former Hackensack daily in early 2001. Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' few forays out of the office, besides making the trip home every weekday, are for Jamaican rum cake or to fall on her face trying to cross a snow bank in the parking lot.

So, it's no surprise The Record's editorial might was squandered today on Page 1 coverage of a bunch of turkeys who deep-fried turkeys in a Meadowlands parking lot before a football game -- while the editors scattered the fallout from Thanksgiving Eve -- one of the biggest bar nights of the year (Wednesday night into early Thursday).

With college students and others home for the holiday, the local watering hole is a favorite place to catch up on what old friends have been doing. One customer of Lazy Lanigan's recalled Friday that "you couldn't move" in the popular Hackensack pub.

Of course, Scandale and Sykes have been ordering so much coverage of Black Friday shopping hours and sales -- in a naked grab for more ad revenue -- the paper is no longer an authoritative voice.

In fact, you have to read the whole paper today to realize the culture of inebriation remains deeply ingrained in North Jersey, but no story tells you that.

Instead, you have the A-1 piece on the death of a police officer who was on the way home from DWI duty in some far-off Jersey Shore community at 3 in the morning, only to be rear-ended on the Garden State Parkway by a drunk driver. 

He burned to death in his uniform. (He might have survived if he could afford a newer, safer vehicle than a 15-year-old, top-heavy Jeep Cherokee SUV.)

Now, jump to L-6 for a poorly written story about what happened in Ridgewood when hundreds of revelers left the bars, most of which closed at 2 a.m. Thursday. Twenty-five police officers from the village and nearby towns were needed to clear the streets. Why was this buried?


Check out the lead paragraph by Staff Writer Deena Yellin:  "An unruly crowd ... was so rowdy...." It's Yellin's writing that's unruly. No amount of editing, if there is any, can hide it. The story also fails to answer an obvious question: How did all of these walking drunks get home?


Neither the A-1 story nor this Ridgewood story discuss how bars traditionally are packed on Thanksgiving Eve, or how many DWI arrests were made early Thursday.

A little rewriting could have woven the two stories into a meaningful package on A-1, but the assignment minion who drew holiday duty was clueless.

Also, Cliffview Pilot.com reports on a bizarre accident in Westwood I didn't see in the paper or on northjersey.com today. Impaired driver climbs on limo hood

On Page A-21 today, a wire service story explores how Korean-Americans in Los Angeles -- not Palisades Park, Fort Lee or Leonia -- are debating the North's motive in shelling South Korea.

Inaccurate story

The Record continues to call the new Chevrolet Volt an electric car, while the manufacturer's ads and Web site make it clear it is a plug-in hybrid with a gasoline engine and an electric motor. An electric car uses no gasoline (Business, L-9).

In Better Living, Bella Campania Restaurant in Hillsdale sounds like a wonderful place. "And these days, getting a reasonably priced, made-from-scratch meal from an owner who cares is no small thing," Staff Writer Elisa Ung concludes.


But the restaurant reviewer doesn't explain why she gives it only a half-star more than Bahama Breeze, a faux-Caribbean chain restaurant in Wayne where I'm certain the food isn't made from scratch and the owner is some profit-hungry corporation.

There is no room in the section today for local restaurant health ratings. Instead, you'll find a wire service story about wine and a buffet of mini-reviews.