More sloppy work by the copy desk

Image via Wikipedia

The Hackensack River, as seen from Teaneck.

Residents get tax break

This main headline on the lead story in The Record today promises readers way too much: Your home being reassessed is no guarantee your property  taxes will be cut.

Just below that story, the photo overline is: 

A DAY OF APPRECIATION FOR VIETNAM SOLDIERS

You mean for those communists? No. The phrase is "VIETNAM VETERANS."

Editor Francis Scandale sent a reporter and photographer all the way to Holmdel for this story, but the photographer didn't do her job. 

Sure, she got a photo of a River Vale veteran receiving a medal, but the caption says it was awarded "an unidentified man." What a hoot. This is Page 1 journalism?

Out to lunch again

Page A-2 carries a second correction from a story last Tuesday in the accuracy-challenged Better Living section.

The first correction on Thursday fixed a wrong address for a store in Pompton Lakes. Today's correction fixes a wrong telephone number for a Teaneck store. Way to go, Features Director Barbara Jaeger.

This editor apparently has never told her feature copy editors to dial every number included in a story to ensure its accuracy. Instead, they dial only for lousy Chinese takeout.

Last week's gushing, promotional A-1 story on a developer who plans to finish the Xanadu project by Staff Writer John Brennan has produced a big dividend for the paper: A full-page ad on A-10 today.

More horses' asses

The best news head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes could find for the front of today's Local section is the resumption of harness racing. 

Gambling and abusing animals? That's local news?

Sykes and Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado have made covering Hackensack news a long shot, but Alvarado rushed down to The Meadowlands Racetrack for this overblown story.

Dead wood

AAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH! Another column by Road Warrrior John Cichowski about parking tickets (L-1). Another column by Mike Kelly about 9/11 (O-1).

Also on O-1, the jump line on Carl Golden's column is wrong, which might be a good thing, because the former GOP gubernatorial mouthpiece glosses over his pal, Governor Christie, having engineered the loss of both minority justices on the state Supreme Court.

Fat of the land

Celebrity endorsements have nothing to do with the concerns of restaurant goers, so why is Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung wasting readers time with today's "Corner Table" column (F-7)?

Does Ung ever wonder why her precious column ends up in the back of Sunday's Better Living section?