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You'd never know by looking at Page 1 of The Record today the deadline for balancing the state budget is only eight days away.
As you can plainly see by the front-page photo of yoga practitioners, the sight of even a little bit of cleavage drives Editor Francis Scandale crazy.
In the off-lead on A-1, Scandale also responds to hundreds of calls to the news desk, asking how police caught a Fairleigh Dickinson University-Teaneck professor who allegedly ran an online prostitution site.
Newsroom whore
This from the T&A editor, who prostitutes himself every day by using the front page to sell the paper.
Usually, Scandale doesn't have much for A-1, with the assignment desk under Deirdre Sykes off in La La Land.
But today, there's plenty of news on the fiscal crisis and Governor Christie's policy steamroller on Pages A-3 and A-4.
Better stuff inside
All of those stories and even the photo of rocker Bruce Springsteen and his wife leaving the funeral for Clarence Clemons belong on A-1. Hey, Francis, you're not in f-ing Denver anymore.
What's the matter, Frankie, would putting an A-4 story out front make your pal Chris look bad? (Christie is cutting $30 million in state subsidies to day-care centers and preschools for the children of working-class families.)
Editors vs. poles
In Local, Sykes has her staff catch up with utility pole news.
Also on L-1, Road Warrior John Cichowski compares New Jersey and Vermont policies on free road maps. His next column will compare New York State and Pennsylvania road-map policies, and so on for the next several months.
On the Better Living front, Food Editor Susan Sherrill actually has something serious to say about wild-caught fish, farmed oysters and other seafood, including a useful tip on not buying fish farmed outside of the United States.
What's the matter, Frankie, would putting an A-4 story out front make your pal Chris look bad? (Christie is cutting $30 million in state subsidies to day-care centers and preschools for the children of working-class families.)
Editors vs. poles
In Local, Sykes has her staff catch up with utility pole news.
Utility poles were among the victims in two accidents, and Sykes uses the photos as filler on L-1 and L-3.
Readers who can guess correctly how many poles were knocked down in the L-1 story win lunch with Sykes in the company cafeteria in Woodland Park.
The headline, caption, first and second paragraphs conflict on whether one pole or two went down. How many assignment and news copy editors does it take to screw up a story in The Record?
Road rage Also on L-1, Road Warrior John Cichowski compares New Jersey and Vermont policies on free road maps. His next column will compare New York State and Pennsylvania road-map policies, and so on for the next several months.
On L-3, Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado has a nine-paragraph story on the opening of a recycling center, but never says what will be accepted there.
Batteries? Light bulbs? I guess I'll have to call the city.
Food for thought On the Better Living front, Food Editor Susan Sherrill actually has something serious to say about wild-caught fish, farmed oysters and other seafood, including a useful tip on not buying fish farmed outside of the United States.
All of this is in the context of providing a recipe for soft-shell crabs from a new book, "For Cod and Country."
The column is a refreshing break from her usual, mindless blather.
You mean there's a company cafeteria in Woodland Park? Or are you pulling our collective leg. P.S. How is a book called "Cod and Country" not mindless blather?
ReplyDeleteI visited the building two or three times for depositions. The cafeteria is used by all the Record and Herald-News folks.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's the building's cafeteria. Not sure.
"For Cod and Country" is a serious discussion of sustainable seafood. (I have to correct the post on the book's name.)
Cod fed this nation from Colonial times until the cod-fishing grounds in the Northeast were shut down to prevent their complete decimation.
I read another book recently about cod and the other fish that have sustained mankind.
See my food blog for more about buying fish and related issues.
You know, and I mean this, you could really do some good in the world if you directed the energy you expend here into writing full-time about sustainability, the food chain, hormones, healthy food, etc.
ReplyDeleteYour other blog is actually quite good.
Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI feel I'm filling a gap by writing about food shopping, which you don't see in the papers, and putting a focus on natural foods.
It's bad enough naturally raised food is often ignored by Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung, but she also promotes chefs who take short cuts to boost their profits.
The Record's editors have also ignored the obesity epidemic.
I read the appeal decision, which has helped me to understand this blog. You always had a couple of interesting things to say but they got diminished and were lost because you could not control your hatred for people who got things that were denied to you. The editor of the paper is a whore? Is that really an image or description that advances your critique of today's paper? I think we all were denied the benefit your contribution because you did not get psychiatric treatment 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteGeneral notice to Anonymous commentators:
ReplyDeleteIf you don't have something intelligent to say, please refrain from sending in nonsense.
I employ satire, exaggeration and other devices to hint at the truth.
Calling your ex-boss a whore is not a particularly literary form of satire. Take it from one with no ax to grind here, and a little relevant experience, your hate burns brighter than your ideas.
ReplyDeleteIf he prostitutes himself to sell the paper with T&A on the front page, then he's a whore.
ReplyDeleteEditor Francis Scandale has failed miserably in everything he's tried in the past decade, and his news judgment is severely flawed.
Allow me to put my two dollars ... I mean my two cents ... in. I wouldn't personally call Scandale a whore, although there are a lot of other things I'd call him, none of them very kind. I don't have a problem with tits and ass on the front page, or with sports on the front page as Victor likes to lambaste, to sell papers, anything that sells papers helps keep the Record's staff off the unemployment rolls.
ReplyDeleteOf course the majority of commenters here are anonymous, Vic, because of this company's shitty "Internet" policy. God forbid they trace a comment back to someone, then promptly subject them to discipline that isn't even outlined in the policy. This is NJMG HR we're talking about; mostly inept and clueless, and making up shit as they go along.
ReplyDeleteThis is why people lock down their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
If you really want to strike at the beast, more information on this company as a whole, and a soundboard for current and former P.O.ed employees would go a long way. Especially as you say, that the Borgs are scared of unions. Maybe that's why vans drop off Mexicans in Rockaway 3 or 4 times a day.
I publish the vast majority of comments.
ReplyDeleteI welcome any information from disgruntled or former employees. I have never deleted any comments about the company, the editors, the Borgs and so forth.
This blog would wither without feedback from current and former employees, and others.
Still waiting for you to report the recent personnel moves. Do you not have insider access anymore?
ReplyDeleteI got an Anonymous message that George Cubanski, who ran the features copy desk, has left the paper. He retired, supposedly.
ReplyDeleteHis wife ran the desk before him, and was promoted to director of production, in charge of the news copy desk.
I watch bylines and look at listings in the paper to see changes.
Municipal reporters who have left include Matt Van Dusen, Joe Ax (son of Emmanuel Ax) and Giovanna Fabiano.
Tom Troncone, an assignment editor, also jumped ship.
Can anyone out there add to this list?