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| Paramus is the "center of the baseball world," The Record reports. |
If the losing team of Paramus Little Leaguers are "heroes," as the Page 1 headline in The Record declares today, what would the players be if they had won -- 'gods'?
Combine the desperation of Editor Francis Scandale for local news and Liz Houlton's inept news copy desk, and you get a story that is blown way out of proportions.
The word "hero" or "heroes" appears nowhere in the Paramus story, so how did it get in the headline? Did Scandale order its use to sell papers? How do real heroes feel to be lumped in with these losers?
Blowhard mayor
Paramus residents are expected to launch a recall of Mayor Richard LaBarbiera for knocking its famous malls, which keep property taxes low.
"Paramus has always been known as the center of the shopping world," the mayor said. "After this year and this team, we're now known as the center of the baseball world."
What hyperbole. What B.S.
Far better choices for A-1 would have been the hearings on the Port Authority's toll-and-fare hike plan (A-3) and the foreclosure story (L-7).
Newsroom tensions
Staff Writer Andrea Alexander hasn't covered Teaneck that long, so you can't blame her for not knowing tensions between Orthodox Jews and minorities surfaced years before the recent debate over school busing (A-1).
But you can blame Editor Deirdre Sykes and her minions, who run the laziest assignment desk east of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts.
Page A-2 carries two embarrassing corrections from Local.
On the front of Local, Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado gives a soapbox to gadflies who want the city to hire a civilian police director.
Alvarado has written more stories about the Police Department than any other agency -- even though less than one-tenth of the officers have been accused of wrongdoing.
From the Anonymous peanut gallery:
ReplyDelete"Wow, a new low. You call the 12 year-old boys on the Paramus Little League team a bunch of losers?"
What do you call them, winners? Heroes? Champions?
ReplyDeleteThey're kids who tried hard and fell short. They lost.
Better luck next year. Try harder and you might actually win the Series.
They got extremely far - very few of the thousands and thousands who play ever get so far. They will remember it their entire lives, and will always be inspired by it. It is small and heartless to call them a bunch of losers.
ReplyDeleteI guess you and others would have preferred "losing team."
ReplyDeleteI meant "losers" as opposed to "winners," but I see how the word is loaded.
I just really object to The Record and other media labeling everyone a "hero."
To the Anonymous peanut gallery:
ReplyDeleteIf you want to see your comments published, you'll have to lose the personal attacks on me, as well as all the analysis of my personality you do.
If you don't like something in the blog, say so and leave it at that.
Otherwise, go jerk off. LOL.
I received one expletive-filled response today from one of those potty mouths.
ReplyDeleteIt should be obvious that to critique The Record, you have to question the talent and motives of the editors who have brought it down, as well as the owners' focus on enriching themselves at the expense of readers.
It's funny but I never see any comments defending Francis Scandale, Deirdre Sykes, the assignment desk, Liz Houlton and others I believe are responsible for the decline in quality.
Don't kill the messenger.
questioning their talent, motives and judgment is not the same as commenting on the size of sykes ass or liz houlton's wardrobe. THAT stuff erodes your credibility.
ReplyDeleteYou have to admit both the ass and the wardrobe are unusual.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I haven't said anything about Deirdre or Liz Houlton that I didn't hear all the time from others in the Hackensack newsroom.
ReplyDeleteDeirdre was reviled by many, and her constant laughing and shrieking in the late afternoon drove people crazy.
Even from 20 feet away, you hear could every word of her part of the conversation when she had one of the Trenton staffers on the phone and was editing their copy.
Sub-editors swore under their breaths they'd run her down if they saw her walking in the parking lot.
Liz was so tight with that witch, Barbara Jaeger, another editor everyone hated, and they'd lunch together. How cozy.
But that meant Liz wasn't accountable for all the errors she allowed in the paper as slot of the features copy desk.