Saturday, November 19, 2011

Sending mixed messages on Wayne thugs

U.S. Census Bureau map of Hackensack, New Jersey
U.S. Census Bureau map of Hackensack.


For the third day in a row, Interim Editor Doug Clancy continues to devote precious Page 1 space to those nine thuggish Wayne football players -- directly contradicting an editorial blasting the Board of Education and the coach for ignoring the victims (A-11):


"In Wayne, nine criminally charged high school students took the field, their football coach took control of the Board of Education, and residents, so far, have taken it on the chin.
"All the while, the two assaulted students are forgotten...."

Putting aside the editorial's awkward language, readers also are getting the shaft, with more A-1 space devoted to Wayne football than to the deficit-reduction talks in Congress -- an issue that affects just about everyone in North Jersey.


Doesn't Clancy live in Wayne? What kind of news judgment is that?


And why did Clancy think a training exercise for police is worthy of the front page, unless he didn't have anything better from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes?


Blinded by editor


The biggest news on the front of Sykes' Local section is the installation of solar panels on the roof of the Ice House in Hackensack -- as the assignment desk tries to chronicle every solar project in North Jersey with its own story and photo.


Of course, residents still are in the dark on the progress of the city's solar-panel installations, potential savings and whether they will help trim property taxes.


In utility pole news, a large photo on L-3 documents how a truck demolished one in Teaneck.


Selling out


Even though the space devoted to news has shrunk in recent years, Better Living continues to run stories promoting a wide variety of businesses, including today's shameless piece on Black Friday sales, complete with 13 store or mall logos (F-1).


Food writer Joyce Venezia Suss apparently doesn't know the difference between mostly organic food and a crappy McDonald's hamburger (F-1).


In a Starters column on Nanoosh, a new restaurant at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, she says of the salads, organic chickpeas and other healthy items: "The proprietors insist that it's not fast food."


Does Features Director Stephanie Rivers really expect readers to take Suss seriously? "Shush" would be more like it.




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4 comments:

  1. Agreed. A disastrous paper today.

    While covering the Ice House, they should have done a follow-up on the status of the 150 River Street property. This assumes, of course, that one can recognize it without the signage.

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  2. Does Doug Clancy live in Wayne? You probably should spend a little time researching in the Passaic County clerk's office. And when you come up empty, perhaps mOve on to another county.

    Idiot.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Clancy doesn't live in Wayne. Check your facts, genius.

    ReplyDelete
  4. He did for a long time. Maybe he moved out, when he was promoted to assistant managing editor and got a bigger salary and a bigger house.

    Where he lives is not the point. Why he thinks a Wayne football story is of such intense interest to Bergen readers -- three days on Page 1 -- is the real problem.

    ReplyDelete

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