Strange week gets even stranger

Image by dennisandluba via Flickr

The Record's dedication to readers is far from clear in the wake of the nor'easter.

Saturday's freak snowstorm was followed by desultory coverage of the widespread damage and Monday's trick-or-treat firing of Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale.


Clearly, Publisher Stephen A. Borg is in the ascendancy, but some observers wonder whether Scandale was sacked for trying to publish a story or stories that displeased his greedy boss.


As anger mounted over the slow pace of utility repairs, the acting editor, Doug Clancy, devoted less and less space to the storm story and then bounced it off the front page altogether on Wednesday.


Today, save for a Page 1 photo, the storm story has been demoted even further, to  L-2.


And Columnist Mike Kelly rubs salt into readers' wounds by focusing on the pampering of his own ass in a hotel suite with a Manhattan view, rather than spending a few hours with members of a Teaneck family who were in their fourth day without lights, heat and hot water (L-3).


It's hard to tell who is more out of touch, Kelly or Clancy, an assistant managing editor whose tight-fisted control of the newsroom budget hurt employees.


Nowhere in today's paper -- not in news coverage, Kelly's ridiculous column or on the Editorial Page -- does anyone question why Public Service Electric and Gas Co. and the other utilities don't have enough repair crews.


Editors and columnists in Woodland Park never challenge the utilities' press statements on how it will take time -- a lot of time -- to handle hundreds of repair jobs. Shame on these so-called journalists.


Can this strange week get any stranger? With a publisher who prides himself on his marketing skills, an incompetent interim editor and a clueless assignment desk under Editor Deirdre Sykes, the answer is "yes."

Related post

• Readers want fresh voices for old columns (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)