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| Image via Wikipedia The state is just now issuing a report on Hurricane Irene, which hit us in August. |
Reports. Surveys. Municipal and school board meetings. Court hearings. Press releases.
The Record's news merry-go-round depends heavily on packaged news -- such as today's Page 1 story on a state report about Hurricane Irene and the pre-Halloween snow storm that knocked out power to 175,000 in North Jersey.
Residents ignored
Of course, the editors had much of this information from residents in the immediate aftermath of the power outages, but chose to bury utility customers anger and frustration deep in stories, sometimes in the last paragraphs on continuation pages.
It's as if residents don't have any legitimacy unless they make their statements in an official forum or write a letter to the editor.
The three environmental or weather stories on the front page today are based on a report, a meeting and a press release. How convenient.
A four-letter word really fits the local-news assignment desk run so ineptly by lifer Editor Deirdre Sykes: L-A-Z-Y.
New top editor
A story on The Record's new editor, Martin Gottlieb, is on A-3 today.
The story doesn't say when he takes over from interim Editor Doug Clancy, but another report says it's not until the new year. (See earlier post, Timesman named editor of The Record.)
Readers can only hope Gottlieb will be able to get Sykes and her assignment minions off their asses and inspire staffers to do original reporting based on real legwork.
And as someone who is in his 60s, Gottlieb will be in a unique position to change a newsroom culture that values the work of young staffers over that of older employees.
Sykes' Local section leads with the sentencing of a triple murderer, and even devotes the front to a "controversial application" for a pharmacy in tiny Washington Township (L-1).
But there isn't any news from Hackensack or Englewood, two much larger communities.
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