Editors commit titanic misjudgments

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The Record's editors demonized Jon Corzine during his single term as governor of New Jersey, but now praise Republican Governor Christie as a gift from the political gods.

Does the Italian tragicomedy of errors involving a capsized cruise ship really belong on the front page of a daily North Jersey newspaper -- where desperate editors couldn't produce anything more relevant to readers' lives?


This colossal misjudgment by interim Editor Douglas Clancy is mirrored in the Opinion section today, where another editor publishes three letters apparently meant to repair the reputation of a doctor who was hit by a $1.27 million jury award last week.

Today's Page 1 story in The Record might be of interest if you've taken or are planning a cruise. Otherwise, you'll take one look at the gee-whiz photo of the Costa Concordia on its side, maybe read a few paragraphs and move on in search of news you can use.


Incomprehensible


You won't find it in a second A-1 story, this one trumpeting how The Record and Herald News prompted Governor Christie to order a review of state purchasing laws and "the public contracting process."


Today's piece on government purchasing is just as unfathomable as previous ones.


A third front-page story -- on a new state Prescription Monitoring Program -- gives rare credit to Christie's predecessor, Jon Corzine.


On the Local front, the Road Warrior has morphed into the Death Warrior, with the second piece in a week on driving fatalities, another statistical story he produced from the comfort of his computer (L-1).


Readers will find Englewood and Teaneck items today, but Hackensack news coverage is a shipwreck once again -- thanks to the lazy assignment desk under Editor Deirdre Sykes.


Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais continues to ignore organics and other food that is raised or grown naturally in the monthly Marketbasket Survey (B-2) and in today's piece on rising food prices (B-1).


More misjudgment


On O-2 in the Opinion section, Letters Editor Charles Saydah praises a frequent letter writer, Arab-American Hani Awadallah, without disclosing Saydah is of Lebanese descent.


Saydah was known in the old days for his homemade hummus recipe and his skills on the dance floor during the newspaper's annual party for loyal employees.


Across the bottom of the opposite page, O-3, Saydah publishes three long letters of praise from Dr. Roger P. Kierce's daughter and wife, and a patient.


Apparently, the letters are designed to repair the doctor's reputation after a jury awarded $1.27 million to plaintiffs in a lawsuit that portrayed him as an abusive boss at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center.


The decision to publish the letters is shameful. Is the Your Views pages now open to family members and friends of every defendant, whether he is held liable in a lawsuit or found guilty of a crime?


Just shut up


In Better Living, the production editors put Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung on a diet of sorts -- the last sentence of her inane column was cut off (F-1 and F-5). LOL. 


Let's hope Ung, whose favorite course is dessert, takes the advice offered by the the article just above her column on how to "avoid gaining weight in the sluggish winter months."