Editors discover abandoned city

WHITNEY HOUSTON (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)
1963-2012

Half of The Record's front page today is covered by the same-old coverage of Camden -- in a rare instance of the paper sending a reporter and photographer to the impoverished city. 


But readers won't find the real story -- why Camden was abandoned by state government and the media decades ago. 


Columnist Mike Kelly plays crack houses, the flight of industry, crime, poverty and unemployment like violins -- but hasn't all of this been reported many times before (A-1 and A-6)? 


And doesn't North Jersey have its own Camden in Paterson? Why just cover breaking news there? Why not dig under the surface for why Paterson is allowed to fail.


Recall all the stories portraying Paterson as a center of drugs and prostitution that ran when Francis "Frank" Scandale was editor and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes was his bitch.


It's not surprising Kelly doesn't have the balls to explore why Camden's minority residents have been so totally rejected by society. 


Recall his repugnance at the influx of gay couples who were reviving Asbury Park when he was sent there with a photographer in 2000. He never mentioned the renewal in his extensive report.


Resort's obituary


Instead, his obituary for Asbury Park covered three newspaper pages in The Sunday Record on Aug. 6, 2000.


On the same exact day, an upbeat cover story in The New York Times' New Jersey section reported that urban homosexual men and women were leading the way in reviving the run-down resort, drawn by affordable, stylish homes and gay clubs. 


One photo showed two women on the beach with their arms around each other.

The two stories were like night and day, with Kelly reporting conditions that had existed for a decade or more, and The Times breaking the story of the resort's turnaround.


Total letdown

Today's Sunday edition of The Record is a total letdown, including another repetitive Local section from Sykes. 

After reading about the heart-breaking loss of singer Whitney Houston at only 48 (A-1), nothing else seems interesting or compelling, and the news and Better Living columnists sound stale.

It's lucky The Record had The Star-Ledger's excellent obituary of Houston to run on the front page -- displacing some of the briefs in the off-lead position -- because it's unlikely any of the weekend editors on duty Saturday night were up to whipping together such a piece.

Taking a break

Eye on The Record will return next week.

I'll be reading and publishing comments until then, and would like to hear first impressions of Editor Marty Gottlieb, who came on board three weeks ago.