The bloodbath at Columbine High School shocked the nation nearly 13 years ago, but The Record and other media continue to cover such shootings in the same narrow way.
Today's Page 1 story on the killing of students in Ohio, taken from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, begins:
"It appears that T.J. Lane had violence in his life from the beginning."
In between school and college shootings, the media does little to change things.
How often do you see editorials about gun control or papers trying to shame politicians into finally shutting down the gun trade? Why shouldn't every school in America have metal detectors?
The death of a few students in Ohio is no longer enough to merit front-page play in a news-business-as-usual paper like The Record. As it is, the story is mere sensationalism, shedding no light on why we continue to tolerate such violence.
North Jersey focus
The rest of A-1 has a strong North Jersey focus, including the trial of Dharun Ravi in the death of Tyler Clementi of Ridgewood and a story on two Fort Lee brothers who won Oscars for a documentary, "Undefeated."
Ralph and Glenn Zipper? Imagine the jokes these two weathered at Fort Lee High School.
Poor editing
I was riveted by the Ravi trial testimony, but unsettled by the poor editing on Page 1: "[Molly] Wei said when testifying Monday... " and "confidently answering questions brought by both attorneys ...."
How about Molly Wei "testified Monday"? And from where did the attorneys bring the questions, home or a take-out shop? I expect more from a front page crafted by Editor Marty Gottlieb.
Shameless columnist
On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, Columnist Charles Stile apparently has dropped the word "populism," which he used incorrectly on A-1 last Thursday to describe Governor Christie's proposed income-tax cut.
An income-tax cut that panders to millionaires is just the opposite, and no one caught or corrected this major error.
Cowardly Rothman
It's good to see Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. finally telling it like it is when it comes a fellow Democrat, Rep. Steve Rothman, who is trying to save his ass by ducking out of a fight against arch-conservative Scott Garrett (L-1).
The court hearing for Charles J. Ann of Fort Lee in the murder of girlfriend Aena Hong is the fifth story about the couple in seven days (L-1).
A visit by Hong's parents to the Palisades Park Library to see the mural she painted was described as an "impromptu stop-over" -- another case of slipshod editing.
Fender-bender photo
Sykes couldn't find any room for Hackensack news today, but a large photo of a non-fatal accident on Route 4 is used as L-3 filler.
George Meidanis, co-owner of the Ridge Diner in Park Ridge, is known by thousands, but his obituary is buried today on L-6.
Second look
Do you recall the weird Page 1 headline that led The Record on Monday, Feb. 13, the day I left on a week-long vacation?
Pipeline 'scar' headed here
Scary, if true. But what a clunky way to describe the potential damage of a proposed new natural-gas pipeline across North Jersey.
And it's so definitive, as if legal action couldn't stop it. Boy, the news copy desk under Editor Liz Houlton is so all seeing and all knowing.
Boy reporter
In that same edition, Staff Writer Bill Ervolino ignored another environmental disaster in writing a feature story about two friends who bought a 1955 bronze dedication plaque for Ford Motor Co.'s Mahwah Assembly Plant they had found on Craigslist.
Ervolino must have thought he was writing another column about his parents for Better Living, because the story on the Local front goes on and on.
But nowhere does he mention Ford's shameful history of paint-sludge dumping that sickened and killed residents of an old mine area in Ringwood. The plant closed in 1980.
On Monday, Ervolino appeared before a class of about 50 senior citizens at Bergen Community College in Paramus.
He told them he'll be starting a new blog that he wanted to call, "Then and Now," about Bergen and Passaic counties.
Of course, the pervert didn't mention his last NorthJersey.com blog was shut down in 2010 after he made an inappropriate remark about Malia Obama, the president's daughter, who was 12 at the time.
Of course, the pervert didn't mention his last NorthJersey.com blog was shut down in 2010 after he made an inappropriate remark about Malia Obama, the president's daughter, who was 12 at the time.
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