Editors miss the really big picture

Commuters lining up for a 2:30 bus from Manhattan to East Brunswick, New Brunswick and Princeton on Friday. The bus was late, and many people stood in the aisle.

The Record's editors ran photos of a rotund Governor Christie with obesity fighter Michelle Obama on Friday, but it never occurred to any of them to ask what Christie or New Jersey is doing to fight the epidemic.

It is more of the same irresponsible silence the editors have maintained since Christie took office more than 2 years ago, even though he had a health scare last year and appears to be losing his own waistline battle.

" ... Christie ushered Michelle Obama with a touch on her shoulder to look through a glass pane above the 16-acre site" of the new World Trade Center in Manhattan, the Woodland Park daily reported on Friday (A-11).

Student shames editors

But a student member of The Record's own Diversity in Journalism Workshop didn't mince words elsewhere in Friday's paper:

Amanda Eisenberger, a 12th grader at Pascack Hills High School, noted that despite growing obesity in New Jersey, Christie's has ignored the issue (A-23).

" ... Where is health-care reform, especially for childhood obesity," Eisenberger said. 

The Page 1 story and photo reporting the visit of President Obama to Manhattan ran under this headline:

A break from politics

to reflect on progress

That sounds like a decent headline, but from the first paragraph the story is filled with nothing but politics.

Where was Editor Marty Gottlieb? Stuck in traffic on his commute home to Manhattan? 

Where was Production Editor Liz Houlton, supervisor of the news copy desk, which wrote that bad headline? Out shopping for another schmatta?

Hyping job growth

Elsewhere on Friday's front page and on A-3 on Saturday, stories extinguish Christie's "fire" -- exaggerated claims about job gains -- and report they are unlikely to support his proposed income-tax cuts.

Meanwhile, Road Warrior John Cichowski reported on an issue of grave concern among New Jersey commuters:

Thousands of drivers stuck in colossal traffic jams -- and thousands of other commuters standing in bus and train aisles -- have been reflecting deeply on the poor quality of license plates and wondering whether the state is doing anything about that (L-1 on Friday).

Hackensack news?

On Friday's L-5, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza ran another story on revitalization plans for downtown Hackensack.

The editors have never reported on how Main Street fared during the recession nor explored the impact of North Jersey Media Group's wholesale abandonment of its former home, where the paper prospered for more than 110 years.

And where is the story about the huge Walmart planned for NJMG land at 80 and 150 River St.?

Chocolate-covered lox?

In an appraisal of Blue Fish in Ridgewood, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung turns up her nose at healthy Mediterranean seafood entrees, apparently devoid of cream and butter (BL-18 and 19 on Friday).

In the data box, she noted the restaurant is "less appropriate for complex preparations."

In the review, she seems disappointed baked scrod was "simply adorned with lemon, garlic, white wine and olive oil," and that sea bass had "just" tomatoes, lemon, herbs and scallion. 

Ambulance chasing

Sykes and Sforza needed two large photos of non-fatal gas-line and automobile accidents to fill the Local news section today (L-2 and L-3).

A large chunk of the section front is devoted to a decidedly non-local story -- a California man who ran across the country and the George Washington Bridge (L-1).

On L-3, The Star-Ledger -- not The Record -- reports that two apparent suicide attempts on the GWB were thwarted on Thursday evening.

One of the would-be jumpers was homeless, but the other apparently was just trying to get out of the expensive lease on his BMW.

Food riot

A follow-up to Friday's story on a food fight in the Westwood High School cafeteria doesn't explore the cause (L-3).

Although it is well-known among parents and students that the food served at Hackensack High and many other high schools in Bergen County truly sucks, The Record has never published a word about it.