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| From the endless stream of Road Warrior columns on driving and parking you'd never know North Jersey and the region have a well-developed, though crowded, mass-transit system. (Wikipedia) |
Here's another disappointing front page from Editor Marty Gottlieb, a New York Times veteran who seems determined to present a mix of local, state, regional, national and even international stories on The Record's premier page.
But this Times-like approach to the news betrays his duty to serve local readers.
More loco news
After he took over in late January, Gottlieb said in public appearances and media interviews that his job as The Record's editor was a "homecoming" -- recalling his days as a Hackensack-based cub reporter who covered town news.
But instead of slowing the decline in local news, he has double-crossed readers by allowing two lazy and incompetent sub-editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, to accelerate the process.
Jock-itching editor
And he has made matters worse by a jock-like devotion to putting sports on the front page, such as the huge A-1 photo of football referees on Friday.
That photo pushed below the fold a far more important story on Governor Christie vowing to veto Democratic spending bills until he gets the "income-tax credit that he has been pushing for months" (A-1)
A tax credit? What happened to the income-tax cut the GOP bully has been promoting? Are they one in the same?
Is driving a right?
On Friday's Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to ignore mass-transit users with a column on drivers who bitch about parking tickets.
Thanks to complaining e-mails from morons like reader "Irv," Cichowski has guaranteed himself an endless supply of off-the-subject columns in North Jersey, one of the world's most traffic-choked regions.
Dissing Hackensack
Even though columnist Mike Kelly declared "chaos" and a "double dose of chaos" in Hackensack several weeks ago, the drought on city news continued Friday and Saturday.
Friday's edition of the Hackensack Chronicle re-printed a story from The Record on former Police Chief Ken Zisa and the city's future.
North Jersey Media Group has been re-printing Record stories since the departure of Mark J. Bonamo, who was the weekly's managing editor, so it's unclear whether he will be replaced.
This guarantees Sykes and Sforza won't be embarrassed by the weekly's Hackensack news scoop.
Woops. Friday's edition of the Chronicle (Sept. 28, 2012) reports the City Council has renewed talks on hiring a police director instead of a police chief, a story I haven't seen in The Record.
More fatty desserts
In Friday's Better Living tab, a lukewarm 2-star review of Pearl Restaurant in Ridgewood emphasizes high prices and clumsy preparation, but Reviewer Elisa Ung made sure she sampled four desserts.
Ung also failed to point out the contradiction of one dish she liked: heart-healthy red snapper with an artery clogging butter sauce.
Tea Party wackos
Today, in keeping with Gottlieb's blend of A-1 stories, he gives local crackpots a platform to attack a U.N program that promotes conservation of resources and a limit on development.
David Walker, presumably a Tea Party radical, appears in a front-page photo.
Walker and others oppose such "smart growth" initiatives as construction of homes and apartments near mass transit.
The story fails to expose them as one-man, one-car proponents who cause massive rush-hour traffic jams and pollution.
Gun rights and wrongs
Why did Gottlieb waste more A-1 space today on the story of a Connecticut father who shot and killed "a knife-wielding prowler in a black ski mask," only to find out later it was his 15-year-old son?
The wire-service story is filled with the usual idiotic comments from neighbors who know nothing about the man or his son, and it ignores two big questions:
Why was this teenager masquerading as an armed prowler, and are the hundreds of thousands of Americans with guns an indictment of the police?
Aircraft headaches
Today's Local front has another photo of a minor accident at Teterboro Airport, reminding readers of how little attention the editors have paid to the impact of aircraft noise on the quality of life in Hackensack and nearby towns.
Of course, the explanation might lie in Chairman Malcolm A. Borg, a long-time champion of the airport who co-owns a business jet.
On L-2 today, a photo caption leaves out an important detail: Why did county police salute Italy with a flag-raising ceremony on Friday?
Second look
After the Signature section published a cover story profiling Rep. Scott Garrett, a radical Republican from Wantage, I expected equal time for his opponent in the November election, Teaneck Deputy Mayor Adam Gussen.
But Thursday's Signature section didn't have a word about Gussen, a Democrat.
The Sept. 20 story on Garrett also used two big and one small photo of the so-called conservative icon, as if section Editor Alan Finder was doing public relations for the congressman.
Has the paper published a photo of Gussen since he won the Democratic primary in June?
Instead of a Gussen profile on the cover, this week's Signature section published a confessional from Ung, the restaurant reviewer, who sounded like she needed a break from eating out on all that unhealthy food and spending huge amounts of The Record's money.
Hey, readers would certainly welcome that.
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I stopped reading or getting The Record 5 years ago as it's thin content, every day, came to be a waste of time.
ReplyDeleteIt's still thin, but now it's filled with long he said, she said news stories and columns on just about every topic that put readers to sleep. We don't have the time or patience to plow through all this over-reporting and over-writing.
ReplyDelete