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| Ex-President Bill Clinton in 2007. At the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night, Clinton rightly blamed the GOP for the mess we're in. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Readers searching for local news found a new section in The Record today -- edited by Alan Finder, a 28-year veteran of The New York Times.
Editor Marty Gottlieb -- himself a Times veteran -- has decided after little more than seven months in the job that what the Woodland Park daily needs most is a new weekly feature section with a puzzling name: Signature.
Gottlieb apparently is not about to tussle with head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, a 300-pounder who has threatened to sit on him if he tries to improve the Local news section she runs so ineptly.
What does the new section's name mean to you?
"Defining life in North Jersey" are the words appearing under Signature on the cover of the section, called "Section SIG."
Two times zero
Gee. What North Jersey readers really need is not a couple of former Times editors trying to define residents' lives, but more -- much more -- reporting on what kind of job the officials of their towns are doing.
In North Jersey -- dominated by parochial home-rule governments -- readers want a lot more information about efforts to eliminate all the waste and duplication supported by some of the highest property taxes in the nation.
Instead, Gottlieb and Finder have given us a feel-good section that largely duplicate columns and news stories that have already appeared in the paper.
Kelly and Ervolino
On the cover, Columnist Mike Kelly shows how a journalist can turn the tragedy of 9/11 into a career -- with his umpteenth tear-jerking column on the destruction of the Twin Towers.
On SIG-2, Bill Ervolino -- the unfunniest man in journalism -- wallows in nostalgia with a Then & Now column -- this on the Paramus Drive-In Theater, now a parking lot. Wow.
Another sugar high
On SIG-4, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung wrote a special column on a German bakery in Ridgewood, sure to be lapped up by all the diabetics and weight watchers in her audience.
In the first paragraph, Ung recalls her two months in Germany, stuffing her face with baked goods, and afternoon coffee and cake. Inspirational.
Local are yokels
Readers hungry for local news find little solace today.
In Local's 6 pages, readers find an astounding 16 Law & Order stories from Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza.
Only two stories in the section can be called municipal news -- both from Passaic County.
A third story is about a new after-school choir in Englewood.
The choir members, children 9 to 14, are expected to praise the Lord for their overwhelmingly minority schools and all of the minority employees laid off by the largely white school board.
In Business, a new hotel expected to be ready for fans attending the 2014 Super Bowl in the Meadowlands will have extra-large toilets to accommodate those notorious over-eaters and drinkers.
On today's front page, Gottlieb gave more space to the inept Giants than to former President Bill Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Now, it's readers who are throwing up over Gottlieb's predictable Page 1 treatment of sports.
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