What's next for The Record?

The surest way to discourage pedestrians from crossing the tracks is a fence. A story in The Record today reports a shift by NJ Transit from blaming the victim in such fatalities.

Despite the arrival of Editor Marty Gottlieb from The New York Times nearly eight months ago, the editing of news stories and columns in The Record of Woodland Park is worse than ever.

Story length has grown -- going against an industry trend -- but not clarity, and many stories are woefully incomplete, missing many important details.

Both reporters and columnists are content to rewrite press releases, and they rarely pick up the phone or leave the office to get more information.

Super hack

One of the paper's biggest hacks, Staff Writer Mike Kelly, has been writing columns for two decades, yet he has to be goaded into taking a stand on such corrupt officials as former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa. 

Much of the blame lies with the inept editing on the main assignment desk, where head Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Editor Dan Sforza struggle daily to produce a coherent local-news report.

Sykes and Sforza think nothing of allowing Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski to base entire columns on e-mails from drivers, and to completely ignore his mission of reporting on commuting problems.

Poorly focused

Today's lead front-page story -- under a banner headline, "What's next for Hackensack" -- is typical of the poorly edited news stories that appear in the paper day after day.

Somehow, most of the text on Page 1 sounds like a nostalgic retrospective of the Zisa family's decades-long rule over Hackensack (A-1).

Readers expect a story on the city's future to focus immediately on politically active residents who plan to challenge the status quo in May's municipal election.

And the Editorial Page still hasn't called for the resignation of City Attorney Joseph Zisa, cousin of the disgraced former police chief.

Hack on Hackensack

More coverage of Ken Zisa's legal saga appears on the Opinion front today in Kelly's second column on the convicted official in three days.

Friday's column was a disgrace, highlighting the complete lack of editing by Sykes and Sforza.

Kelly gave Ken Zisa a platform to argue he is "a victim."

Today's column on O-1 is another joke on readers, who are the real victims.

Deep in the text, on the continuation page, is Kelly's mea culpa: "It's an undeniable fact that Zisa was clearly wrong" (O-4).

That's about the strongest statement ever about Zisa from the pussy columnist. Nothing of the sort appeared in Friday's laughable effort.

Greedy lawyers

Also on Page 1 today is another in a random series of stories on how taxpayers in Bergen County and Hackensack are getting stuck with enormous legal bills.

Of course, none of the editors have ever questioned whether lawyers who bill $300, $400 and $500 an hour are charging too much.

Hackensack was forced to hire lawyer Dennis Calo to act in City Attorney Joseph Zisa's place after the official recused himself from representing his cousin in the many lawsuits filed against the former police chief.  

In December 2011, North Jersey.com reported the city paid Dennis Calo a monthly average of $25,000 "over the past year."

Less victimization

It's good to see NJ Transit finally has shifted its focus from blaming the victim when a pedestrian is killed by a train to installing more fences and other preventative measures.

But there's no explanation in today's story why long stretches of track through a Hackensack neighborhood, where a train killed a 12-year-old boy, remain unfenced (A-1).

Foggy thinking

On the Local front today, the Road Warrior column discusses low-cost transportation services for seniors who have given up their driver's licenses (L-1).

When is Cichowski going to be proactive and report on retraining courses available to improve seniors' driving skills to prevent loss of their licenses?

Editing lapse

On L-6, clueless Staff Writer John Brennan reports "no cause of death was cited in the hospital announcement" about Dr. Peter I. Praeger, the prominent Hackensack University Medical Center heart surgeon who also sold health food.

The obituary doesn't give his age, but readers can try to do the arithmetic from a 2004 quote, when the doctor was 56.

Then, readers wonder why he died at a relatively young 64, but come up empty. Why didn't Brennan call a family member?

Where was the weekend assignment editor?

"Hospital announcement"? What's the moronic reporter talking about?

Did the hospital e-mail a press release or statement, or did hospital officials climb to the roof of one of the buildings and make an "announcement" through bullhorns?

Traveling music

On B-3 in the Business section, a story from The Wall Street Journal discusses early bird fares for Thanksgiving travel.

In The Record's Travel section, a cover story from The Washington Post tells readers about airport improvements in Hong Kong, Helsinki and Seoul -- places most of them will never visit.

Also on T-1, Travel Editor Jill Schensul cements her reputation as a klutz with a column that begins with a confession: 

In Denver, she couldn't figure out how to start her rental car.

Fast-food folly

When I saw the teaser on the Better Living front about a "healthy fast-food chain," I immediately thought of Chipotle Mexican Grill, which has a half-dozen outlets in Bergen and Passaic counties.

But Corner Table Columnist Elisa Ung, also the paper's restaurant reviewer, really must have been won over by the pitch from Energy Kitchen, which has a lone outlet in distant Montvale (BL-6).

More of the same

What's next for The Record?

More of the same poorly edited news stories and columns, many of which raise a lot of questions that are never answered -- a sure way to turn off readers.

Another way to turn off most readers is to run inane sports columns on Page 1, such as the one about the Yankees today.