This kind of editing just doesn't add up

NJ Transit Waiting Room, New York Penn Station, Friday at 5:36 p.m.

The Record's assignment and copy desks continue to operate in meltdown mode with mathematical errors in the first paragraph of today's off-lead story on Page 1.

In reporting Hurricane Sandy damage to NJ Transit's locomotives and rail cars, the assignment and copy editors screw up again, and Production Editor Liz Houlton completely misses the errors and doesn't bother to correct them.

The lead paragraph reports, "A third of NJ Transit's locomotives and nearly a quarter of the agency's rail cars" were damaged by flood waters [italics added].

Off the tracks

Of course, readers wouldn't have known anything was amiss if the reporter, Staff Writer Karen Rouse, didn't include total numbers.

But there they are in the third paragraph: a total of 203 locomotives and 1,162 rail cars.

So, if 63 locomotives were damaged, that's less than a third, not "a third" (67.6). And if 261 rail cars need repair, that's not even close to "a quarter" (290.5), and doesn't qualify for the modifier of "nearly."

To avoid those errors, the actual numbers should have been used in the first paragraph.

Did the damaged rolling stock result in unusual crowding this week in the NJ Transit Waiting Room at New York's Penn Station and on trains?

The Record is silent on that question.

Remember the Crusades? 

There is another big error on Editor Marty Gottlieb's front page today, the headline over the lead story:

Rocket fire targeting

holy city unprecedented   

 

Jerusalem has been fought over for centuries, so "unprecedented" is the wrong word, unless Houlton's intention is to sell papers.

Remember Hackensack?

In Local, the drought on Hackensack news continues under orders from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza.

Meanwhile, the Nov. 16 edition of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle is reporting the Hackensack City Council approved an ordinance creating the position of police director.

The council action came on Nov. 8, but hasn't been reported in The Record. 

Great accident photo 

Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi, who has been reduced to the role of ambulance chaser, came up with an unusually good photo at the scene of a minor accident (L-3) -- a staple of local news coverage. 

Here's a real turkey

Today's Better Living section promotes another chef who apparently settles for low-quality ingredients, but tries to make them taste better.

The cover story on Session Bistro Chef Chris Holland and deep-fried turkeys ignores the healthy choice: a turkey raised without harmful antibiotics and animal byproducts (BL-1). 

Dining-out jargon  

In Friday's Better Living section, readers found a lukewarm review of an Indian restaurant, Kamal Palace in North Arlington, a tiny town not worth the detour when dining out.

But Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung continues to sling jargon at readers, such as service she says isn't "authoritative." 

Ung also says Kamal Palace isn't "appropriate" for "anyone looking for nuanced flavors."

She also complains Goa Fish came with salmon, but she would have preferred "a milder fish with the sauce."

Is there any fish blander than salmon, presumably the wildly popular, artificially colored farmed salmon used at Kamal Palace? 

Unaffordable editing

More serious editing problems were evident on Thursday in the A-3 story on the "future of affordable housing."

The Record's assignment editors continue to sell affordable housing as "one of New Jersey's most intractable political problems." 

Of course, they should describe how it pits Governor Christie and his supporters in wealthy, mostly white towns against low- and moderate-income residents, many of whom are black and Hispanic.

This is a racial story as the following sentence on Thursday made clear:

"New Jersey remains one of the most racially and economically segregated regions of the country."

But this was the last sentence in the poorly edited story. It could have provided context for readers, if only it had appeared much higher up.

And in the next to the last paragraph, a "Walsh" is mentioned, but his/her full name and title don't appear anywhere in the story. 

Editors' crystal ball

Finally, The Record falls into the trap of trying to predict from justices' comments during oral arguments how the New Jersey Supreme Court will rule on Christie's attempt to subvert the construction of more affordable housing.

Look what happened when the national media tried to do the same after oral arguments on the federal health care law, only to see the U.S. Supreme Court uphold the law.

And remember the alleged "statistical dead heat" in the presidential election: President Obama beat Mitt Romney decisively in both the Electoral College and popular vote. 

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on more Road Warrior errors