Did editors help reach historic moment?

Seal of Bergen County (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Home-rule government has long been one of the sacred cows at The Record, which made its reputation as a local newspaper by covering just about every meeting in just about every town in Bergen and Passaic counties.


Small towns fought hard to preserve their individuality and neighborhood schools, but home rule is inefficient and expensive, resulting in high property taxes.

Except for a series on municipal finance -- the infamous "Mun-Fin" in the 1980s -- The Record has stood by as towns have resisted consolidation of any kind and taxes have gone up year after year.

Today, Editor Marty Gottlieb leads the paper with the historic vote to dissolve the Demarest Police Department and merge it with the Bergen County police (A-1).
 
Borough officials say the plan will save $400,000 in police costs, an unknown amount of that in donuts, which the county buys in bulk at a lower price.

The first paragraph calls the vote a "historic first for Bergen County," but on A-8, readers learn Teterboro disbanded its police force in 1992 and contracted with the county for full-time coverage.

So, maybe "historic second" would be more accurate.

But readers long ago gave up the expectation of accuracy under Production Editor Liz Houlton and her band of merry copy editors, even in Page 1 stories.

Shafting readers

Gottlieb also pushed a sports story for the front page today: Alex Rodriguez' career may be nearing an end now that he's thrown out his hip during sexual activity (A-1).

Can't you just hear the snickers among the tabloid copy editors who coined "A-Rod" to fit short-count headlines -- a nickname that hints at his sexual prowess?  

There is so little municipal news in Local, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, had to use a big photo on L-3 -- the latest saga in utility pole news.

Mass hysteria

Monday's front page continued the Woodland Park daily's unprecedented coverage of mass transit, but the bus and rail system maxed out long before Superstorm Sandy damaged hundreds of NJ Transit locomotives and rail cars. 

The editors acknowledge how little they've covered mass transit in the past decade by inserting the word "commuter" before "locomotives and railcars," lest readers think NJ Transit transported cattle, bottled water or organic spring mix.

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