Editors ignore readers' wish list

The Record's Marketbasket editor continues to turn a blind eye to organic food as an alternative to deceptively labeled food from such large processors as Amick Farms, left.

After staring blankly at one of the dullest Sunday front pages in memory, readers leafing through The Record today come across journalists' wish lists or Top 10 lists.

But some of the lists are narrow and uninformed, and nowhere are readers' wishes for a better local newspaper acknowledged.

And today's paper has a punch line in the Travel section, where the haggard and sleep-deprived travel editor -- who has been using the same column photo since at least 2000 -- complains people see her as old.

Editing dementia 

It is fitting that Editor Marty Gottlieb, who is no spring chicken, devotes a good deal of Page 1 to the elderly, but here is another story depicting senior citizens as basket cases ("At homes for seniors, a grim record of lapses").

Where are the vibrant local seniors we seem to read about only after they die? 

Where are the stories on the challenges facing older drivers, and the help available to them?

Desperate local editors 

The first wish list is on the front of Local, the first desperate act of the week from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, who consistently fail to find enough local news to fill even a few pages.

Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to ignore readers' requests for greater accuracy in his three-day-a-week ramblings, and the editors refuse to publish corrections of headlines and other glaring mistakes.

Today, Cichowski also completely turns his back on commuters' demands for more enforcement on state roads and highways, and more seats on rush-hour buses and trains.

His frugal life

On the front of Business, the Your Money's Worth Column from Staff Writer Kevin DeMarrais ("Top 10 Consumer Issues of the Year") continues to turn a blind eye to the evolution of organic and naturally raised food in the past 30 years -- an example of his flawed, personal style of journalism (B-1).

Why does that matter? He compiles the monthly Marketbasket survey of supermarket prices.

Inside Business, The Wall Street Journal's "10 Things Health Food Companies Won't Say" takes the focus off all the things factory farms deliberately avoid saying on their packaging, including the use of harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones that make animals grow faster (B-5).

Food writing in The Record, Wall Street Journal and other newspapers appears designed not to inform readers about healthy and nutritious choices, but to avoid alienating all of the huge food processors and supermarket chains that buy advertising in the paper. 

Doesn't travel well

Meanwhile, Travel Editor Jill Schensul has the nerve to run this headline over the same column photo that she has used for more than a dozen years (T-1):

"Moi, old? Are you

off your rocker?"

What a hoot. I haven't seen her since 2008, but there were times even then she looked like she needed a wheelchair.

Adieu to Kelly?

At the bottom of the Opinion front, the note to readers has changed from Record Columnist Mike Kelly is "away from the office on leave" to Kelly "is off" (O-1).

"Way off," I usually think. 

Does that mean Kelly, who is recovering from heart surgery, will be writing columns again? 

Let's hope he chooses to exit gracefully, and retires, as many readers wish.

Omissions, errors

Today's A-2 "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" item --  promoting Chrysler's latest TV commercial on its Detroit roots -- conveniently omits mention the automaker is owned by Fiat of Italy.  

On Friday's A-8, the sidebar on Wayne LaPierre's statements misspelled "aide" as "aid."

On Friday's L-2, the byline of reporter John A. Gavin was misspelled "Galvin."  

A photo caption with the Gavin story says, "Police monitoring the scene of an uprooted tree in Englewood."

"Monitoring"? How ridiculous. 

That's more great work by Sykes, Sforza and Production Editor Liz Houlton, supervisor of the seemingly useless copy desk.