Family that shoots together dies together

National Rifle Association officials have been strangely silent since the shooting in Newtown, Conn. (Wikipedia)

All day Monday, WNYC-FM and other public radio stations reported Nancy Lanza and her son, Adam, went target shooting together, using a high-powered, semiautomatic rifle and other weapons she had purchased legally.

Until last Friday, that is, when Adam used Nancy as a human target, shooting her four times in the head while she was in bed in her pajamas, before driving her car to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

There, he killed 20 children -- all 7 years old or under -- 6 adults and himself.

I've been poring over The Record's coverage Sunday, Monday and today, and can't find any mention of the Lanzas' weird choice of target shooting as a family activity. 

What's wrong with bowling or going to the movies, especially when all the hunting and gathering we have to do is in supermarkets and warehouse stores?

Holes in coverage

There is a lot missing in The Record's coverage, and the strain of Editor Marty Gottlieb sending reporters to Connecticut to write long A-1 stories has reduced local municipal news to a trickle.

Among the unanswered questions:

A single public safety officer at the Connecticut elementary school -- armed and wearing a bulletproof vest -- would have prevented the tragedy.

But maybe Newtown -- like many small towns in New Jersey -- is trying to cut costs and keep property taxes down. 

Why do only schools in the Bronx, Paterson and other urban neighborhoods have cops guarding schools and metal detectors at their doors?  

Paper misreads reaction 

How did The Record's Page 1 story on Sunday misread the strong reaction of politicians, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, President Obama and many in Congress, as well as the prospects for tighter controls on guns? 

(That story did report that New Jersey members of Congress sold out for as little as $1,000 in National Rifle Association blood money.)

Aren't all the people who say they have a right to own a gun and defend themselves condemning the job police are doing to control crime?

Local news drought

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, were so desperate for local news today they needed a photo of a no-injury auto accident to fill L-3. 

On Monday's L-3, Sykes and Sforza killed two birds with one stone in their mission of running a photo of every minor accident and every utility pole downing in North Jersey -- a car that crashed into a pole in Fair Lawn.

Christie's P.R. guy

Also on Monday, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin's column amounted to an elaborate excuse for Governor Christie's obesity -- and his failure to lead the fight against overeating in children (A-11).

Of course, Doblin doesn't mention the health crisis or how first lady Michelle Obama started a White House garden as part of her war against childhood obesity.

Nor that New Jersey's participation in the national school breakfast program for poor children is too low to qualify for millions in federal subsidies.

Or that two obese editors in the Woodland Park newsroom, Sykes and Tim Nostrand, have effectively stopped any comprehensive coverage of the epidemic. 

Doblin gives a bad name to pussies by mounting one excuse after another for the GOP bully's inability to lose weight.

Editor's bias is clear

And his clear bias in favor of the governor raises questions about the overwhelmingly pro-Christie editorials he writes or edits. 

We may not "elect governors or presidents because they are fittness role models," as Dobin wrote, but we expect them to be proactive in fighting childhood obesity.

And I wish Doblin didn't write this silly sentence:

"In 2012, when it comes to eating, America is messed up big."

That's true for Christie, who likely is a binge eater and who is married to a woman who is so busy making money, she can't plan healthy, nutritious meals for the state's fat first family.

Yes, as Doblin says, the Christies have money. They can hire a personal chef, even someone to food shop for them. 

Stop with the excuses. 

Today and Monday, The Record printed corrections on A-2, but none of them addressed the many recent errors in the Road Warrior column, including an inaccurate headline.