Why aren't 'Final Words' on Page 1?

Traffic backed up for about 2 miles on two-lane Passaic Street in Hackensack, Maywood, Rochelle Park and part of Paramus during the rush hour Friday evening. The lack of turn lanes at most intersections along the street stops motorists in their tracks.

It's fitting that "Final Words" -- The Record's most revealing and moving piece of journalism this year -- appears on the penultimate day of 2012.

But Editor Marty Gottlieb makes readers work to find the final thoughts of the four hospice patients, as reported by Jay Levin, the paper's local obituary writer (Pages A-8 and A-9).

Their photos appear on Page 1, but what's with the cold, impersonal use of only their last names under the images -- as if they are little more than suspects in a crime?

Out of focus 

The front page focuses mostly on Villa Marie Claire, the hospice in Saddle River, and Dr. Charles Vialotti, its medical director.

But this scene setter would have worked much better inside, allowing room on A-1 for the words of the terminally ill and one of the terrific photos by Carmine Galasso to grab readers' attention right away.

You can guess how this happened at The Record, an editor-driven daily newspaper where the news judgment of the reporter and photographer come last.

Sadly, most of the editors were mediocre reporters, and couldn't edit their way out of a paper bag.  

No news today

Most of the rest of the paper is filled with "YEAR IN REVIEW" articles.

For head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, reviewing the year's events is a convenient excuse for not reporting any local news today.

But why is far more space devoted to reviewing events in Paramus, Saddle Brook and other communities than in Hackensack, the most populous Bergen County town, the county seat and the paper's home for more than 110 years before the Borgs abandoned the city (L-1 to L-7)?

Fattening up

In Better Living's 2012 dining review, Staff Writer Elisa Ung says, "We are all still watching our pocketbooks."

Of course, we readers would like the paper's dessert-obsessed restaurant reviewer to watch her waistline, her cholesterol and her sugar intake, just as the majority of us are, knowing we are not going to live forever.

Flunking the prof

On the Opinion front, the "2012 box score" on Governor Christie is from Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science and law whose ponderous style puts readers to sleep.

She sums up all the middle-class pain Christie delivered in four words: "His budget slashed programs."

And she ignores Christie's battle to preserve tax breaks for millionaires -- to the detriment of everyone else -- and how he has done nothing to solve the state's twin crises of mass-transit and traffic.   

Smelly Kelly

At the bottom of the Opinion front, readers get a last look in 2012 at Staff Writer Mike Kelly's photo, complete with shit-eating grin, but are spared another column from the reporter who has been pushing around words for more than 20 years.

Kelly wrote a column last week, his first since taking a leave to recover from heart surgery. 

In Real Estate, the lead story, "What every seller should know," says nothing about the greed of banks and real estate agents or the endless repairs every homeowner faces. 

Traveling music

On the Travel front, Staff Writer Jill Schensul's kvetching is of little practical use to readers who might be looking for a reliable taxi or limousine service to the airport.

It seems weird that the travel editor of a North Jersey daily doesn't know about Air Brook, a limousine service that has always come through for me in the past 20 years.

And am I the only reader who thinks the statue of Gen. Douglas MacArthur on T-1 looks like he is saluting Hitler?

Photo filler 

On T-3, "The Record on The Road" photo feature continues to show minorities either don't travel or have absolutely no interest in appearing in the Woodland Park daily.

An entire page of reader-supplied photos also lets Schensul off the hook from providing more consumer-oriented travel journalism -- like the names of the offending taxi services she fulminates about in her column today.