Imagine sick kids wearing hospital gowns to a party

The 5,500-seat auditorium of Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan on Sunday afternoon as ticket holders were being seated for the 2014 Christmas Spectacular starring the high-kicking Rockettes, a huge orchestra, dancing Santa Clauses and much more.

The lobby of Radio City, an art-deco masterpiece that opened on Dec. 27,1932, and was restored in 1999, including the replacement of all seats, carpeting and wallpaper, and the restoration of murals, including "Men Without Women" in the lounge outside the lower-level men's bathroom, below.

After the 90-minute show, we walked less than a block to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center and, frankly, we were underwhelmed. The tree is towering, as usual, but this year, they skimped on the lights. Even the smaller Christmas tree on Main Street in Hackensack makes a bigger splash. Imagine that.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

There are reporters at The Record who don't need editing, others who don't get editing and still others who should have their heads examined.

Veteran Jay Levin, who writes the local obituaries after many years of thankless duty on the night copy desk, is a reporter who doesn't need editing, as two of his pieces in today's Local section show (L-1 and L-6).

Levin is at the top of his game, in stark contrast to Road Warrior John Cichowski, a confused reporter who gets no editing and who has committed hundreds of errors, not to mention all the wrong advice he's given drivers, young and old.

Another veteran, Mike Kelly, also gets no editing, and the result is one long, rambling column after another as he pushes around thousands of words in search of a strong opinion, which the reporter doesn't seem to have.

Party for sick kids

Then, there is Linda Moss, a reporter who covers commercial real estate for The Record, according to her Twitter profile.

On Sunday, Moss was on weekend duty when she was assigned to cover the 30th annual holiday party of the Tomorrow's Children Fund for kids who have been treated at Hackensack University Medical Center for cancer and serious blood disorders.

There was so little real news in Monday's paper that I found myself reading Moss' story on the Local front all the way through.

I was shocked at a sentence on the continuation page (Monday's L-3)

A photo showed two of the cutest children you could imagine posing with Santa Claus at a Hasbrouck Heights hotel where the party was held:

"The girls and boys were dressed up in their nicest attire, not hospital gowns, for the party," Moss reported [italics added].

How many editors and copy editors saw that and allowed "not hospital gowns" to get in the paper? 

Where was Production Editor Liz Houlton, who supervises the news and copy desks and is paid six figures to keep such an inappropriate image out of the paper?

Did the children with cancer and blood disorders once attend the annual holiday party in hospital gowns? Why even mention them?

Covering advertisers

The Record's editors may be insensitive to children with cancer, but they bend over backwards to cover their biggest advertisers, such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Victoria's Secret and other retailers (Page 1 today and Monday).

The local assignment editors also seem to be ordering more coverage of wealthy communities.

Monday's Local front was dominated by an article and photos about schools districts in Tenafly, Ridgewood and Glen Rock, all of which are reexamining their homework polices.

When is the last time you read a story -- any story -- about Hackensack schools?

Upscale restaurants

The Better Living cover story on Monday recommended eight "great" restaurants, but five of them are expensive.

You have to turn the page to find three that are moderately priced.

The recommendations come from Elisa Ung, the paper's restaurant reviewer, who is lucky enough to have The Record pay for all of those artery clogging steaks and desserts she eats so obsessively.

Maybe she would appreciate value, if she had to pay for some of that food herself.

Today's paper

The Record's coverage of the Affordable Care Act has been largely negative, echoing the complaints of such conservative Republicans as Governor Christie.

Staff Writer Lindy Washburn and her assignment editor also continue to obscure how Christie and Republican governors in 35 other states tried to sabotage what they labeled "Obamacare," a derogatory term The Record and other media love to use.

In more than a year of covering the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act, Washburn and the paper's other medical writers have never actually interviewed the people who applied for health insurance.

Today, The Record's lead story reports that North Jersey residents who bought insurance "came from towns that are rich, poor and middle class, as well as municipalities where a majority vote Republican" (A-1).

Imagine what Record reporters could find out, if they actually interviewed readers and other residents of North Jersey instead of endlessly quoting experts, pollsters and spin doctors, and examining the politics of every issue under the sun.

Red-light cameras

In a letter to the editor, Keith Remland of Lincoln Park says of red-light cameras:

"Their biggest plus is safety" (A-10).

Remland said in a few words what two Road Warrior columns tried to hide from readers as Cichowski foamed at the mouth over "Big Brother," and quoted critics of the $85 fines, which many cash-strapped towns welcome.

Women's news?

Did a male editor lay out L-3 today, hoping to package stories on two different women?

In the bottom right corner, a story about a substitute teacher facing more sex charges appears next to one on Ridgewood's second woman firefighter.