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| Four days ago, a dirty snowbank at the Bergen Town Center mall in Paramus was an unwelcome reminder of the bitter, storm-filled winter we experienced. By Friday, the snow still hadn't melted completely. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
The biggest critics of The Record's editors, columnists and reporters aren't the readers, many of whom pay little attention to bylines.
They are the copy editors -- faceless newsroom employees who work the night shift in a thankless job of trying to enforce standards of accuracy, style and grammar.
At the Woodland Park daily, they are last line of defense before the paper is printed in Rockaway Township.
Before Publisher Stephen A. Borg put into motion a major newsroom downsizing in Hackensack in 2008 -- prelude to North Jersey Media Group moving to the sticks the following year -- I was one of those copy editors.
We worked without meal or coffee breaks and were allowed to pick the stories we wanted to edit and write headlines for unless they were destined for the front page or a section front.
Inside Kelly
In those days, columns by veteran reporter Mike Kelly ran inside the paper, on Page A-3, and were literally shunned by the highly experienced copy editors.
We hated editing Kelly's verbosity and endless ruminations on 9/11; former Governor Tom Kean; his pal, ex-New York Police Commish Bernie Kerik, and all the other crap the reporter began churning out after he was promoted to columnist in 1988.
It got to the point where our supervisors would literally have to order us to edit Kelly's column.
Some of us named the fourth stall in the men's room -- the copy desk was conveniently placed next to it -- the Columnist Mike Kelly Memorial Toilet Seat.
How appropriate. Kelly's shit copy found a parallel in the men's room.
Memorial column
Today, Kelly's column is on the front page, and it's a lame attempt to find humor in naming schools and other buildings after living public officials, some of whom go on to betray the public trust (A-1).
Until the old 150 River St. headquarters of The Record is torn down, we former copy editors will always have a really appropriate memorial to journalistic excess.
What could be more fitting then a toilet seat memorializing the columnist whose dated thumbnail photo radiates a shit-eating grin?
Desperate editor
Editor Martin Gottlieb must have really been desperate to put another boring Kelly column on Page 1 today.
Below that is Staff Writer Jim Norman's spin on a wild turkey that has made an A&P parking lot home and is being fed by customers (A-1).
But The Record continues to follow up on the 100-year-old Elmwood Park man who killed his 88-year-old wife with an ax before killing himself (A-1).
This story and earlier ones amount to the paper's only coverage of dementia and other forms of Alzheimer's disease.
Local news?
Mahwah Public Works Director Ed Sinclair has agreed not to sue the township, if officials pay his legal fees up to $35,000 after he was fired and reinstated in March (L-1).
Township officials also might consider paying for surgery to help the obese Sinclair lose weight, and lower their health-insurance premiums.
Today's Local-news section is dominated by crime news, court stories, a fire in an unoccupied house and other filler.
The Record's weekly, Paterson Press, also keeps Bergen County readers abreast of the number of gunshot wounds in the Silk City, though there is no suggestion they are the fault of its sorry Police Department and do-nothing police director (L-3).
Chickening out
Don't bother rushing out to try five of the six "must-try chicken dishes" on the Better Living front today (BL-1).
The only one raised without harmful antibiotics is the whole rotisserie chicken from Le Bon Choix in Ridgewood.
But even with two sides, two sauces and cornbread, $28 for a whole chicken, raised at Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff, is a rip-off.
This cafe is near Whole Foods Market, where two antibiotic-free rotisserie chickens cost a total of about $15.
Elisa Ung, the restaurant reviewer who wrote the piece, could care less. The paper pays for all of the food she samples.
Speak for yourself, bub. As a former copy editor at the Record myself, I used to enjoy editing Kelly's column. I especially enjoyed arguing with his assignment editors over all his inaccuracies and mangled metaphors. Oh, and while you're at it, does that $28 rotisserie chicken come with non-GMO cornbread? Inquiring minds want to know. Oh, and while I'm at it, we may not have gotten lunch breaks or bathroom breaks, but we did get to send out for Boston Market fare, at least on Saturdays, which we could then eat at our desks while admiring the savviness of the Savvy Shopper.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to mention that one of your colleagues allegedly collected the full amount for Boston Market orders and then used discount coupons when he picked up the food, pocketing the difference.
DeleteThat might have been a reflection on the slave wages North Jersey Media Group paid the luckless group of copy editors or his poor money management.