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| State Street in Hackensack is among many major thoroughfares that have been torn up for utility work and then left with rough patches. Apparently, payment of local property taxes does not guarantee smooth streets. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
It's right there on the front page of The Record today, one of those pop-out quotes from Governor Christie's defiant State of the State speech on Tuesday.
"I do believe our best days lie ahead," said the GOP bully, this after six years in office marked by 450 vetoes and pitched battles with Democrats, who hold a majority in the state Legislature (A-1).
What?
If "our best days lie ahead," as you claim, then our worst days lie behind us, thanks to your mean-spirited rule.
State residents can take comfort in knowing one of your greatest humiliations lies ahead -- you're certain to lose your selfish bid for the GOP presidential nomination.
Around the same time, the list of unindicted co-conspirators in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal will be made public, and I'll bet you're on it.
If that's the case, the Legislature should try to impeach you for all of your lies and deceptions.
Botched front page
Today's front page -- with Christie's State of the State address and President Obama's State of the Union speech played side by side -- is a disaster (A-1).
Six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, who supervises the copy editors and proofreaders, somehow missed one of the cardinal sins of headline writing -- an "echo" from the use of the word "issues" in big, black type in both the Christie and Obama headlines.
Then, Editor Martin Gottlieb ran yet another Charles Stile column on politics that's as boring as every one he's written since Christie took office (A-1).
And Stile continues to avoid exploring whether Christie's attacks on Obama are racially motivated.
High road in D.C.
While Christie continues to speak harshly of Democrats, Obama called for an end to partisan rhetoric, "better politics" and taking money out of the election process (A-1).
Obama also was critical of Christie's GOP debate comment that "we're already in World War III," and that "radical Islamist jihadists" are "trying to kill Americans."
Christie also said he would shoot down Russian planes over Syria, an act that could certainly start a war.
From a reader of this blog:
ReplyDeleteVictor:
I never studied copy editing so I did not understand what your reference to an "echo" of the use of "issues" was. I went back to see page one and noticed that the headlines use the term "Issues" in two different contexts -- one as a verb to issue a challenge and two as a noun - will discuss issues. I assume that this is a journalistic no-no.
Yes, that's right.
DeleteCopy editing at The Record is a thankless job. The 2008 downsizing in the newsroom targeted four or five members of the copy desk, most of whom had been there for 10, 20 or more years, including one of the co-supervisors.
The copy editors are the last line of defense when it comes to grammar, writing and factual errors, and they usually write the headlines and photo captions as well.
They also are supposed to uphold the paper's standards for accuracy and story completeness, and make sure stories conform to style, such as capitalization.
With six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton in charge of the copy and news desks, the number of errors in stories, clunky headlines and fuzzy writing have soared dramatically, while she laughs all the way to the bank.