Editors warn whites of big changes

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Rutgers University paid a famous author $30,000 to speak.

The Record's desperate editors rub their hands in glee at census time, knowing they can trot out another long story, big photo and graphics to soak up space on Page 1 whenever they have no legitimate news.

Indian numbers rising

That's a weird main head -- is it intended as a warning to white readers about growing Asian immigration to North Jersey? Or is it just old news in one of the most ethnically diverse states in the nation?

Why is the lead A-1 story today reporting the resignation of the Rutgers University president, whom I have never heard of?

Out of mothballs

And where did the editors find that third front-page story -- on an obscure environmental controversy in Englewood -- by Giovanna Fabiano, who jumped ship weeks ago for the Patch online local-news site?

There is bigger news on A-4, where a story reports Governor Christie has succeeded in unloading NJN on WNET Channel 13, the PBS station. 

Littering news

In Local, what's the connection between commuting problems and a man who volunteers to clean up Paterson highway ramps (Road Warrior column, L-1)?

It's no surprise Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli refused to talk to Staff Writer Jean Rimbach about two unsolved Teaneck killings (L-1).

Rimbach, the least productive reporter on the staff, led the so-called investigation of onetime Molinelli aide Michael Mordaga -- a failed effort that produced a single, weak story not even good enough for Page 1 in 2009.

Out of gas

Two weeks after prices peaked, the Business staff finally got around to advising readers on how to save money at the gasoline pump -- by reprinting a Wall Street Journal column (B-4).

Staff Writer Elisa Ung long ago ran out of ideas for her Sunday restaurant column, The Corner Table. Today, in a piece on farmers' markets, she doesn't even tell you which restaurants serve fresh, pesticide-free produce (F-1).

Our 'deceitful' guv

In Opinion, a new column by Professor Brigid Harrison reports Christie is denying women funds for breast-cancer screenings -- like the one that helped extend his own mother's life by 20 years (O-2).

Only eight days left for black news

Image via Wikipedia

The Record is filled with African-American news this month.

Get it while it's hot off the presses. 

News of African-Americans dominates the front page, and a few of them even make an appearance today in The Record on the Road -- the usually lily white photo feature in Travel. 

Hey, Editors Francis Scandale and Deirdre Sykes, will all this attention to black news end when Black History Month concludes in eight days?

Two weeks after reporting census data showing significant drops in North Jersey's black population, Staff Writer Dave Sheingold of The Record of Woodland Park is back today with a story explaining the trend. 

He discusses Hackensack and Teaneck, Passaic city and Paterson, but his major focus is on Englewood, where the African-American population dropped 15.3% from 2000-10. He even interviews a Jamaican restaurant owner in Teaneck, but errs in listing one of his dishes, ackee and salt fish, which he calls "ackee fish."

Sheingold reports financial reasons are prompting blacks to move to the South. He doesn't mention other factors, such as Englewood's segregated elementary and middle schools.

The lead A-1 story today is about the coming free-for-all over a new state budget between Governor Christie and the Legislature. A Cliffview Pilot.com editorial portrays the Republican governor as another in a long line of union haters: Christie is a wanna-be union buster

Size matters

A story on A-3 is a first -- the first full discussion of Christie's weight I've seen since he took office more than a year ago.  A second piece on Page O-2, an Opinion column by a Washington Post staffer, says the governor makes fat jokes at his own expense.

The news story reports Christie has been working out with a trainer and losing weight. Neither his overall weight or how much he has lost is listed. The AP story says the governor is losing weight so he can "be around" for his children, not that he's about to launch a campaign against the obesity epidemic.

I don't know how Business section Staff Writer Joan Verdon chose attorney Louis Pashman of Pashman Stein in Hackensack for one of her promotional Q&As (B-6), but his firm has represented and profited handsomely from fees paid by North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, in an age-discrimination suit and other legal matters. 

Isn't this a major conflict? Did the paper get a preferential rate for legal representation or is it paying part of its fees with this lavish spread on Pashman, the son of a New Jersey Supreme Court justice?

Get rid of minorities

An editorial on O-2 today calls for the ouster of Associate Supreme Court Justice Roberto Rivera-Soto -- not surprising from a newsroom that has gotten rid of black and Hispanic staffers. 

The editorial doesn't even mention that John Wallace was the only African-American member of the state's high court when Christie booted him. Or that Rivera-Soto is the only Hispanic on the court.

Best comes in last

In Better Living, Cheeburger, Cheeburger is the only one of the fancy new burger joints to use antibiotic- and hormone-free beef, so why does Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung list it last in her column, The Corner Table (F-1)?

It's likely because of the owner's policy of posting photos of customers who finish large burgers:

"Now it's one thing to reward adults for stuffing their face, but I winced when I saw that children get their pictures on the wall if they finish a half-pound burger. Talk about crossing the line."

How rich. This comes from an adult journalist who is rewarded with a big salary and repayment for all the food she stuffs into her face, and whose mindless obsession for dessert sets a poor example for her own child.