Mindless repetition is killing us

It's not known whether Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado will accompany the parents of murder victim Aena Hong when they bring her ashes back to their native South Korea.

When a big news story appears in the paper almost every day, readers get tired of seeing it and wonder what they are missing to make room for it. Even the enormity of 9/11 and the media's seemingly endless coverage caused reader fatigue.

Today, the sixth story about murder victim Aena Hong in eight days is all over Page 1 of The Record -- one day after a court hearing for suspect Charles J. Ann was reported on the Local front.

All six stories go over the same ground. Today's piece amounts to a profile of the victim, including her life in South Korea and North Jersey, and her relationship with Ann.

Editor Marty Gottlieb is milking this one for all the pathos he can find, running a big A-1 photo of Hong's grief-stricken parents, who traveled here from South Korea to claim their daughter's body after she was run over repeatedly by a car on Feb. 20 in Fort Lee.

 

Shattered dream

 

"She was a girl with a big dream who came to the United States, but she's going back to her home country as ashes," her father told reporter Monsy Alvarado.

Just below the Hong story, a second story about Pascack Valley Hospital's reopening appears -- one day after state approval led the paper. The hospital isn't going to be ready for 14 months. Why the rush in running a follow-up?

What's leading the paper today? That moron Mitt Romney. I'd be happy if I never read another story about the GOP presidential hopeful until the convention in August.

Snow job

On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, Road Warrior John Cichowski has yet another column about roof snow or what he refers to as "dangerous white glop."

Readers have lost count of how many columns on the subject they've been hit with by the lazy Cichowski, who can't seem to get himself out of the office to cover commuting issues.

If Cichowski's repetitious column was dropped, Sykes might find room for some Hackesack news or news about a lot of other towns she doesn't cover too well.

Idiot news

Sykes did deliver breaking news today: a homeless man's 1987 gas guzzler was destroyed by explosions in Hackensack after the emphysema victim lit a cigarette, igniting three oxygen tanks in the car (L-1). 

Despite the photo and a long story that continues on L-2, Sykes' incompetent minions couldn't learn the man's identity.

To make room for repetitious stories about Aena Hong and Pascack Valley Hospital on Page 1, the editors had to demote to L-1 coverage of dramatic testimony in the trial of Dharun Ravi, who has been charged in the suicide of Tyler Clementi of Ridgewood.

Related articles

• Editors love Asian murder case (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Editors try to sell Christie tax cut (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• The big-butt newsroom sisterhood (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Dear Marty: Seven ways to save The Record (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

Shooting doesn't belong on Page 1

Columnist Bill Ervolino's NorthJersey.com blog was dropped in 2010 after he made an inappropriate comment about Malia Obama, above. On Monday, Ervolino told senior citizens that he is starting a new blog.

 

The bloodbath at Columbine High School shocked the nation nearly 13 years ago, but The Record and other media continue to cover such shootings in the same narrow way.

Today's Page 1 story on the killing of students in Ohio, taken from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, begins:

"It appears that T.J. Lane had violence in his life from the beginning."

In between school and college shootings, the media does little to change things. 

How often do you see editorials about gun control or papers trying to shame politicians into finally shutting down the gun trade? Why shouldn't every school in America have metal detectors?

The death of a few students in Ohio is no longer enough to merit front-page play in a news-business-as-usual paper like The Record. As it is, the story is mere sensationalism, shedding no light on why we continue to tolerate such violence.

North Jersey focus

The rest of A-1 has a strong North Jersey focus, including the trial of Dharun Ravi in the death of Tyler Clementi of Ridgewood and a story on two Fort Lee brothers who won Oscars for a documentary, "Undefeated."

Ralph and Glenn Zipper? Imagine the jokes these two weathered at Fort Lee High School.

Poor editing

I was riveted by the Ravi trial testimony, but unsettled by the poor editing on Page 1: "[Molly] Wei said when testifying Monday... " and "confidently answering questions brought by both attorneys ...."

How about Molly Wei "testified Monday"? And from where did the attorneys bring the questions, home or a take-out shop? I expect more from a front page crafted by Editor Marty Gottlieb.

Shameless columnist

On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, Columnist Charles Stile apparently has dropped the word "populism," which he used incorrectly on A-1 last Thursday to describe Governor Christie's proposed income-tax cut.

An income-tax cut that panders to millionaires is just the opposite, and no one caught or corrected this major error.

Cowardly Rothman

It's good to see Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. finally telling it like it is when it comes a fellow Democrat, Rep. Steve Rothman, who is trying to save his ass by ducking out of a fight against arch-conservative Scott Garrett (L-1).

The court hearing for Charles J. Ann of Fort Lee in the murder of girlfriend Aena Hong is the fifth story about the couple in seven days (L-1). 

A visit by Hong's parents to the Palisades Park Library to see the mural she painted was described as an "impromptu stop-over" -- another case of slipshod editing. 

Fender-bender photo

Sykes couldn't find any room for Hackensack news today, but a large photo of a non-fatal accident on Route 4 is used as L-3 filler.

George Meidanis, co-owner of the Ridge Diner in Park Ridge, is known by thousands, but his obituary is buried today on L-6.

Second look

Do you recall the weird Page 1 headline that led The Record on Monday, Feb. 13, the day I left on a week-long vacation?

Pipeline 'scar' headed here

Scary, if true. But what a clunky way to describe the potential damage of a proposed new natural-gas pipeline across North Jersey. 


And it's so definitive, as if legal action couldn't stop it. Boy, the news copy desk under Editor Liz Houlton is so all seeing and all knowing.


Boy reporter

In that same edition, Staff Writer Bill Ervolino ignored another environmental disaster in writing a feature story about two friends who bought a 1955 bronze dedication plaque for Ford Motor Co.'s Mahwah Assembly Plant they had found on Craigslist.

Ervolino must have thought he was writing another column about his parents for Better Living, because the story on the Local front goes on and on.

But nowhere does he mention Ford's shameful history of paint-sludge dumping that sickened and killed residents of an old mine area in Ringwood. The plant closed in 1980.

On Monday, Ervolino appeared before a class of about 50 senior citizens at Bergen Community College in Paramus.

He told them he'll be starting a new blog that he wanted to call, "Then and Now," about Bergen and Passaic counties. 

Of course, the pervert didn't mention his last NorthJersey.com blog was shut down in 2010 after he made an inappropriate remark about Malia Obama, the president's daughter, who was 12 at the time.

Editors tug on readers' heartstrings

Bogart to Bacall: "Baby, hold my gun!"

For the third day in a row, The Record explores the relationship between a young Korean art student and the boyfriend who allegedly used his car to kill her after he "discovered" she was "seeing someone else."

Could there be a more touching portrait of Aena Hong, who is shown in a Page 1 photo today at the Palisades Park Library, where she painted a mural and took English lessons?

Look at that angelic face. But why did Editor Marty Gottlieb put the story, written by former Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado, on the front page? 

What begins as a profile deteriorates into a blow-by-blow retelling of the ups and downs of her relationship with Charles J. Ann, 26, who was charged with murder this week.

Many of the interviews echo those published in a front page story on Wednesday. 

Ridiculous quote

Look at that silly quote from Steve Cavallo, the library's program coordinator: "The saddest thing is that she looked like a person who enjoyed life."

What is that look exactly? And if she didn't enjoy life, would her death at 25 be easier to take? 

And would The Record profile the victim if she was a Hispanic woman from Hackensack or an African-American woman from Paterson? It's doubtful.

Finally, the photo caption on A-8, the continuation page, commits a common error of saying the library mural was painted "by slaying victim Aena Hong." Did she come back from the grave?

Another A-1 story today -- on Governor Christie's school-aid proposals -- isn't clear on whether all of his previous education cuts would be restored in this budget. 

Driven journalist

On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, the Road Warrior column rises to a new level of irrelevance, relating the experiences of a Wayne man who is "North Jersey's chauffeur to the stars."

Any moron can drive a limousine, so why does Stew Resmer deserve an entire column in The Record? And when is Staff Writer John Cichowski going to get off his ass and write about commuting problems?

Hackensack readers will search in vain for any news of their city. On the other hand, police and court stories appear on almost every page of Local today.

But, hey, be thankful. How many times do you get an anecdote about actress Lauren Bacall in The Record's Local news section? 

Did you ever hear the one about when Bacall was married to actor Humphrey Bogart? She leaned out an apartment window and called down to the street, "Hump-free, hump-free," and three men ran up to her room.

Or, how he got so involved in preparing for movie roles, he'd awake in the middle of the night and say to her, "Baby, hold my gun!" 


Stomach turning

Two restaurant reviews appear in the Better Living tab today, but I had a hard time getting through them.

I've had fondue once in my life and certainly have no interest in repeating the experience at the pricey Westwood spot called The Melting Pot. 

The last time I saw the reviewer, Elisa Ung, she was pudgy (in 2008). Can you imagine what she looks like now, given her obsession with dessert, including the chocolate fondue with cake she sampled for this piece?

In Eating Out on $50, free-lancer Jeffrey Page doesn't explain what makes the salmon he ordered at Fish of the C's kosher and why he was charged so much for it in a small storefront restaurant in Teaneck. 

The fool paid $20 for artificially colored farmed salmon and never asked why he wasn't being served wild-caught fish. And he really blew his $50 budget for two by ordering cheesecake.

Isn't anyone at The Record watching their weight and their cholesterol levels? 

Editors try to sell Christie tax cut

Governor Christie

 

Christie plays salesman

That headline on the front page of The Record today seems to be a couple of years overdue. Hasn't Governor Christie been trying to sell snake oil to middle-class taxpayers since he took office more than two years ago?

The editors seem intent on selling Christie's proposed 10 percent tax cut (over three years) and helping him shift attention away from rising property taxes and his broken campaign promise to lower them.

Columnist Charles Stile even has the nerve -- on Page 1 today -- to call the plan "populism."

Here's one definition of "populism" I found on the Internet:

"A political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite."

That Stile is such a moron, and Editor Liz Houlton's news copy editors are no better, failing to catch that huge contradiction. 

Cut Stile

Christie has catered to the "privileged elite" -- many of whom support him -- since he took office, vetoing the millionaires' tax, refusing to raise the gasoline tax on their gas guzzlers, and on and on.

Christie's plan to cut income taxes will benefit the wealthy far more than the middle class, yielding only an $80 savings for someone earning $50,000 a year.

When is Editor Marty Gottlieb going to clean house and get rid all of the paper's tired columnists -- Stile, Mike Kelly, John Cichowski and Bill Ervolino  -- and their tired editors?

Senior road kill

Over at the lazy assignment desk run by Editor Deirdre Sykes, her flunkies have become experts at rewriting press releases, such as the report on senior drivers and traffic fatalities (A-4).

The report recommends more driver education to keep seniors safe, but incredulously, the story mentions only one program, in Midland Park.

Sykes leads her Local section today with another story about Charles J. Ann, the Fort Lee man from South Korea who is charged with killing his girlfriend on Monday, student Aena Hong, by knocking her down with his car and repeatedly running her over (L-1).

The allegation only adds to the negative image of Asian drivers.

Bus-ted

The main element on the front of Local is an Ash Wednesday story with a photo of an Episcopal  priest providing "ashes to go" to a commuter who is about to board a bus in Clifton, under a bright headline: 

"MASS TRANSIT"

Unfortunately, the headline only serves to remind readers of how little mass-transit coverage ever gets into the Woodland Park daily, including the Road Warrior column.

Wrong address

The only Hackensack news in Local is a crime story (L-3), but in Better Living, a new restaurant on Prospect Avenue is featured in a highly promotional Starters column that amounts to free advertising (F-1).

The writer, Joyce Venezia Suss, incorrectly says Marrone's 160 is at "160 Prospect St.," but the data box with the column has "160 Prospect Ave."

The pricey restaurant serves one heart-stopping dish: filet mignon topped with blue cheese. 

Suss doesn't say whether any of the meat or poultry served there is naturally raised, despite entree prices of $16.95 to $36.95.