Putting black people on the front page

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How many newsroom staffers remember the time, before Barack Obama was elected president, when black people had to commit a crime, especially a violent one, to get on Page 1 of The Record? How times have changed. Today, the front page of the Woodland Park paper honors a black, World War II Army pilot who was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.


Coverage of minorities was so bad when Frank Scandale was brought in as editor in 2001, he actually had to order local reporters to leave the office and come back with a story about blacks and Hispanics at least once a month.


After Publisher Stephen A. Borg took over in mid-2006, he castrated Scandale as the chief decision maker in the newsroom, hence the latter's nickname of "Castrato." The editor never was able to recruit or retain many minority journalists, and he got rid of the paper's only Hispanic columnist (Miguel Perez) and its only black columnist (Lawrence Aaron).

Scandale sat by as head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes took another wack at his nut sack by ordering her Hackensack reporter to virtually ignore the city's minorities and all other residents, and concentrate on Police Chief Ken Zisa. Coverage of Teaneck and Englewood, two other core Bergen communities with sizable minority populations, is spotty at best.

That policy continues, as readers can see from the lack of Englewood and Hackensack news in today's paper. Oh, Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado has another superficial story in the Local section on the parking-garage collapse on Prospect Avenue, but the paper was forced to cover that by the national attention it got. Today, she reports the owner of the building "plans to spend $12 million" on repairs and related costs, but the number is meaningless without knowing the size of the company, how many buildings it owns and so forth.

Wait. I just saw a three-paragraph story by Alvarado on L-6 about a special Board of Education meeting tonight to interview candidates for a vacancy.  She hasn't covered a school board or City Council meeting in years, and didn't even report on the city budget and tax hike. 

Also on Page 1 today is another expose that will accomplish nothing from Staff Writer Jeff Pillets on an audit of the Bergen County Improvement Authority in 2008 and its role in public projects, including the new county park. Buried on the jump page, we learn a spokesman for county Executive Dennis McNerney had no comment. Next time, that should be Pillets' lead.


The restaurant review in Better Living today is one of the strangest from lame-duck Food Editor Bill Pitcher, who gives Vista Rosa in Totowa a rating between Fair and Good, largely because of a lazy and indifferent wait staff (reminds me of the lazy and indifferent local assignment desk of The Record, and his own laziness as food editor).

But listen to this: A steak arrived "tragically overcooked." Tragically? Cmon. Where the hell is the editing? Despite the "flagrant overcooking," the steak tasted OK. He raves about the lobster and asparagus risotto, but mistakenly says it's part of an "old-school" Southern Italian menu. Risotto is found more often in the north of Italy, and the restaurant should get extra points for serving it.


Still, why do a full-blown review of a terrible restaurant? Why not tell your readers of the best restaurants around, and save the bad ones for a round-up of shorter, capsule reviews? I'll tell you why. Because Features Director Barbara Jaeger puts such a tight reign on spending, reviewers must write about every restaurant they seek reimbursement for -- no matter how bad.


And why continue Eating Out on $50? Two people can eat for $50 at probably 75 percent of the restaurants out there, so what service is the paper providing? The reviewer manages to spend just under $40 at Fairmount Eats, which has gone downhill in the three years it has been open. (I'm sure Jaeger had an orgasm when she saw the low, $40 reimbursement request from the writer.)

What's more, Jeffrey Page, the free-lancer who writes the reviews, can ill-afford to be eating red-velvet cake and other desserts. The space for his reviews could accommodate more restaurant inspections, which are far more important than Page's blabber. Today, you'll find health ratings from only 14 of the 90 or so towns in the paper's circulation area. 

For years, Wyckoff has refused to supply health ratings of its restaurants, and the paper has rolled over and played dead.
 

(Illustration: Tuskegee Airmen fund-raising poster.)

Where was the editor?

When you read a ridiculous Page 1 story like the anti-mass transit piece today, you have to ask, Where was the editor?

Of course, I'm referring to the reporter's assignment editor, who is in on a story from the time it is conceptualized to the final editing before it goes over to the news copy desk for damage control and headlines with "mustard" on them, as Editor Frank "The Fish Stinks from the Head Down" Scandale is fond of saying. (I always wondered why he didn't ask for headlines with salsa [photo] on them? He's such a dull, uninspiring guy.)

Tom Davis' editor is Dan Sforza, a former reporter whose own mediocre job on the transportation beat is responsible for the low quality of reporting and writing we have seen from Davis for years. Just look at the lead paragraph of today's story:

Each community is known for its picturesque downtown and walkable streets that draw people away from the noise, crime and traffic of larger cities.

What planet is Davis and Sforza writing about? Englewood is supposed to provide relief from "noise, crime and traffic?" How much time has the reporter spent there? Has he heard the gunshots from the open-air police firing range? Did he miss the noisy, polluting freight trains that rumble through town frequently, causing traffic mayhem? Doesn't he read all the crime news in the paper day after day that portray North Jersey as a hotbed of criminal activity? What does this lead paragraph have to do with the reality of the suburbs we live in? And what does it have to do with a proposed light-rail system?

Unfortunately, the copy desks at The Record has been handcuffed for years. The news and feature copy editors are encouraged to write snappy headlines, so much so some of them have to resort to writing misleading heads, such as "The dog ate my turkey" and the one in the Business section the other day about New Jersey companies "taking flight." But they are discouraged from challenging poor writing and reporting, and in general, warned against changing copy without approval from the editor who screwed it up in the first place. The copy editors' supervisors long ago dropped quality concerns, and just shovel the shit as fast as they can.

Look at the sub-headline on the light-rail story:

Critics say light rail will bring
host of troubles to their towns

Yet, the story never says the "host of troubles" are the same problems the towns have grappled with for decades from the freight railroad running through the middle of their communities or that the light rail will actually improve the environment with much less noise and zero emissions.

You have to wonder at the motives of Davis and Sforza for such a distorted picture.

"The dividing line" main head over the story could just as well refer to the line between good and bad journalism, and we know which side The Record, Davis and Sforza are on.

See previous post:  
Anti-mass transit tirade, 12/19/09