These editors just love reports

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The state is just now issuing a report on Hurricane Irene, which hit us in August.

Reports. Surveys. Municipal and school board meetings. Court hearings. Press releases. 


The Record's news merry-go-round depends heavily on packaged news -- such as today's Page 1 story on a state report about Hurricane Irene and the pre-Halloween snow storm that knocked out power to 175,000 in North Jersey.


Residents ignored


Of course, the editors had much of this information from residents in the immediate aftermath of the power outages, but chose to bury utility customers anger and frustration deep in stories, sometimes in the last paragraphs on continuation pages.


It's as if residents don't have any legitimacy unless they make their statements in an official forum or write a letter to the editor.


The three environmental or weather stories on the front page today are based on a report, a meeting and a press release. How convenient.


A four-letter word really fits the local-news assignment desk run so ineptly by lifer Editor Deirdre Sykes: L-A-Z-Y.


New top editor


A story on The Record's new editor, Martin Gottlieb, is on A-3 today. 


The story doesn't say when he takes over from interim Editor Doug Clancy, but another report says it's not until the new year. (See earlier post, Timesman named editor of The Record.) 


Readers can only hope Gottlieb will be able to get Sykes and her assignment minions off their asses and inspire staffers to do original reporting based on real legwork.


And as someone who is in his 60s, Gottlieb will be in a unique position to change a newsroom culture that values the work of young staffers over that of older employees.


Sykes' Local section leads with the sentencing of a triple murderer, and even devotes the front to a "controversial application" for a pharmacy in tiny Washington Township (L-1).


But there isn't any news from Hackensack or Englewood, two much larger communities. 


Related posts

• The real story: Failure of government (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Flooded, lied to and then abandoned (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• The big-butt newsroom sisterhood (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

Kicking Paterson when it's down

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On a clear day, Manhattan is visible from West Milford.

It's usually Editor Francis Scandale who kicks Paterson when it's down, but now the impoverished city's own mayor and three aides are getting into the act, prompting The Record to run more front-page coverage and an editorial today.


According to the A-1 story squeezed under a one-column headline, Mayor Jeffrey Jones and his three top administrators will return more than $20,000 in overtime pay they received after Hurricane Irene hit the Silk City. 


On Friday, the payment of overtime was Page 1 news in the Woodland Park daily. Today, as incredible as it may seem, the mayor left open the possibility he might in the end deserve overtime.


Moral outrage


In the past decade, Scandale has done a great deal to shape Paterson's image in the eyes of his largely suburban readership, claiming in two major series that drug dealing and prostitution were corrupting North Jersey residents. 


In both cases, the overwhelmingly negative stories were published without any balancing material on Paterson's rich and storied history:


How the Great Falls drove it to become America's first industrial city; the architectural riches of its Eastside mansion district or its bustling Middle Eastern and Turkish bazaar in South Paterson.


Paterson isn't just a city that has been "battling crimes, drugs and poverty for decades," as today's editorial says. Here is a link to the history of Lambert Castle, built by the most successful silk baron:


The Story of Catholina Lambert's Castle 


But that sort of thing bores the simple-minded Scandale, who often fails miserably in his responsibility to readers. 


And I don't know if the editor paid overtime to his reporters and photographers, but the series was so detailed that one day, a user-friendly map was published showing the street corners where drug dealers operated.


Getting it wrong


The paper has been covering the Tyler Clementi story for more than a year, but still struggles to get its facts straight, as noted in an A-2 correction today.


The editorial on A-11 treats the Paterson mayor and his aides harshly, but stops short of calling for their resignations. I can't find anything in the coverage on what Jones has done since he was elected.


Nor is there any mention today of how state aid to the city is tied up by political squabbling in Trenton. 


And while Scandale has exposed all of the city's flaws, he's directed no coverage of unscrupulous landlords, redlining banks and the other forces that keep down the predominantly minority residents.


Police news out front


The major news on Page 1 and on the Local front today basically are police stories -- a 15-year-old boy hit by a school bus in foggy West Milford and a manhole blast in downtown Ridgewood -- complete with photographs.


The latter story reports no one was injured, but quotes the police chief as saying the underground explosion had "enough force to rip up the manhole cover partially and leave it ajar."


The L-1 photo caption reports "severe power outages," but the reporter calls them "sporadic."


The Ridgewood story really is a waste of space, but a desk laboring under head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes couldn't come up with anything more legitimate from the 90 or so towns in the circulation area.


Borgs gulp


Congratulations to Staff Writer Andrew Tangel for getting the phrase "class conflict" into his lead paragraph on the firing of unionized office cleaners in Teaneck -- without quote marks (A-10).


That must be a first on the Business page of The Record, whose owners have fought tooth and nail to keep unions out and to preserve their right to fire workers with 20 to 30 years or more of service.


What the F?


I must be really out of it not to realize that every high school football team represents not the town or the county, but the entire Garden State, and that unbeknownst to me, teams compete every week in a statewide Olympics of High School Football.


At least, that's what I took from Scandale's lame Page 1 photo package last Saturday under the headline:

Jersey wins 1, loses 1

Below the headline, photos show a single play during a winning game and a losing game. 


Maybe the small-minded, sports-obsessed Scandale means football "jersey." Or, maybe he finds the cheerleaders too distracting.

How to get Christie to shut up

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The Passaic River makes or breaks Paterson.

Francis Scandale -- The Record's all-seeing, all-knowing editor -- carefully omitted Governor Christie's snub of Paterson in coverage of the Republican's crocodile-tears flood tour last week.


But on Sunday, Christie was at the side of President Obama, who cheered up Silk City residents and promised them federal aid in the wake of Hurricane Irene.


The voluble governor doesn't appear in today's Page 1 photo, and the story by Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson doesn't quote him. 


He didn't make a peep in any of the TV news clips I saw, either. A good thing. We've heard enough from the bully's big mouth.


Another huge error


Today's off-lead A-1 report on the grim jobless rate doesn't quote a single New Jersey resident -- what you'd expect when Scandale leaves such important stories to The Associated Press.


And at first glance, the headline on the continuation page seems ridiculous -- what you'd expect from Editor Liz Houlton's foot-in-mouth news copy desk:

Jobs: On average, 4.5 million people vie for each opening

But it's not only ridiculous, it's one of the biggest, bone-headed errors I've ever seen in the paper, because on A-6, the story clearly says "4.5 unemployed people, on average, are competing for each job opening," not "4.5 million."


Liz and Francis, aren't you embarrassed? How does this happen? You've failed to correct other major errors, but I hope you correct this one.


The third major element on the front page is another story in the 10th anniversary 9/11 series that began strongly with Staff Writer Leslie Brody's piece on the memorial to New Jersey victims, then sort of plotzed.

In his 9/11 piece on Sunday, Staff Writer Jeff Pillets explored the nation's "crisis of confidence."

But he fails to make the connection between our huge deficits, Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nor does he ever say whether the wars made us safer.


I'm looking at Sunday's front page now, and just noticed the amateurish drop headline on Pillets' story: "The challenge of 9/2011."


Labored Day


Who would have thought an effete snob like Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is the son of a proud union man, a typographer at the Daily News no less (A-13)?


Here it is Labor Day, but Doblin not only collects a paycheck from the rabidly anti-union Borgs, he's also defended Christie's assaults on unionized state employees, teachers and cops.


At least today's editorial puts the blame on businesses for rolling up huge profits and cash reserves, but refusing to hire new workers (A-13).


Edit me, please


Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes leads her Local section with another column by Mike Kelly that cries out for editing, starting with the first paragraph:

"In the months after 9/11, cops, firefighters and others headed to Ground Zero to sort through the debris. Here in North Jersey, Peter Killeen sorted through another kind of rubble."

Another kind of rubble? What the f--- is he talking about? In the next paragraph, he tells us the "rubble" is composed of "cops needing to vent" and later, he says the rubble is the "broken souls of first responders."


What kind of strained, amateurish writing is this? Where is his assignment editor, in the bathroom?


The bottom of L-1 is devoted to a new math curriculum in Englewood -- a story that doesn't tell readers outside of that city students in the elementary and middle school are 99% minority.


The inside pages are padded with stories by reporters whose names aren't familiar to readers of the Woodland Park daily, meaning they likely came from   
a North Jersey Media Group weekly.

Why isn't anyone held accountable?

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Point Pleasant Beach gets no respect.

A week after Hurricane Irene slammed into the Garden State and triggered massive flooding in North Jersey, The Record today is filled with articles and columns exploring decades of official inaction.


But no one is actually held accountable. Instead, concerns about "high cost" and the environment supposedly stopped implementation of long-term solutions. An editorial on Friday blamed "civilization."


Buried in thousands of words of text is the lone voice of Lincoln Park homeowner Valerie Simpson, whose home has been flooded five times in 18 months. Simpson was barred from questioning Governor Christie on Friday.


Lack of trust


"Everybody who comes into office talks about long-term solutions, and they leave office with nothing fixed," Simpson said. "I have no trust in government."


Why do Editors Francis Scandale, Deirdre Sykes, Alfred P. Doblin and others  leave it to a homeowner to pinpoint the massive failure of government in fixing our flooding problems?


Why did the paper publish a second major piece praising Christie's actions to keep state residents out of harm's way before Irene hit (A-3)? 


That's his job as governor, not going on vacation, as he did during last December's blizzard.


Here is the reaction of Allison Shuster Shea, who read that story on northjersey.com:

"Where is his pledge for smaller governement? where are the cuts? Where is the rugged individualism? What does he say about $260,000 per yr Republican Sheriffs and $180,000 Republican Police chiefs? Now he's begging for FEMA money,,, will he then reject the money because there are no audits in place or the State may have to pay for overruns? When will the press report that he is a naitional hypocrite and a disgraceful moral leader and Dems and Republicans now despise this fool, but the press sucks up to him since they are caught in his vortex and cant get out."

Why isn't the paper talking about how Christie snatched $3 billion-plus from the short-circuited Hudson River rail tunnels to improve roads, bridges and mass transit, so he can't be blamed for raising the low gasoline tax?


How many homes and businesses in flood plains could $3 billion buy and demolish?


In fact, what's keeping the editors from coming down hard on Christie and other conservative, tax-averse Republicans here and in Congress for paralyzing our system of raising revenue for major programs?


Sloppy, sloppy


Today's Page 1 story on the Shore repeats Saturday's error of confusing Point Pleasant Beach and its boardwalk with a separate community, the borough of Point Pleasant. 


"Point Pleasant Beach" appears once in the text on A-10, but all other references are to "Point Pleasant."


In an L-3 round-up on the clean-up effort by Staff Writer John Brennan, it's Spruce Street that goes by the Great Falls in Paterson, not Spruce Avenue.


I rarely read to the end of Mike Kelly's columns, but today he actually publishes a correction of a real boner, using "succeed" instead of "secede" in his ramblings last Sunday (O-4). 


He admits to being a "terrible speller," but what excuse does Liz Houlton's news copy desk have? Maybe the copy editors can't stand to read his tortured prose, either.


Trumps and Borgs


The Business cover story on Donald Trump today carries a one-word-headline, "TRUMP," and refers to him as "The Donald." Why do editors and reporters gravitate to such morons and glorify them?


Donald Trump would be nothing without his father, just as in a much smaller way, Publisher Stephen A. Borg would be nothing without his father, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, who apparently has been pushed aside in his son's greedy bid for grandeur.


Blog critics


I've been receiving comments from Eye on The Record readers who don't like my use of the editors' names when I discuss the failings of the Woodland Park daily. 

I can understand their concern. In their journalism careers, the editors have never before been held accountable by anyone, including the public.


It's clear the rich, spoiled Borg siblings don't read the paper or care what is in it. They have granted free reign to Scandale, Sykes, Doblin, Houlton and other editors.


If Sykes and her assistant assignment editors haven't had a good story idea for years, no one notices and no one cares. If they pamper their favorites and treat others in the newsroom like shit, no one notices and no one cares.


If they run the laziest local-news assignment desk in the Northern, Southern and Western Hemispheres, no one notices and no one cares. 


If Scandale's news judgment has been flawed for more than a decade, no one notices and no one cares.


Until now.

More strikes against home rule

Image by U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast Region via Flickr

The Great Swamp really was swamped by Hurricane Irene.

Today's editorial blames "civilization" -- not all those poorly run North Jersey towns desperate for ratables -- for repeated flooding that crested with the destruction of Hurricane Irene.


The editorial on Page A-20 of The Record of Woodland Park says:


"Environmentalists and state environmental officials have spent years shouting into the void that paving over flood plains, building houses in flood plains and generally ceding common sense to the lure of commercial development is about as wrong a move as civilization can make."


Of course, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin knows the shouting should have been at all those petty officials who hammer homeowners with high property taxes to run their expensive, inefficient home-rule towns, so why doesn't he say so?


Power plays


And how many businesses and homeowners have to lose power and sustain millions of dollars in damages before building officials insist that any new wires be installed underground, and that utilities begin to take down poles and put wires out of harm's way (A-1)?


Why do readers need an A-1 news story on the reopening of roads and a Road Warrior column on the same subject (Local front)?


In the second story marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11, what's the big deal about the rate of volunteerism falling from 28.8% in 2005 to 26.3% in 2010, and why did Editor Francis Scandale put the story on Page 1?


The only good thing about the piece by Staff Writer Harvy Lipman is the non-profit reporter's byline has been appearing more than once a week lately.


Why does Doblin's A-21 column on President Obama carry a headline with a really unfortunate double entendre: "Can you come later?"


Office-driven coverage


Four days after gawkers invaded some flooded Bergen County neighborhoods to make light of homeowners' misery, a story appears on the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section.


Apparently, no reporters or photographers visited those same neighborhoods until Thursday -- cementing the assignment desk's reputation as the laziest in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.


With all the news generated by the hurricane, tropical storm or whatever it was, it's a wonder Sykes found room on L-2 today for a photo and caption updating readers on telephone-pole news.


On L-3, a story and photo caption don't tell readers a police officer rescued the the driver from his smoking tanker truck until the fourth paragraph.


Stale review

In Better Living, the mouth-watering photos on the cover and Pages 16-17 deliver more than Gregory T's, an upscale diner in Emerson, where the "tough" prime rib "bore a grayish pallor," tortilla chips were stale and the crab cakes hid tiny pieces of shell.


Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung delivers the kiss of death with a 2-star rating -- what she gives to a mediocre chain restaurant.


The features copy editor also lost his way in writing the caption for three food photos in the centerfold, describing the photo on the left  as "far left."

Same old flood photos are 'good enough'

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A road in Illinois during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927.

Waters hit 100-year high

That dramatic headline on Page 1 of The Record today doesn't get much support from the same old photos Editor Francis Scandale has been running since flooding from Irene began on Sunday.

How many boats, dinghies and other rescue conveyances can readers take before their eyes glaze over (A-1)?

Flooding may have reached a 100-year high, but you can't say the same thing for the journalism practiced at the Woodland Park daily by Scandale, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and others.

Last night, I saw images on the TV news that took my breath away -- all of downtown Paterson under water, shot from a helicopter. I was looking for them in The Record today.

'Good enough'

Publisher Stephen A. Borg doesn't believe in renting a helicopter to provide readers with dramatic photos he claims they are going to look at for only "a few seconds."

The same old boats, dinghies and flooded streets are "good enough," according to his philosophy.

And everyone knows Borg needs the money to pay his $9,300-a-month company mortgage and annual property taxes of $73,000 on his $3.65 million mansion on Churchill Road in Tenafly.

Anyway, we're talking about Paterson, one of the poorest communities in North Jersey and the city Scandale loves to portray as a center for drugs and prostitution.

City is a prison

Take a look at the lead paragraph in the main flooding story on A-1. Paterson is described as "a city in virtual lockdown."

"Lockdown" is used most often to describe what authorities do when prison inmates riot. Or, they lock down a neighborhood when a gunman is holding hostages or an airport when terrorism is feared.

Why is "lockdown" being used to describe Paterson, when all that should be conveyed is that flood waters are blocking access to downtown? 


And I still haven't seen a photo of the magnificent, flood-swollen Great Falls. Scandale seems determined to ban any positive images of Silk City.

I guess Scandale also put Governor Christie's tour of Wayne and other communities on A-1, because the state's chief executive escaped stoning by flood-weary residents.


The story doesn't say why Christie bypassed Paterson, which was hardest hit.

Same old column

In Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski adds a twist to make a stale column on MVC offices seem fresh, but the layout editors are so sick of him, they demoted the piece to L-3.

The perennial flooding and closure of Willowbrook Mall in Wayne have been reported matter of factly amid a rumor the original builder skimped on the size of sewers to save money.

The real story: Failure of government

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Today, a columnist praises Governor Christie for not going to Disney World.

Editors Francis Scandale and Deirdre Sykes had staffers at The Record knocking themselves out covering the aftermath of Hurricane Irene, yet all but one of them missed the real story.

The weekend storm exposed state and local governments' failure to fund a long-term solution to flooding or pay for the routine maintenance of roads, trains and even catch basins.

I've been quick to criticize Road Warrior John Cichowski for inaccurate reporting and advice -- and for neglecting his commuting beat -- but today, he's the only reporter to pinpoint the real legacy of Irene and all the other storms we've weathered (L-1).

You have to plow through Cichowski's florid writing and his lead paragraph comparing Irene to a World War II "pinup girl" -- an analogy so ridiculous the columnist felt a need to explain immediately who that was.

Enemies of transit

But if you read closely, he runs through the many failures of politicians, including Governor Christie, to expand mass transit and pay for road and rail maintenance.

Christie cancelled the Hudson River rail tunnels, then snatched $1.8 billion in tunnel funds away from the Port Authority to fund New Jersey's Transportation Trust Fund for roads and mass transit -- rather than raise the low gasoline tax.

Does anyone doubt Port Authority toll and fare hikes would have been lower, if the agency still had that $1.8 billion?

Road to ruin

Scandale came to his senses today, following Monday's tits-and-ass photo on Page 1 with a huge, overhead image of a flood-damaged Route 287.

A dramatic photo I don't see in the Woodland Park daily today would be the Great Falls in Paterson, swelled by Passaic River flood waters, with both a rainbow and an American flag highlighted by the sun.

In contrast to Cichowski, Political Stile Columnist Charles Stile delivers a vigorous blow job, praising Christie for not making a second, ill-timed visit to Disney World and for helping state residents get through the storm (A-9).

Also on A-9, a photo caption inexplicably has the borough of Oakland "knocked off its foundation by Ramapo River flooding and later deemed unsafe."

It's Liz Houlton's news copy desk that's unsafe and should be condemned.

Tunnel vision

The editorial on Irene gives state and local officials a pass (A-10) and ends lamely: "Hurricanes come and go. The water remains." 

So does Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin's view from a toilet seat.

You might recall The Record editorial opposing a tunnel that would safely funnel flood waters to Newark Bay, because it "would cost too much."

On the front of Better Living, Staff Writer Sachi Fujimori makes a game attempt to dissect Middle Eastern cuisines, but ignores history and geography in saying the food in Syria is "much like Lebanese food."

The two countries once were one, called Syria, ruled first by Ottoman Turks, then by the French.

From newspaper to fuel paper

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Tulane University in New Orleans.

Now that The Old Man is out of the way, the greedy Borg siblings are looking for the big score -- maybe abandoning journalism altogether.


Selling land for a Walmart on River Street in Hackensack is peanuts. 


Wait until Publisher Stephen A. Borg learns about new research showing how recycled newspapers can be turned into a biofuel that could replace gasoline.


Here is a link to an article by Tulane University in New Orleans:


Cars could run on recycled newspapers


Mexicans live here, too


North Jersey has a large Mexican-American population, especially in the city of Passaic, so the story at the bottom of Page 1 today makes you wonder if any of their relatives died in the horrific casino arson in Monterrey, Mexico, or in the war against the drug cartels.


At least 52 people died in the fire on Thursday, and two days later, there are no interviews with local Mexican residents in The Record.


I guess Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes had all of their staff reporting on preparations for Hurricane Irene.


Just what we need


This isn't exactly a propitious time for a new outdoor recreation store in Paramus, but The Record's Business editors can turn even such bad timing into a hugely promotional story (A-10).


Is the story payback for ads that ran at the bottom of Page 1 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and on all of A-9 today? 


Maybe, the editors ran the story because today's full-page ad omits the new store's address.