Shopping story trumps black man's death

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Is there really any connection between a mega-mall in Minnesota and the American Dream Meadowlands in North Jersey except in the minds of The Record's editors?

The Record's lazy assignment desk hasn't bothered to answer several questions surrounding the death of African-American Malik Williams, 19, including why a man "armed with tools" was shot five times by two police officers on Dec. 10.


So, it's no surprise 30 demonstrators joined his mother in a protest march Friday evening, on the same day coverage of Williams' funeral was the main element on the front page of the Woodland Park daily.


But do readers find the protest on Page 1 today? No. Shopping is more important.


Thanks to interim Editor Douglas Clancy and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, they get an ill-conceived story that tries to gauge the potential success of an enormous shopping and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands -- just across the river from New York  City, one of the world's biggest markets -- by sending a reporter and photographer to the middle of nowhere.


Night and day


I worked in the same newsroom with Staff Writer John Brennan and Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin, and can't imagine what they talked about on this silly assignment to the Mall of America in Minnesota.


Like me, I'm sure many readers didn't get past the front page of Brennan's long-winded story, but the news copy desk appears to have screwed up the time element in the A-1 caption. 


The reporter said he visited the mall "last week" and "last weekend," but the caption says the photos are "scenes from the Mall of America ... on the next-to-last weekend before Christmas."  Shouldn't that be the "last weekend" before Christmas, which is tomorrow?


What a waste of time, money and space -- as the editors force the news staff to scrape and bow before a potentially huge advertiser.


Gunning for drunks


Why is a Port Authority police officer shown in a front-page photo today armed with a shotgun while looking for "drunks and dangerous drivers" on the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel?


Along with the protest over the police shooting of Williams, the front of Local today reports the parents of a 9-year-old boy fatally injured by a car will donate his organs "as living memorials to him."


But the editors continue to ignore the challenges facing older drivers, and why their vision and driving skills aren't re-tested periodically. 


The boy was killed by a 79-year-old man who apparently didn't see him, but was charged only with failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.


Another fatal accident involving an elderly driver is reported matter of factly by the assignment desk, with no attempt to explore possible changes in the law that would hold such a driver criminally responsible for the death.

Day of the Dead in the newsroom

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Desperate editors had to fill The Record of Woodland Park today with a massively dead proposal for the Meadowlands and five expanded obituaries for the dearly departed. And I thought the Mexican holiday called Day of the Dead wasn't until November.


How does Staff Writer John Brennan sucker the editors into putting his ridiculous speculation on Page 1? Apparently, they are as hungry as he is for any story, whether grounded in fact or not. Today, he raises from the dead a builder's 2002 proposal for a mini-city in the Meadowlands -- including 5 million square feet of housing -- and suggests it might be revived to get the stalled Xanadu project going.

But how accurate is the story? In the first few words, Brennan errs by placing the Mall of America in Minneapolis (it's in Bloomington, a suburb). If he got that wrong, can anything that follows be trusted? And what builder would propose so much housing during the recession?


There was so little local news to publish today, editors scrambled for filler. On the front of Local, Staff Writer Jay Levin's obituary for Dan Resin, a minor stage and screen actor, seems to run on and on, plus it has three photos. 


That's nothing. Music man Mitch Miller's obit has six photos and covers a good-third of L-6. There are three other expanded obituaries on the same page, which follows the usual two pages of death notices.


Local news? Nothing from Englewood or Teaneck, but Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado has a story on a new school board member. Not counting the school board elections in April, Alvarado hasn't written a single story about Hackensack schools in at least 11 months.


Oh, don't fret. She's just taking orders from head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes, who clucks over reporting chicks such as Alvarado lest they exhaust themselves by reporting and writing too many stories. Don't forget to get your rest now, Monsy.