Journalism waters are getting murkier

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Michael Jackson's July 2009 death certificate.

Who is more disappointed in Governor Christie's continued denial of White House ambitions?


Is it the fat-cat donors he addressed at the Reagan Library on Tuesday or Editor Francis Scandale, who pulls out all the stops on Page 1 of The Record today to make the GOP bully look presidential?

Candidate in looks only 

That Christie headline reminds me of this: "Newspaper in looks only." 

One example is the A-1 caption under the flag-waving Christie photo, noting he spoke to "supporters that want him to run for president," rather than the grammatical "supporters who want him to run ...." 


Big Christie fan

You can't tell whether the reporter, Juliet Fletcher of the State House Bureau (a former Trenton reporter for The Press of Atlantic City), works for a newspaper or the Christie administration. Here's her lead paragraph:

"Governor Christie, himself the center of a fever pitch of presidential hype, delivered his version of American leadership Tuesday before a well-heeled conservative crowd at the home of one of the most powerful Republican symbols."

Boy, that's a lot to digest -- "fever pitch," "leadership" and "powerful" all in one graph. 


What does she mean by the awkward "delivered his version of American leadership"? And the Reagan Library is referred to as a "home."


Isn't the "fever pitch of presidential hype" manufactured by The Record and other media?

At the end of her second graph, she writes: "His out-of-state fund-raising tour this week helped push the Christie-for-president rumors to their greatest heights so far."

How high would that be? As high as 1 Garret Mountain Plaza in Woodland Park? As high as the new World Trade Center, being built with some of the toll hikes the governor approved recently?

In a video on northjersey.com, Christie becomes the latest Republican to blame President Obama for the "class warfare" the GOP has been waging on unions and the middle class in a concerted effort to preserve low tax rates for the rich.


Water everywhere

The A-1 off-lead today is a story reporting three more salaried Paterson officials -- for a total of seven -- got overtime checks after Irene's floods.

Editor Deirdre Sykes' assignment desk has been reporting these revelations in dribs and drabs, like a difficult bowel movement. Is that deliberate -- in an effort to keep the story on Page 1 -- or is the desk just lazy and incompetent?

The lead paragraph notes "the political water surrounding Mayor Jeffrey Jones got rougher Tuesday night ...."

Flood waters and "political water." That's the height of Woodland Park journalism today. Shouldn't it be "waters"? Why not try "political urine" while you're at it? That would be a real pisser.


Black men are bad

I guess it's just coincidence today's front page features at least three black men who are in trouble -- Mayor Jones of Paterson; George Wright, a convicted killer from New Jersey captured in Portugal; and Dr. Conrad Murphy, on trial in Michael Jackson's death -- under a large photo of Christie as the Great White Hope. LOL.


Scandale's clumsy manipulation of the news is so apparent, it's an insult to readers. Again today, the paper is black, white and red all over.


On A-3 today, a story reports AAA is suing "to stop recent toll hikes on Hudson River crossings." How do you "stop" toll hikes that went into effect 10 days ago?


Unsuitable headline


A story on a lawsuit filed by 587 employees against Nextel is called "Nextel suit" in the headline on A-6 today -- about as wrong as Liz Houlton's news copy desk can get it.

There is so little local news in Sykes' Local section today, a business seminar on the 2014 Meadowlands Super Bowl was needed to plug a hole on the front (L-1).


Too lazy to report on commuting problems, Road Warrior John Cichowski writes his umpteenth L-1 column on tailgaters. 


Cichowski's major flaw as a reporter is looking to readers for column ideas, instead of doing basic legwork and trusting his instincts as a journalist.


Instead of Hackensack news, city residents are given a full-blown story on another routine motion in the criminal case against suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa.


Second look


One of Sykes' assignment minions apparently has barred transportation reporter Karen Rouse from reporting complaints from commuters about having to stand on rush-hour buses and trains into the city or being forced to ride decrepit local buses that are 30 years old.


On Tuesday, Rouse did report on a complaint from a bus rider, but only because his foot was run over by a bus and he lost several toes (L-3).

Avoiding the real stories

Image by Here in Van Nuys via Flickr

The Record of Woodland Park today is another exercise in avoiding real stories while pandering to sports fans and giving more precious space to a publicity hungry rabbi who gives a bad name to me and other Orthodox Jews.

The desperate, incompetent editors often have no choice, because they stopped inspiring their reporters long ago. They keep their jobs, because the Borgs -- Malcolm, Stephen and Jennifer -- ignore the paper's precipitous decline while they pursue their selfish interests, including a wine bar in Englewood and stopping the expansion of a synagogue on the East Hill street where the elder Borg lives.

The Record sent a reporter and photographer to Indianapolis to cover Sunday's football game, but apparently they could find only one Jets fan and a few former North Jersey residents. But that didn't stop the paper from devoting most of the front page to this inanity. I hope reporter John Brennan will like Indiana so much, he won't come back.

I'm with Kathleen M. DuHaime of Westwood, whose letter to the editor appears today on Page A-11. She noted Page 1 coverage of the Jets victory Jan. 18 "struck a jarring note." She added:

"While the whole world's attention is focused on the disaster in Haiti and the deaths and suffering of thousands of people, The Record, once again, chooses to give precedence to a sports event. May I suggest you 'gotta believe' that world events of this magnitude are far more important than a football game."

 Although part of an inside page is devoted to the humanitarian crisis today, The Record appears to be slowly returning to the time when U.S. media simply ignored the Haitian people.

Naive Englewood reporter Giovanna Fabiano continues to turn her back on that city's segregated elementary and middle schools, its downtown traffic congestion and its Jamaican community, but she found time to be exploited by a publicity hungry rabbi, no doubt encouraged by head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Laughs A Lot" Sykes, who is desperate for local news. Fabiano's and Sykes' "bullshit meters" both need tune-ups. Where is Editor Frank Scandale, swimming with the fishes?

In August, Fabiano wrote seven stories about Englewood (photo) -- five of them about the rabbi's attempt to stop the Libyan leader from staying at his country's estate. Has the reporter ever asked the rabbi why -- 11 years ago -- he bought the Palisade Avenue mansion next door if he hates the Libyans so much? Not long after the news coverage, a flattering article about the rabbi's new book on Michael Jackson appeared in Better Living.

Maybe the rabbi, Shmuley Boteach, could switch mansions with the elder Borg, chairman of North Jersey Media Group. Then the rabbi could simply stroll down Walnut Street to the synagogue, and Borg and his wife could invite the Libyans over for dinner. That would end two "controversies" in one stroke.

In today's story, which runs on the front of the Local section with a big photo of the rabbi, the reporter seems to be trying to justify more coverage of this man's selfish quest to get rid of the Libyans by saying -- falsely -- that the East Hill estate has been "the center of controversy for decades." That's nonsense. She also gets the month wrong for the flap over Moammar Gadhafi coming to Englewood.

Sykes and Fabiano's assignment editor should be ashamed of  foisting this sham story on readers. Of course, when you have no real news from Hackensack, Englewood and many other Bergen County towns, you have to print any crap you can find.

That's something we have been seeing almost every day since The Record moved its headquarters and hundred of employees out of Hackensack last year, abandoning the city where it was founded in 1895 and where it prospered for more than 110 years.

More inside stuff from JerryD

Jerry DeMarco, the former assistant assignment editor at The Record who is the moving force behind cliffviewpilot.com, had a lot to say about my "Eye on The Record" post Thursday on Englewood coverage and the Borg family, "A lot of paper to recycle." He refers to The Record as "the Wreck It," though I prefer "The Wretched," which works on a couple of levels. "OxyGen" and "OJ" apparently refer to Jennifer A. Borg, Daddy's little girl, who grew up to take the cushy job of  vice president and general counsel at North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record and Herald News.

To read his comments, click on "1 COMMENTS" at the end of the post from Thursday, "A lot of paper to recycle, 11/26/09," or on the following link:

http://eyeontherecord.blogspot.com/2009/11/lot-of-paper-to-recycle-112609.html#comments


This will also give you the opportunity to react to his broadside.