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| The car-pool lane on the New Jersey Turnpike was full Monday evening, and it moved noticeably faster than the other lanes during the rush hour. |
Flacks for Big Oil or the Big Three automakers couldn't have written a more discouraging article than Monday's Page 1 story by one of the so-called transportation reporters.
Assignment error
Much of this coverage seems to be inspired by Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, who ignored mass transit -- including defective NJ Transit buses -- and wrote about "highways of the future" when he was a transporation reporter.
Readers also are well-acquainted with the Road Warrior's obsession with the MVC and his desperate reliance on drivers' e-mails to put out three columns a week.
The car-pool story dominated a mostly ho-hum front page on Monday, but didn't tell readers how many car-poolers there are in the Garden State, nor list car-pool lanes.
And the editors failed to mention how car-pooling saves the environment and reduces our dependence on foreign oil.
Full car-pool lanes
Even the choice of car-poolers is suspect:
What are these morons doing driving a gas-guzzling BMW sport-utility vehicle? They could save a lot more moola in something really fuel-efficient.
During the rush hour Monday afternoon and evening, the car-pool lanes on the New Jersey Turnpike and Route 280 were full, so there are plenty of other car-poolers to choose from, if the paper wanted to put car-pooling in a good light.
The attitude of Sforza, Editor Marty Gottlieb and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes appears to be that car-pooling and light rail are evil forces that depress gasoline and auto sales, and as crusading journalists, they are going to do their utmost to put a stop to it.
Mike Wallace
Monday's A-1 wire-service obituary of Mike Wallace, the "60 Minutes" newsman with "a fearsome reputation," reminded me of when I covered the federal courthouse in Newark for The Record in the 1980s.
Reporters in the press room got word that Wallace would be taking the stand to testify in a lawsuit against the investigative news show over a story on fast-food franchising.
On the stand, Wallace was nervous under questioning by the plaintiff's attorney -- more nervous than many of the witnesses I had seen during several years of covering state and federal courts.
His demeanor was in stark contrast to his reputation, but showed another side of him few people knew.
Now, look at the editorial cartoon on A-10 today, showing a "gulp" from God when an angel announces, "Mike Wallace is here to see you."
Today's paper
Today's front page is just as boring as Monday's.
If you're going to run a Page 1 story story on wind-whipped fires in North Jersey, why in God's name would you use an A-1 photo of one that was set by children playing with matches?
Another A-1 story -- "Raising the curtain on suburban prostitution" -- doesn't mention the story broke in Harrington Park, where Sykes lives with her husband, Kevin O'Neil, a graphics director who was laid off for unknown reasons several years ago.
Since Gottlieb came over from The New York Times, he seems to have "discovered" that North Jersey's suburbs are filled with the homeless and prostitutes.
Nothing wrong with that -- unless you turn that new-found knowledge into greatly exaggerated front-page stories, as he has been doing.
An A-2 correction today fixes a headline on Saturday that said "Englewood" had installed a red-light camera. It is Englewood Cliffs.
Zisaville news
Cross-examination of a witness who testified against suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa on Monday is all Hackensack readers will find in Local today.
In Better Living, a cover story on the revival of the Three Stooges (F-1) is based on "the kings of lowbrow journalism" at The Record:
Editors Gottlieb, Sykes and Liz Houlton, head of production and supervisor of the error-prone news copy desk.
