Taking more breaks from news, accuracy

The Record continues to neglect Hackensack news. (Photo credit: Dougtone)

Didn't we read today's Page 1 story about New Jersey immigrants "bracing for another holiday season away from family" last year and the year before?

Why is The Record running a front-page photo of Santa Claus giving gifts in hurricane-ravaged Moonachie, with no reference to A-3, where readers find another Santa doing the same in South Seaside Park?

Does a story about American flags at the 9/11 Memorial really belong on the front page, even on a slow-news day like today?


Error-prone editor


On that story's continuation page, Production Editor Liz Houlton clueless layout and copy editors screwed up two photos of the 9/11 Memorial in Manhattan (A-4).

The two photos were supposed to appear side by side, but were stacked on top of each other. Still, the caption refers to a "left" photo and a "right" photo.

On A-6, a photo caption contains the awkward phrase: " ... for relatives in [Colombia] at El Rinconcito in Hackensack."

The caption also misspells the country of Colombia as "Columbia." 

Back to school?

Apparently, Houlton and none of the copy editors attended the well-respected journalism school in Columbia, Mo., where the first lesson was "accuracy, accuracy, accuracy."

Below that on A-6, a caption says "onlookers, left, viewing the membrane filtration plant," but no building is visible in that photo. 

On A-8, the Business page, the words "Chinese food" inexplicably appear over a graphic on the march of crappy American fast food across China. 

I don't think we're going to see a McBroccoli sandwich anytime soon.

Environment hits back 

Superstorm Sandy and the freak snowstorm two days before Halloween in 2011 show the environment is striking back against all the human abuse it has sustained in recent decades. 

Yet, lazy head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, actually quote lazy shoppers who refuse to buy reusable bags and help the environment (A-1 and L-1).

And in a photo caption, Houlton's moronic copy editors describes one responsible shopper's reusable bag as a "tote" bag (L-1).

Plastic-bag fees have been common in Europe for years. 

 Car-crash photos

On L-2, four beautiful photos from a reader, Judith Kopitar of Hawthorne, are a welcome break from all the non-fatal accident photos Sykes and Sforza run to fill space in the Local news section.

An L-6 story on the retirement of the overpaid Fort Lee police chief -- who got $210, 437 this year -- only serves to remind readers Sykes and Sforza never bothered to ask Governor Christie an important question:

Why did the GOP bully cap school superintendents' salaries at $175,000, but left his law-enforcement pals still living high on the hog.

The story doesn't say how many sick days he'll be cashing in or what his pension will be, but you can assume it will be huge.

Can you imagine how many donuts the ex-chief's pension will buy?

 

More space for the dead than the living

Drivers crawling along Route 46, above, and Route 80 on Friday night wonder why The Record pays so little attention to the problems of North Jersey commuters.

Readers aren't the only ones who have noticed how little local news appears in The Record -- thanks to the apparent disinterest of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza.

The paper's own employees decided to give today's Local section more pages for death notices and advertising (5) than for news, feature stories and photos (3).

Readers looking for municipal news in those 3 pages will be disappointed.

Sands of Sandy

The lead story reports on how resourceful local officials were in communicating with residents during Superstorm Sandy, but doesn't explain why Sykes and Sforza needed nearly six weeks to present this dated information (L-1).

On L-3, readers will find big news from Moonachie -- "purchases are being made to replace equipment lost during the storm," according to the breathless first paragraph.

Stealth correction

Also on L-3, a follow-up on a fatal head-on collision on the New Jersey Turnpike corrects a major error in the original story overlooked by Production Editor Liz Houlton -- the time the accident occurred.

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski does another masterful job of assembling readers' anecdotes, sent in by e-mail, on the compelling issue of finding a parking space at the mall during the holidays (L-1).

Seeing this, readers stuck in monumental traffic jams on Friday night, and those who fought for seats on trains and buses leaving Manhattan, began tearing their hair out over how little attention Cichowski pays to his mission of reporting on commuting problems.

Sleeping editors

Sykes and Sforza are Cichowski's bosses, and they apparently endorse his almost total reliance on reader e-mails for column ideas and ignore all of the errors that appear in his work. 

Assembling reader e-mails into a column is a job a news clerk could do as well for tens of thousands of dollars less each year.

Siding with police

Sykes and Sforza also are treating the Nov. 25 death of robbery suspect Rickey McFadden, 47, of Leonia as just another black man killed by police officers.

Readers, including those who wrote letters to the editor, have yet to see an explanation of why the three cops who fired 17 times at the mentally unstable McFadden didn't use non-fatal rubber bullets or less force.

Or why two officers from Palisades Park had to help Leonia cops respond to the robbery report.

Another dull Sunday 

Today's front page has readers wondering what Editor Marty Gottlieb learned during all the years he spent with The New York Times in New York and Paris.

The top of the page is dominated by two more installments in the flood of Sandy recovery stories.

A third A-1 story and a column amount to little more than speculative political pieces guaranteed to alienate readers sick and tired of how the media exploits the partisan divide in New Jersey and the nation.

And the middle of the front page carries a photo from some high school football playoff that is of absolutely no interest to the vast majority of readers.

If  there are more obituaries in Local than news about the living, why make Page 1 so deadly dull? 

More life and death

In Better Living, contrast the cover story on the health benefits of a wheat-free diet and Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's continued celebration of artery clogging desserts (The Corner Table column). 

Ignoring the advice of cardiologists, Ung traveled to the boondocks (Warren County) to promote the Ryland Inn's $2 million renovation and $12 serving of Skippy Peanut Butter, Valhrona Chocolate and ice cream (BL-3).



A note on the Opinion front tells readers Columnist Mike Kelly continues to recover from a heart attack.

His few fans can look forward to his eventual return and column after column about how a seemingly healthy man flirted with death.

Or he could retire. Which do you prefer? 
    

Editors are learning to walk before they can run

Hackensack residents are awaiting a story reporting the cost of fixing the roof of the Engine 5 firehouse on Main Street. That's Hackensack, not New Mexico.

With overall pedestrian injuries down in Bergen and Passaic counties, as well as in the state, it's hard to understand why the editors and their so-called commuting columnist are devoting so much space to the issue, including today's Page 1 takeout.

They continue to ignore much bigger issues -- from all of the maniacs on the road to paralyzing rush-hour traffic jams to challenges facing older drivers to Governor Christie's lack of commitment to mass transit.

Many of those pedestrians can't afford to own cars, but has Road Warrior John Cichowski or any other transportation reporter ever assessed the quality of local bus service?

It's a puzzle why Cichowski and his boss, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, identify so strongly with pedestrians, the subject of numerous Road Warrior columns in recent years.

The former abhors the legwork any good reporter must do and the latter can barely move under her own power.

Did they or didn't they?

Another front-page story today -- this one on whether two Catholic high school employees can be charged in Bergen County for allegedly having sex with students on a trip to Germany -- appears to convict them in the sub-headline:

Can pair be tried for

sex with girls overseas?

A letter to the editor on A-14 today reports one commuter's experience with aggressive drivers that seems to escape the notice of the Road Warrior and everyone else at the paper, including Editor Marty Gottlieb, until someone is killed.

Holes in their heads

There is so little local news today, Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza had to plug a hole with two long wire-service obituaries, and an 8-paragraph story on a firehouse-roof repair contract in Moonachie (L-6).

Readers can only be thankful they haven't been burdened by stories on firehouse-roof repairs from the 90 or so towns in the circulation area. 

Hackensack alone has at least three firehouses with roofs that may have needed repair.

Ignoring Main Street

Also on L-6 today, a 7-paragraph story reports Hackensack has launched a Web site so residents can monitor the progress of Main Street rehabilitation.

The Record pretty much ignored Main Street before it moved out of Hackensack in 2009, and continued to ignore it from the Woodland Park newsroom.

Printing of The Record and Herald News was moved out of the city a few years before that.

North Jersey Media Group and its flagship paper pulled out hundreds of employees, but the editors  have never reported the fallout.

Nor has Publisher Stephen A. Borg kept city residents informed about what will happen to The Record's landmark building and 20 acres along River Street.

A photo caption on the Better Living front today says singer Katy Perry is shown "in action onstage," but it certainly doesn't look anything like that (BL-1).