Less than earth-shaking news

Image by °Florian via Flickr

Map shows the epicenter of Tuesday's earthquake in Virginia.

I didn't feel the earthquake on Tuesday -- nor was I moved by the nearly three pages of coverage in The Record today. 


Editor Francis Scandale had more than 30 newsroom staffers -- including a photographer, a graphic artist, and an unknown number of assignment and copy editors -- working on the story, supplemented by The Associated Press.


The Record did manage to come up with one of the best quotes I heard on any media, the one from Bloomingdale's shopper Cheryl Alexander: "The mannequins were definitely moving .... I actually thought they were coming to life."


Staff infection


But two of the photos used -- of people standing around outside courthouses in Hackensack and Manhattan (A-1 and A-8) -- seemed redundant, and the long AP story on why the quake was felt from Georgia to Canada never actually answers the question.


Liz Houlton's news copy desk couldn't resist the cliche "shaken, not stirred" in the headline for a staff-written story on how the quake affected Washington, D.C.


Staff Writer Scott Fallon managed to find a seismograph near the Woodland Park newsroom (A-9). And I got a kick out of the tweet reporting "there's an earthquake in Hackensack ... so freaked out."


Of course, that was the second quake to hit Hackensack, the first coming when North Jersey Media Group and The Record pulled up stakes, leaving Main Street merchants high and dry, and depriving city residents of local news. 


The aftershock will be the demolition of that huge pile of bricks at 150 River St. to make way for a Walmart.


It so appropriate for the greedy Borg family that capitalism will trump journalism.


Road kill


The sad state of local news continues today with a story on the naming rights for the New Meadowlands Stadium on the front of Local.


In his L-1 column today, Road Warrior John Cichowski shoots himself in the foot and shows just how out of touch he is with commuting when he poses this question:


"Other than car-pooling, what are the options for avoiding" the Port Authority's Hudson River toll hikes?


The arrogant, office-bound columnist then answers his own question:


"How's your backstroke?" 


He goes on to mention swimming, taking a ferry, using PATH, driving out of the way to use the Tappan Zee Bridge or walking or bicycling across the GWB.


But the moron completely ignores NJ Transit trains and express buses that carry thousands of North Jersey commuters to Manhattan every day.


Who is to blame?


Karen Rouse, the transportation reporter I criticized on Tuesday, isn't fully to blame for the lack of meaningful reporting on mass transit. 


Most of the blame rests on Editor Deirdre Sykes' assignment desk, the laziest in North America, South America, the Caribbean and Antarctica.


When Rouse came to The Record several years ago, I read her brief bio, saw her photo on the bulletin board and introduced myself.


She had studied Spanish in Peru and had been assigned to the transportation beat, so I suggested she take NJ Transit's No. 780 bus from Hackensack to Passaic for lunch at one of that city's Peruvian restaurants.


In the process, she could develop a transportation story to answer this question: Why are the largely minority riders of local routes such as the 780 forced to rely on rickety, decades-old buses that are long overdue for replacement?


Rouse never took the bus to Passaic, and several weeks later explained her assignment editor wouldn't allow her to leave the building unless he was certain she would come back with a story.


"Nothing ventured, nothing gained" seems to be the motto of this dysfunctional news organization.

Tits and ass on Page 1 -- yes, really

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If you doubt Record Staff Writer John Brennan is in the pockets of Jets and Giants owners, just look at today's highly promotional, gee-whiz, Page 1 coverage of  technology at the New Meadowlands Stadium. The story isn't labeled advertising, but it reads exactly like the best public relations money can buy.

To make his case that the stadium is the "most technologically advanced ... in the world," Brennan has to attribute that boast to Giants co-owner John Mara. Still, the reporter is so inept, his lead paragraph is poorly constructed, with the attribution in the wrong place. You'd think Brennan is getting season tickets in return for gushing stories about the new venue.

Why doesn't he write about the sacrifices many Giants fan have to make to pay for exorbitant seat licenses, parking passes and $19 steak sandwiches? 


Instead, Brennan's breathless story in the Woodland Park daily is aimed at season ticket holders who like to stare at busty cheerleaders, informing these fans -- with a wink of an eye -- that for $259, they can access a "cheerleader cam ...yes, really." He's a hack -- yes, really.


Will Editor Francis "Frank The Castrato" Scandale come to his senses, and stop running this promotional garbage on A-1? It's doubtful. 

The debate over teenage drivers' license tags is back on Page 1 today, but if predators will use tags to identify their victims, as opponents claim, what did these perverts do without license-plate tags in all the decades girls were snatched and killed in North Jersey?


An editorial on Page A-10 opposes making all NJ Transit train and bus riders pay for parking near stations and stops, but doesn't address why some commuters have had to pay and others have parked for free. There's also no mention of how Governor Christie's cuts have forced the transit agency to raise more revenue from its parking lots.

This editorial stance only reminds you of what a piss-poor job lazy transportation reporters Tom Davis and Karen Rouse, and Road Warrior John Cichowski are doing covering mass transit now. They should plant their asses -- not in front of their computers for hours at a time -- but in buses or trains to see how the other half lives.


In Local, Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado provides readers with an update on a proposal for a 19-story, acute-care hospital, but the first paragraph must be in in error by saying it would be built "at Summit and Prospect avenues," which don't intersect (more sloppy copy editing).


Homes would be demolished, and hundreds of residents have attended hearings, but this Hackensack plan hasn't gotten anywhere near the gobs of coverage devoted to opponents of The Valley Hospital expansion in Ridgewood, though no homes or land would be taken there.

I guess head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes is pulling the strings of Alvarado and the reporters on the Ridgewood hospital-expansion controversy. 

Alvarado's last story on the Hackensack proposal appeared nearly a year ago. A brief, it reported the original height of the hospital was 24 stories.

"Castrato" fires another blank

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If Frank "Castrato" Scandale wants to devote half of the front page to the first football game at the new Meadowlands stadium, no one can dissuade The Record's high-fiving, ass-slapping, jock-itching editor, who feels more comfortable in a locker room than in a newsroom. His mantra: "Business of sports. It's not sports, it's the business of sports."


But there's other business he doesn't attend to, not the least of which is finding a reporter who is at the top of his game and worthy of front-page play. Staff Writer John Brennan isn't that reporter, as he's shown so many times in the past, and as he demonstrates today with his clunky story on long-suffering Jets fans finally coming home to a venue with the team's name on it. 


Look at this veteran reporter's pedestrian lead paragraph, where he compares the fans to tenants in a building. Instead of hooking readers, this lead sends them packing. It doesn't even make sense:

"Jets fans have never been the primary tenant in any building where they've played in their 50-year history."

It's the team -- not the fans -- who are the so-called tenants. Who does "they've played" refer to? Fans don't play, the team does. This Brennan buffoon is referred to as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in his new sports business blog. What a smear on the Pulitzer Prizes. This guy gets the Palooka Prize.
 
The rest of his story is mostly one cliche after another, including, "The rain didn't seem to dampen [a fan's] mood." Try as he might, Brennan can't capture the excitement of the event. And the A-1 photo tells readers what he withholds: This preseason game was far from a sell-out.

It's one thing to obsessively talk up your stories in the newsroom, as Brennan does, but if you're going to fall for his bullshit, as Scandale does, at least have some great backup editing. None is evident here.


Scandale was castrated by head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes -- a lifer who has survived attempts to get her out of the way -- and later by Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who made wholesale changes in editorial coverage, while repudiating Scandale's coverage of 20-year-olds. All the editor has got left is the front page, and what a mess he is making of it.

 But I guess readers should be thankful for some real news on A-1 today. New Jersey political leaders deserve praise for trying to de-politicize the debate over the Islamic cultural center and mosque near Ground Zero, but Governor Christie's steamroller hasn't reformed the state's many authorities, boards and commissions. 

The lead story in Local is Teaneck officials' proposal to combine Police and Fire Departments, with a projected savings of $250,000. Why didn't Sykes ask the Hackensack and Englewood reporters to get reaction from officials in their cities, which also have professional fire departments and are similar to Teaneck demographically?

Of course, there is no municipal news of Englewood or Hackensack today, but you'll find an expanded obituary on Gene Hacker, the camera shop owner (L-6). Road Warrior John Cichowski squanders another column today, this one on roadside litter, as he ignores his mission of writing about the woes of commuters once again.