Editors run fake and real horse races on the front page

At Newark Liberty International Airport's Terminal C this morning, this departure level was relatively calm. The airport's cellphone lot still is hard to find because there are no signs at airport entrances that direct drivers there. Follow signs for "Rental Car Returns" and "South Area," then you'll see signs directing you to the lot.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Nearly 11 months before the major party conventions and nearly 15 months before the election itself, can anyone predict how close the 2016 presidential contest will be?

Of course not, but that doesn't stop the media from engaging in endless rounds of speculation on the nominees and who worries whom, such as today's Page 1 story in The Record.

Editors and reporters are so bored they have to manufacture a horse race every four years as a way of trying to engage readers whose real interest are the issues that affect their every day life -- such as the environment, gun control, Social Security and Medicare.

The Record's editor, New York Times veteran Martin Gottlieb, and the people running most of the nation's media shy away from exploring important issues, preferring to report extensively on the political conflict that has paralyzed Congress, and given birth to the "sound bite."

More manure

For the only real horse race on the front page today, see the disappointing performance of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, whose wealthy owner lives in Teaneck.

The report from the spa town of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., was written by veteran sports reporter John Rowe, whose newsroom demeanor resembles that of a funeral director.

Gender change

A-1 is dominated today by a sensitive piece on a soldier's gender change from Staff Writer Todd South, the Hackensack reporter who is a veteran of the Afghanistan war.

In a Tweet today, South called the piece on Jennifer Long of Kearny "a story that took a lot of work but was worth it."

That may explain why Hackensack readers haven't seen any stories about the city from him recently, including in today's Local section.

The gender-change story continues on A-12 and A-13 -- totaling nearly two full newspaper pages -- making one wonder how many readers will stay with it to the end. 

Local news?

Readers' eyes continue to roll over the complete breakdown of editing and fact-checking, despite such six-figure newsroom editors as Deirdre Sykes and Liz Houlton.

A typo in the first paragraph of a local obituary for a World War II fighter pilot is so obvious readers wonder how everyone -- assignment editor, news editor, copy editor, copy desk supervisor, page proofer and Houlton or their stand ins -- could possibly have missed it.

"The Battle of the Bulge" is rendered as "The Battle of the Budge."

Opinion section?

The copy of The Record thrown onto my driveway today is missing the Opinion section, which includes the lone Margulies cartoon of the week.

Click on the following link to see the cartoon, one of the few mentions of Governor Christie in today's paper:

California's drought is getting worse ...

Gottlieb bats only .500 on Page 1

A medical building at 5 Summit Ave. is in the running for the ugliest structure in Hackensack, above and below, especially after the ground-floor garage was declared unsafe and fenced off. A resident of Thompson Street complains valet parking attendants take up spaces on the block and endanger children. Now, the garage is being demolished.

The entrance and small lobby are in the middle section, above. The building is crammed into the corner of Summit Avenue and Essex Street, near Hackensack University Medical Center.

The building is open during "regular hrs.," according to a sign on the fence blocking access to the parking garage on the Summit Avenue side.

Marty Gottlieb, the New York Times veteran who took over The Record's newsroom more than a year ago, continues to disappoint with his selection of stories for the Sunday paper, and his mindless obsession with sports. 

Today, two out of four front-page stories don't belong anywhere near Page 1.

The best pieces are staff written -- John C. Ensslin's account of the events leading up to the suicide of the son of Freeholder David Ganz, and Scott Fallon's report on a move to cap pollution at Ford Motor Co.'s dumping ground in Ringwood. 

Not much else

The rest of today's paper is disappointing.

On the front of Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to stray far afield from his commuting beat with a column on the Yellow Dot, a bird that targets the cars of seniors with a shower of droppings (L-1).

A story about the Englewood school board race has Hackensack residents wondering what happened to coverage of the city's school election (L-1).

Half a loaf

On the Better Living cover, is this the first story about the high-quality hot- and cold-food bars at Whole Foods Market since the Paramus store opened four years ago (BL-1)?

On the Opinion front, Mike Kelly asks three rhetorical questions in his first paragraph, completely turning readers off (O-1).


In more than 20 years of writing a column, Kelly still does not get that readers are looking for him to go out on a limb and express strong opinions, not to ask questions.

Second look

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, continue to fall flat on their faces in their struggle to find enough local news.

In Saturday's thin paper, the local-news editors and their minions needed a Dean's List (L-2) and three long wire-service obituaries to fill the Local section (L-5 and L-6).

Readers' eyelids are getting heavier

Image by Amanda Mines via Flickr

Sleeping-pill use among readers of The Record has plummeted, along with readership.

Commentary on The Record of Woodland Park will resume on Monday.

I can't imagine a more sleep-inducing paper than Sunday's edition -- from the lackluster front page to the Local, Business, Better Living, Opinion and Real Estate sections. Quick. What's in Travel today?

Columns by Mike Kelly, Road Warrior John Cichowski, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung and Bill Ervolino are so boring, you can hear the copy editors snoring.

Bottom of the news barrel

Image via Wikipedia

Mass-transit advocates are hoping the No. 7 subway is extended to Secaucus, above.

Most of the front page and almost an entire inside page are taken up today with Staff Writer Andrew Tangel's tangled tale about states putting their public employee pension funds at risk. The main headline -- "Public pensions at risk" -- is one of those the news copy desk keeps on a save/get key and uses every six months or so.

At the bottom of A-1 in The Record of Woodland Park today is a story that shows the paper's public relations machine hard at work, this time praising Governor Christie for slowing the increase in state debt -- without mentioning how he has blown billions in federal education and transportation aid.

Doesn't know ass from elbow

That's supplemented by an editorial (Page O-2) that once again hails Christie's decision to kill the Hudson River rail tunnels and urges extension of the No. 7 subway line to Secaucus. This sounds like it was written by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin, who doesn't seems to know the meaning of a "one-seat ride" (in mass-transit lingo).

The editorial errs in saying the No. 7 would be a "one-seat ride" to the city "for New Jersey commuters." Only a handful of commuters who walk to the Secaucus station would get a one-seat ride. If you drive or take a bus there, it's two seats; if you take the train to Secaucus, it's also two seats. See, each time your ass is in a sitting position, that's one seat.

The rail tunnels Christie killed would have doubled the number of NJ Transit trains and given many thousands of commuters a one-seat ride into Manhattan from rail stations in North Jersey. The chief benefit of extending the No. 7 line would be a direct link to the East Side of Manhattan for the first time.

The paper seems thin today, as if Editor Frank Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes have been scraping the bottom of the news barrel. 

Misnamed column

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung writes a Sunday column in Better Living called "The Corner Table," which sounds like it's supposed to represent the views of customers. But so many of her columns are like today's -- quoting restaurant owners, chefs and others in the food business.

Couldn't she find any restaurant patrons who had wish lists for the holidays or was she just too lazy to look? I guess she thinks her constant belly aching about the quality of desserts she samples for her restaurant reviews is voice enough for consumers.

If she doesn't change the name of her Sunday column,  she risks being known as Ugh, not Ung. 

Selling out the Travel section

Of all the cruise lines, why is Royal Caribbean's seven-night Mediterranean trip featured in the Travel section's Cover Story? Did the cruise line comp Staff Writer Jerry Luciani, who is head of the graphics department? Or are we to believe the newspaper spent nearly $6,000 to send him and his wife on the trip?

Luciani and another male staffer were seen this year on an all-expenses-paid press junket to Mexico City.

Black, Hispanic, and Asian Indian travelers make a rare appearance today on the usually all-white Page T-3, The Record on the Road photo feature.

No news sections today

Eddie Murphy via last.fm

I didn't receive the main news and Local sections with The Record of Woodland Park today, so let's look at Real Estate and the other sections I did get. (Customer service promised delivery of the news sections within two hours.)


In Real Estate, Staff Writer Kathy Lynn reports that in 2007, 143 homes sold for more than $2 million in Bergen County. Of course, one of those was the $3.65 million estate in Tenafly purchased with a company mortgage by Publisher Stephen A. Borg -- only months before layoffs and the departure of many veteran employees.


The greed of some home owners is clear. Eddie Murphy was asking $30 million in 2004 for an Englewood home he bought in 1985 for $3.5 million. (Borg sold the home he bought for $865,000 with his first company mortgage in 1999 for $2 million.) What does Michele Kolsky of  Coldwell Banker in Fort Lee really think of buyers? "All last year, [they] were under a rock." So I guess she is saying they are nothing more than bugs.


Better Living has a recipe for tomatillos as the only food coverage today.


In Opinion, the most interesting reading is in letters to the editor. The paper also found room today to print guidelines for writing letters, without mentioning the volume of readers' letters is so great, letters from employees, including editors, reporters and copy editors, won't be accepted or published.


That policy hasn't really been a problem at The Record because few newsroom employees believe in anything or are willing to go out on a limb to support others employees whose rights have been routinely violated.

No longer a must-read

Image via Wikipedia

It's a pretty sad commentary. My son went out and got our copy of The Record of Woodland Park today. I looked it over briefly, putting the sales circulars, classifieds and Sports section into the recycling bin, then went back to reading my Costco Connection magazine.

After I finished the magazine, I read the former Hackensack daily -- no longer a must-read -- even on a Sunday.

The Page 1 story on the war between Governor Christie and public schools is another in a series in which The Record has portrayed teachers and police officers as the main reasons municipal property taxes are so high.  

Maybe if New Jersey's finances weren't so screwed up, it could fund public schools completely, as many other states do. And how reliable is coverage of unions by a newspaper that has none -- the Borg family having fought successfully against employees who sought to organize them?

On the front of Local,  one storm clean-up story is about Palisades Park and the other concentrates on towns to the north and west, with nothing about Hackensack, Englewood and Teaneck, not to mention a bunch of other towns -- not even the name of the Hackensack man who went into cardiac arrest while shoveling snow and died Friday.

Obituaries on L-1 recall the lives of two dedicated history teachers -- one in a public school -- a seeming argument against the governor's call for big education cuts.

 An editorial in Opinion salivates over the prospects that Teaneck and Bogota police will merge, and that West Milford will successfully cut three officers. Is that really a good idea in this sprawling township (see map above)?

Before you know it, readers will be turning against the cop on the beat as well as their kids' teachers, if they believe the newspaper's drumbeat that they keep property taxes high.