Showing posts with label Rep. Peter King. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rep. Peter King. Show all posts

Sunday, March 13, 2011

The gang that can't report or write straight

Map highlighting Washington Township's locatio...Image via Wikipedia
The Record story has to be read and re-read to find out what happened in Washington Township.

I don't know how many editors and reporters worked on today's Page 1 story about a man who was killed in a shootout with police, but the confused jumble in the paper isn't much better than the incomprehensible account on the Web site, northjersey.com.

Jerry DeMarco, The Record's former Breaking News editor, used his superior contacts to report on Cliffview Pilot.com that the man was the one who called police, and the fatality may have been a case of "suicide by cop."

The account in the Woodland Park daily is full of problems -- from a clunky A-1 headline that doesn't tell you who died to a dropped word in a quote from the prosecutor to saying the prosecutor "wrote" instead of "said" when using material from a press release.

Fuzzy writing

Still, the story could have been a lot clearer if the editors and reporters stated at the outset there were two men named Robert Ellis, a father and son, but that's on A-6, the continuation page. 

Instead, readers get the useless information on the front page that the dead man's "last known address was in Ridgewood." 

Just before the story jumps, the prosecutor is quoted as saying, "The exchange [of gunfire] resulted in [the younger ] Ellis' death, and he was pronounced at the scene around 2 a.m." The word "dead" is missing.

No standards

With the departure of News Copy Desk Co-Slot Nancy Cherry and the merger of The Record and Herald News copy desks in 2008, the newspaper abandoned its high standards for headlines and editing. 

What you see in the paper now are all the screw-ups by the assignment editors who work under Editor Deirdre Sykes -- the editors who are supposed to fix any broken copy submitted by reporters before it is sent over to the copy desk.

More embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today.

Burning issue

On the front of Sykes' Local section, a story on burning wood to heat homes completely omits any discussion of potentially harmful air pollution.

Business plan

Landlord Hartz Mountain Industries is opposing a $102 million tax break that may lure Panasonic out of one of its buildings, according to a story on the Business front today. Hartz also got burnt when it was rejected as the developer of the Meadowlands parcel where Xanadu is now being built.

Maybe the real story is that Hartz continues to contribute money to the wrong politicians.

Wine and food snob

Elisa Ung's The Corner Table Column on the front of Better Living discusses private wine lockers for big spenders at three restaurants. 

But isn't there a problem revealed by the photo on F-1, showing wine bottles standing upright in wine lockers at Capitol Grille, a high-end steakhouse in Paramus that can't spell "grill." 

Unopened bottles of good wine are supposed to be stored on their sides. 

Who is incoherent?

Columnist Mike Kelly complains about the "incoherent dialogue" in the wake of a congressman's hearing on Muslims (O-1). 

But it is Kelly himself who is incoherent, and I'm wondering, if like Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., the moron who called the hearing, the columnist is hiding his sympathy and support for the terrorist group known as the Irish Republican Army.


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Friday, March 11, 2011

Where did editors find elusive reporter?

Seal of Bergen County, New JerseyImage via Wikipedia
"You won't have to worry about reporter Jean Rimbach," the Indian tells the colonist.

Did Staff Writer Jean Rimbach hibernate longer than the bears this winter? You can count her recent bylines on the fingers of one hand.

In some years, you can count her stories in The Record on an amputee's hand.

Where did Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes find her on Thursday to report and write today's Page 1 story on the taped conversation between the tower and a small-plane pilot who landed on Route 80 about six weeks ago?

Does she rest her head on her desk in the Woodland Park newsroom, take long lunches, monitor the news from home or just look busy? 

Rimbach is another example of how far you can go at the former Hackensack daily by doing little or nothing, as long as you are a pal of Sykes, as she is.

But let's cut to the chase. This landing wasn't dramatic and no one was injured. 

Why is the story on A-1? As I said when it was splashed all over the front page on Feb. 1, this is not Bergen County's version of the passenger jet that belly-flopped into the Hudson.

Hearing on Italians

Another A-1 story today reports Republican Rep. Peter King "declared that U.S.Muslims are doing too little to help fight terror in America." 

What's next, hearings on whether U.S. Italians are doing enough to help fight the Mafia, followed by hearings on what U.S. Mexicans are doing to help fight drug-cartel violence? Give me a break.

Sloppy copy editing

The AP story on the King hearing calls him "Republican Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.," giving his party affiliation twice, like bookends.

The A-1 flooding story uses one of the most overused headline words around, "brace." It's a close second to "woes." But it's readers who have to brace for this edition.

In Staff Writer Zach Patberg's story on illegal Mexican immigrant Vidal Tapia, he reports "Tapia was beckoned" to the United States from a small town in Puebla state. 

He must have excellent vision to have seen his parents signaling or summoning him as by nodding or waving. Maybe they use Skype.

Two more corrections appear on A-2 today, in what seems to be an uninterrupted stream lately.

Home-rule wonder

You know home rule is a joke when somebody like Anthony Suarez can become mayor of Ridgefield.  

A story on A-10 reports a federal lawsuit seeking about $100 million in flood-relief aid was dismissed "almost a year ago," because Suarez, the former Saddle Brook Township attorney, "failed to file routine paperwork." Why isn't this on A-1?

Readers in Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and other communities are let down for another day by Sykes' Local section, which has no news for them.

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