Witch hunt claims college president

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You can have sleazy journalism delivered to your door.

President G. Jeremiah Ryan under-spent his annual expense account in raising $3.8 million last year for the Bergen Community College Foundation, but he was voted out Tuesday night -- thanks to a witch hunt by The Record (A-1).


So, you see, when critics attack the Woodland Park daily for its poor job of covering local news, Editor Francis Scandale, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Staff Writer Pat Alex can point to  how their public-service journalism brought down Ryan.


Baking news


The heat wave began Sunday. The weather picture on Page 1 today seems a little late.


When will The Record examine the questionable practices at tycoon Rupert Murdoch's properties in the United States, including  the New York Post and Fox Television (A-1)?


Murdoch has reaped untold riches from sleazy journalism. A sidebar on A-8 gushes over the actions of his gold-digging wife at a hearing Tuesday in London.


Readers weigh in


For every letter supporting President Obama, Editor Charles Saydah seems to print two from his critics (A-12). 


Does crackpot James Bell of Washington Township expect anyone to take him seriously when he calls the country "Obama's Marxist utopia"?


Letter writer Catherine Walsh of Englewood finds a huge hole in Sykes' coverage of the city, noting "half the shops are empty in town."


Imagine what Sykes could have printed on the front of Local today if she didn't run a story and photo on a non-injury fire at a used-car lot in Little Ferry.


Good appetite


Road Warrior John Cichowski gives readers his fifth column in a row on long lines at the Motor Vehicle Commission (L-1). 


Another filler photo appears on L-3, showing a car deliberately driven into a deli to protest its fatty pastrami.


After you spend $30 0r $40 and a couple of hours preparing lobster stew from the recipe on the Better Living front today, make an appointment with your doctor to have your cholesterol checked  (F-1).

When editors lose their courage

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What secrets are hidden by Orthodox Jews in Borough Park?

You know the editors of a local newspaper have lost their way when letters from readers and OpEd pieces expose official incompetence or corruption more than the paper's own editorials and columnists.


Three letters to The Record's editor today blast Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan for giving a $53,000 raise to a "crony," who is already making $121,350 (A-18).


His job is to head an office that fights waste. What a farce.


D.C. gridlock


Four other letters comment on the sickening partisan gridlock over extending the nation's debt ceiling. 


The Record has printed one story after another filled with Republican he said and Democratic she said, but Herbert Jacobs of Teaneck says, " ... Republicans are ready to plunge the world into another Great Depression unless they get their way."


Hear Scott W. Stahlmann of Ramsey: "House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., the tea partiers and the right-wing fringe are trying to sell America with another 'big lie' ...."


It's time for President Obama, Stahlmann continues, "to stop negotiating and come out swinging. Raise revenue [by] taxing the wealthiest, close the corporate loopholes, reduce military spending and foreign aid, and leave Social Security and Medicare alone."


Rupert's cube


Another letter, this one from J. Andrew Smith of Bloomfield, calls Rupert Murdoch's empire a "God-awful propaganda machine that redefines bottom-feeding for conservatives."


An OpEd piece exposes Governor Christie's attempts "to allow municipalities where the wealthiest New Jerseyans live to continue to keep out working families" by imposing large minimum lot sizes (A-19).


Stuffed shirt


Compare all this compelling reading to what Editor Francis Scandale had to say at the screening of an HBO documentary, "Mann v. Ford" on the decades-long struggle of the Ramapough Mountain People against Ford Motor Co.


Scandale took a break from golfing to moderate a panel discussion with the filmmakers and said not a single quotable word (L-1, L-6).


In fact, the cowardly editor left it to one of the filmmakers, Micah Fink, to put the saga in perspective: "It's a very powerful story. There are basic themes of injustice, racism, poverty ...."


How could Scandale be at a loss for words? He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in staff salaries on The Record's "Toxic Legacy" series in pursuit of a Pulitzer Prize, but failed to win one.


There's also no mention today of how The Record's editorial page quickly abandoned the community when the largest civil suit in New Jersey history was settled -- netting Ringwood residents a maximum of $34,500 a person -- and urged them to take it and move on.


Today's front page


The newspaper's tarring and feathering of BCC President G. Jeremiah Ryan may lead to his firing, even though he spent "significantly less" than his annual $50,000 expense account and raised $3.8 million last year for the community college (A-1).


What the paper calls an "investigation" included a scurrilous attack on Ryan for buying "top-shelf liquor" for himself and donors. 


This from editors who once labored under a now-reformed drunk, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, and who now work for his spoiled children, investors in an Englewood wine bar. How rich.


Orthodox Jews


The grisly A-1 story on the murder and dismembering of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky by a member of his ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, delicately avoids any discussion of homosexuality among unmarried Hasidic men.


On A-4, a photo caption doesn't say whether the giant sand dragon shown won the contest in Belmar on Wednesday.


Go fish


In Better Living, the owner of Pearl Restaurant in Ridgewood doesn't explain why he serves artificially colored farmed Atlantic salmon when wild-caught salmon is abundant and cheap this summer (Starters, F-1 and F-8).

View from The Record's news copy desk

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Editor's note: Former Record staffer Aaron Elson posted these comments on the Editor & Publisher blog that reported the existence of  "Eye on The Record."

I always look forward to Victor's "Eye on The Record" blog. As a former copy editor with 20 years at The Record, who was arguably one of their best headline writers, I was "restructured" out of a job in 2008. The Record long ago abandoned its core readership, as Victor rightly often points out.

For the last decade, the copy desk was treated as a second-class department by editors who coddle reporters. I can recall the first newsroom meeting held to introduce Editor Frank Scandale. He emphasized his sense of humor. After that until the day I left, the Record newsroom was the most humorless place I ever worked, including the New York Post during the exodus after it was bought by Rupert Murdoch. 

Come to think of it, in retrospect, that was a pretty humorous time. Does anybody remember the famous front page headline "Baby born without mother!"?

I've told Victor he should break a story now and then, as Jerry [DeMarco] often does, to illustrate The Record's blind eye to its three premier towns of Hackensack, Englewood and Teaneck. It would be easy enough to do. He prefers to critique the paper instead. That's okay with me.