The gang that can't report or write straight

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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.

The weird front page returns

Image by Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake via Flickr

 











A week or more of natural and unnatural events drove The Record of Woodland Park to publish a series of hard-news front pages. Today, the lazy, incompetent editors commit such poor news judgment on Page 1 and elsewhere, it's clearly a return to journalism as usual.


What's with the lead A-1 story by Staff Writer John Brennan? He gets Governor Christie in front of the paper's "editorial board," but doesn't even ask him if the return of the so-called millionaire's tax on Christie's rich friends could generate enough revenue to prevent a battle over Bergen County blue laws, or why he doesn't agree to even a modest hike in the low gasoline tax.

Then, what's this story with the photo? The Navy is bringing back an airship program? Why is this on A-1?  What about the judge who rejected the deal to compensate 9/11 workers? Isn't that worth more than a few paragraphs outside?


On A-11 -- the editorial page -- why does it take a letter from reader Chuck Bailey, a former Closter resident, to expose Republicans' desperation and lies in the battle over passing health care reform? Isn't it the job of the media, including The Record, to sort out fact from fiction? But it's clear the former Hackensack daily's editors and owners are interested only in selling newspapers.

In Local  today, Teaneck reporter Joseph Ax has two education stories, but Deirdre Sykes and the other desperate editors resort to using the Dean's List again to flesh out "every day" coverage, ignoring schools in Hackensack, Englewood and many other Bergen County towns.

The L-6 story on an age-bias lawsuit by a Washington Township police sergeant speaks volumes about the folly of home rule and the buffoonish officials who run our lives and set our property taxes. The mayor apparently admitted to a "local newspaper reporter" he wanted to promote younger officers to "stabilize the long-term succession of leadership in the department."

Finally, why did the editors bury on L-7 an update about the Teaneck mom who saved her home from foreclosure by baking cakes? Like the original, no other paper had this success story from one of the core towns in Bergen County (photo: Zoe's Cupcake Cafe).