Stupid front page gets even more stupid below the fold

The lower level of an NJ Transit double-decker rail car. To avoid writing about mass transit and other commuting issues, Road Warrior John Cichowski often goes far afield. Today's Page 1 column is a new low in irrelevance.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Just when I thought a professional baseball player at his last All-Star Game is the silliest Page 1 photo I have ever seen in The Record, I looked below the fold, only to find the so-called commuting columnist writing about historic New Bridge Landing.

Staff Writer John Cichowksi may be old enough to have fought in the Revolutionary War, but even he seems ashamed of this new, irrelevant tack for the commuting column he has been writing for more than a decade (A-1).

So, in his fourth paragraph, he throws in a familiar locator for commuters, "Only seven miles from the George Washington Bridge ...."

Instead of writing about the sad state of the Steuben House, which was built in 1752, Cichowski should be writing about the sad state of public transit and the resulting nightmarish traffic jams in North Jersey. 

Confusing editing

On the Local front, the lead paragraph of the main story refers to "warring gang sets" in Paterson (L-1).

Is "set" a police term? Does the reporter mean "gang members"?

Where was Production Editor Liz Houlton, asleep at her computer?

Is 'Mr. Green' here?

The reporter notes Jeffrey Ellerbee, one of the three suspects in the July 5 fatal shooting of Genesis Rincon, 12, "may be represented by one of North Jersey's most prominent attorneys, Miles Feinstein" (L-1).

Feinstein won't be representing Ellerbee unless the suspect's family comes up with a hefty retainer, as the attorney makes clear on L-6, where he is quoted as saying he had been approached, but "no arrangements" have been made.

Criminal defense attorneys like Feinstein have been known to ask judges for postponements, explaining in open court, "Your honor, Mr. Green [money] isn't here." 

Hole in head

A photo caption on L-3 shows a flooded street in Cliffside Park and "water gushing out of a drainage hole ...."

Did the copy editor mean to write "sewer grate"?

Maybe Houlton was stuck in traffic and couldn't get to work.

A story on the first Business page expects readers to believe luxury condo buyers are willing to pay $1.1 million to $2 million to live next to a construction site on the Hudson River in Weehawken (L-7).

More about chefs

Better Living is top heavy with stories about chefs, and issues faced by restaurant goers are almost completely ignored, even in the weekly fine-dining restaurant review.

Today, the Better Living cover carries a profile of Kevin Kohler, the chef who opened Cafe Panache in Ramsey 30 years ago this month. (BL-1).

He deserves respect, of course, but why run the piece on the same day as the weekly COFFEE WITH THE CHEF feature on L-2?

Money talks

Of course, restaurants are big advertisers in The Record, but in general, North Jersey Media Group has a hard time keeping journalism and promotion apart.

Tuesday's Better Living section carried a full-page ad for an Englewood event produced by Exposure, a marketing arm of NJMG (L-12).

The event also was promoted in stories.

Let's hope it doesn't turn into the traffic nightmare of Exposure's food-truck event at the new Overpeck Park last summer, when thousands were turned away.

These columnists should take a hike

Image by CanadaGood via Flickr

Am I the only one thoroughly bored with columnists John Cichowski, Mike Kelly and Bill Ervolino, whose "work" appears in The Record of Woodland Park today? Isn't it time for some fresh points of view?

Cichowski has been the paper's so-called Road Warrior for about six years, but it seems Kelly and Ervolino have been just taking up valuable newsprint space much longer than that. While they continue to try the patience of us all, keep in mind the lazy, incompetent editors at the former Hackensack daily got rid of their only black and Hispanic columnists, Lawrence Aaron and Miguel Perez.

Today, on the Local front, the Road Warrior continues to focus on narrow issues, taking to task the "selfish" drivers who use a shortcut through a quiet neighborhood in Upper Saddle River. If he's going to write about shortcuts, it would have been far more useful to far more people if he had provided one during the Route 80 east construction that caused delays of up to one hour. In general, though, he has ignored his core mission -- to write about commuting and mass transit. He should be ashamed of how he's ignored the pathetic local bus service in North Jersey. Where is his editor?

The headline over Mike Kelly's column today on the Opinion front is "Good idea gone awry," when it's clear he went awry years ago. His writing is full of cliches and hackneyed phrases, such as "mother of all jokes." Give me a break. Where is the man's editor, who allows this drivel in the paper?

"The developers did not deliver" and "misguided trust of private developers" is all the thunder he can muster for his tale about the incomplete Hudson River walkway, when he should have blasted greedy developers and the wealthy and selfish condo owners who have subverted the state's plan and are denying this magnificent stretch of riverfront to the public. There have been hundreds of instances in North Jersey where developers built roads, expanded intersections and spent huge sums to improve infrastructure around commercial developments. Yet this walkway is a disgrace.

Why is his language always so tame? Doesn't he realize that readers want their columnists to go out on a limb and express strong opinions? Well, you won't get them from sheepish Kelly. Some of the blame has to be laid on Assistant Assignment Editor Richard Whitby, onetime reader of Kelly's column before Whitby sent it over to the news copy desk, where me and the other copy editors avoided it like the plague. Whitby made a great show of pounding on his computer keyboard and loved to leer at the breasts of  the attractive female reporters who sat next to him as he edited their stories, but didn't do anything to improve Kelly's pablum.

The third disappointment is Bill Ervolino's column in Better Living. Bill is a nice guy, but who isn't sick of this man's feeble attempts at comedy and satire? God bless his family and friends and the readers who have tolerated him for so long. And maybe it's time Better Living editor Barbara Jaeger take a critical look at his nonsense.

Today's "local" news coverage is from Bridgewater, Somerville, Morristown, Pequannock and other places far from the heart of Bergen County as the paper is silent for another day on education, development and quality of life in Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood, its core towns. Does anybody have any idea why a block of Anderson Street at Main Street in Hackensack has been closed for two months or more as heavy equipment and huge drills tear up the surface?

Did you get a good laugh out of the lame illustration on the Local front for a story on several towns sharing employees? The people shown look like models -- young models. If they are supposed to faithfully represent the demographic of employees in Westwood, Oradell and other towns, plaintiffs' employment lawyers should take note.

Talking about lawyers, inside the Local section, there is yet another story about a big out-of-court settlement, with no mention of  the attorney's share. Indeed, even the courthouse reporters, Kibret Markos and John Petrick, have stubbornly resisted news copy desk suggestions over the years that legal fees are an essential part of any story reporting multimillion settlements or jury awards. Court rules allow lawyers to take up to a third of  plaintiffs' money.