Editors' well-honed P.R. machine can't help Christie now

In Hackensack, a small deli on Hudson Street is where heroes go for lunch.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Negative court rulings and polls are making a mockery of The Record's campaign to promote Governor Christie as our next president.

Page 1 today is dominated by a ruling from Superior Court Judge Mary C. Jacobson, who called Christie's greatly reduced pension payments unconstitutional (A-1).

Ruling in a lawsuit brought by public employee unions, the judge said the GOP bully's pledge to fund the pension system in the next budget is another in a succession of "empty promises" (A-6).

She ordered Christie to make the full pension payment he cut by nearly $1.6 billion.

Of course, Editor Martin Gottlieb treats readers with contempt, giving equal prominence to another Charles Stile column that revisits the alleged "bipartisan reforms" that Christie claimed would save the pension system from bankruptcy (A-1).

The column's headline is fit only for readers who are imbeciles:

"Ruling is a black eye when
some good PR is needed"

Hackensack news?

Today's Local section doesn't have any Hackensack news, but Staff Writer Todd South, the reporter once assigned to the city, continues to file stories about war veterans like himself.

Retailing reporter Joan Verdon and Staff Writer Mary Diduch try to persuade readers that Westfield Garden State Plaza and the Paramus police are actually prepared for a terrorist attack (L-3).

Now, the mall and police are taking credit for "preventing injuries to shoppers and mall workers" on Nov. 4, 2013, when a disturbed young man with a rifle invaded Garden State Plaza and fired random shots into the ceiling, then committed suicide in a non-public area.

I recall The Record's photos of Paramus police, who were armed to the teeth, but who arrived after he killed himself.

God forbid the news columns should contain any negative news about malls, among The Record's biggest advertisers.

Unhealthy food

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz continues to promote an unhealthy diet with a Better Living feature on a stuffed-cupcake company (BL-1).

The promotion is sure to be lapped up by the thousands of diabetics in the audience, as well as those watching their weight and cholesterol intake.

How many stuffed cupcakes did Davidowitz bring back to the newsroom?

Is the new food editor out to lunch?

Image via Wikipedia

 

Has anyone seen a byline from Susan L. Sherill since she came on board as food editor of The Record of Woodland Park on Sept. 1 (the day her name first appeared on Page F-2 of Better Living)?


I did see a Record story on (201) magazine's Restaurant Week that carried her tag line (she was food and entertainment editor at that North Jersey Media Group publication). And she has contributed to Second Helpings, the food blog on northjersey.com, as well as sending out numerous Twitter tweets.


But now, it seems, one of her restaurant reviews appears in the October 2010 issue of (201), with photos by her husband, Ted Axelrod. The gushing evaluation of Taverna Mykonos in Elmwood Park doesn't give prices for food, and there isn't one critical word in it. Was she comped? The restaurant cited this review in an e-mail offering customers a 15% discount. Here is the first paragraph:

"Beautiful and bustling, the Greek island of Mykonos is one of Europe's -- if not the world's -- top tourist destinations. Its namesake restaurant in Elmwood Park already shares the first characteristic, and judging by our visits, will soon be as packed and popular as one of the island's famous nightclubs in high season."

Doesn't this completely blur the line between food journalism and advertising? Read it for yourself at the following link: http://www.201.net/issues/2010/10/departments/DiningReview.story
 
I ate at Taverna Mykonos and I can tell you the "irresistible bread" she describes was a large, awful, doughy, dark-and-light swirl -- a loaf  so bad I asked for simple Greek pita instead.

Was this review left over at (201), just as Bill Pitcher's reviews appeared after he left The Record  as food editor? Or is it possible that Publisher Stephen A. "Greedy Stevie" Borg just eliminated Pitcher's $71,000-a-year salary and combined the jobs at the magazine and the daily?

Though she hasn't had a byline yet, she is planning big things for Better Living's food coverage. Next week, according to one of her tweets, she'll mesmerize readers with a comparison of cupcake mixes.


She also is planning a column, based on a recipe from a cookbook, according to another tweet. That's going to be ground-breaking food journalism.


Pitcher was a glorified recipe editor for much of the time he was at The Record, and he would ride around, looking for restaurants that had opened or closed for Second Helpings (repeated in the A La Carte column on Fridays). He was only about 30 when he got the job in mid-2006


Most of the major food stories, plus restaurant reviews and a Sunday column, were written by Elisa Ung, hired as restaurant reviewer in 2007.


Pitcher also was skilled at pulling stories off the food wire. During Ung's maternity leave, near the end of his four years as food editor, he reviewed restaurants.


Here are three tweets in which Sherrill discusses her plans (http://twitter.com/susanlsherrill):

1. Testing red velvet cupcake mixes today: Barefoot Contessa vs. Sprinkles vs. Duncan Hines - results in next Wed. Record! 8:11 AM Oct 7th via web
2. @doriegreenspan Starting column for The Record newspaper (I'm food editor) where I do a recipe from "cookbook of the week" - yours is first! 11:35 AM Sep 29th via web  
3. @doriegreenspan Your publisher just sent me a copy of your glorious new book, "around my french table" - can't wait to jump in! 11:05 AM Sep 29th via web 

Don't own a car? Take a hike

Image by Keithius via Flickr

The Record of Woodland Park today carries plenty of evidence the lazy, incompetent editors favor news about well-to-do whites like themselves over news about working-class minorities. For example, if you live in a poor town or don't own a car and rely on shabby local buses, you'll get its cold, editorial shoulder.

A huge Page 1 story reports that students in affluent North Jersey high schools get dramatically higher SAT scores than those in poor urban areas. Is this news? Didn't the state Supreme Court decades ago order more state aid to poor school districts, precisely because property tax collections often determined the quality of education? The story is silent on what, if anything, is being done to improve the SAT scores in poor high schools.

Then, the mostly white editors bury a story on A-4 about Governor Christie halting all actions by the Council on Affordable Housing. The state's wealthy towns have done so much to stop the building of housing for low- and moderate-income people, you'd think their residents are racists. This is the story that belongs on A-1, not the back-slapping take-out praising what a great job educators in Ridgewood and other rich towns are doing.

Then you get to the column by Road Warrior John Cichowski on the front of Local. His mission is to write about the commuting issues faced by drivers and users of mass transit, but he has found as many excuses as possible to sit for hours in the office, reading e-mails, instead of riding on and commenting about the quality of bus and rail service. If you don't own a car, John says, go to hell.

Compare the coverage of deer or West Milford to the coverage of Hackensack, and the former home of The Record comes up short. Today, a single photo about a new fire-fighting tool is all the Hackensack coverage you'll find. Live in Teaneck or Englewood? You're also out of luck.

But there is room for two, seven-paragraph "local news" stories: one on a water pipe rupture in Lyndhurst, the other about Moonachie hiring two police officers. Wow. Don't you think this ground-breaking municipal coverage is worth the 50-cents cover price?

And as if we weren't fat enough, Staff Writer and Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung stuffs her face at four cupcake "joints" in Ridgewood, and tells us all about it in sickly, artery clogging detail in Better Living.

Recession? More demand at food pantries? Let them eat $3.75 cupcakes, The Record says.