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| News coverage of Englewood has fallen behind Hackensack. |
As editor of The Record, veteran newsman Marty Gottlieb must be so focused on Page 1, he doesn't notice all the poor journalism being practiced by his other editors.
Municipal coverage continues to decline under head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, and no one except the reader seems to notice.
Local photo-ops
If you are going to use accident and fire photos on a daily basis to fill the Local section, as Sykes and Sforza do, at least do them well.
The Hackensack house-fire photo on L-2 today is so lacking in information, it is shocking, especially when you compare it to coverage on Cliffview Pilot.com.
The Record's photo caption doesn't contain the cause of the fire, the name of the injured firefighter or even the address of the house that was destroyed.
It's likely the clueless assignment editor sent a photographer to the scene, but told the reporter to try get the information by phone, rather than drive 20 minutes to Hackensack from Woodland Park.
Putting readers to sleep
Maybe Gottlieb feels that if he puts sleep-inducing stories on the front page, readers will never get to Local.
Can you imagine anything more boring than a "water war," or Columnist Mike Kelly wringing his hands over "unanswered questions" in the Dharun Ravi case (A-1)?
I couldn't find anything funny in another A-1 story, this one about Governor Christie's "comedic chops."
The piece carries the byline of Melissa Hayes, who apparently has been taken off her Englewood beat and sent to Trenton.
That explains why I haven't seen any Englewood stories in the paper since the end of April.
Englewood is where Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg lives, but the city is getting even less coverage than Hackensack, if you can imagine that.
High to lows
Gottlieb gives readers only one meaty A-1 story to read -- about the surprisingly large number of World War II veterans dying every year.
On the Local front, seat-belt and pothole Columnist John Cichowski puts readers to sleep with another Road Warrior piece (L-1).
"Sopranos"? Gourmet ketchup? Gag me with a spoon.
For a Sunday paper, today's edition is quite a disappointment.
