New NJ Transit reporter leaves big hole in suicide story

NJ Transit's Secaucus Junction rail station is patrolled by transit police officers. Is that true at the agency's smaller stations? Today, The Record's story on suicide by train doesn't discuss whether more police officers could deter intentional and accidental deaths on the tracks.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You have to give points to Staff Writer Christopher Maag for what is likely The Record's first thorough discussion of whether fences and other barriers can prevent people from committing "suicide by train."

But strangely absent from today's Page 1 takeout is any mention of NJ Transit police officers, and how many stations are actually patrolled to prevent intentional and accidental deaths (A-1).

Maag, the new transportation writer, and just about every other reporter in the Woodland Park newsroom have a heavy burden:

Working with clueless local assignment editors who rarely leave the office and whose knowledge of the world fits comfortably inside one of the office toilets.

Still, The Record has been reporting on deaths at or near train stations for years now. Maybe, the next story will discuss the role of transit police officers.

The bottom line

Sadly, today's story notes "the one measure suicide experts believe would be most effective at preventing intentional deaths by train: Building fences to keep people off of the tracks" (A-7).

Maag goes on to say "that would be a daunting and expensive exercise, requiring the already cash-strapped agency to erect up to 1,000 miles of fence."

That last description of NJ Transit as "already cash strapped" is in keeping with the paper's long-held belief that mass transit should pay for itself or even make a profit.

But that's nonsense, and it fed into Governor Christie's mean-spirited move in late 2010 to stop the building of two new rail tunnels under the Hudson River, because they allegedly would cost New Jersey "too much."

That allowed the GOP bully to refuse to raise the low gasoline tax to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund -- secure in the knowledge he could divert hundreds of millions in unused tunnel money to road projects.

Recovering addicts

Today, The Record carries the second part of an investigative report on the lack of state oversight and regulation of numerous homes that "cater to recovering addicts" (A-1).

Leading the front page is another report on Elizita, a Guatemalan teen who entered the United States illegally this summer to join her father, who also is an illegal immigrant (A-1).

The latter story is sure to inflame readers in Saddle River and other wealthy towns where anti-immigrant sentiment is strong.

Local news

You know life is good in Ridgewood and Glen Rock from the lead headline on L-1 today:

"2 towns unite over car break-ins"

The story doesn't say how many of the 20 vehicles were left unlocked.

A second story on the Local front was written by the same reporter, Andrew Wyrich (L-1).

He describes the midgets that raced around the track of Hinchcliffe Stadium in Paterson as "tiny," and said "some operated with an engine comparable to that of a snowmobile or lawn mower."

Typically, the four-cylinder engine used in a midget race car produces more than 300 horsepower.

But a photo caption with the story describes the cars as "three-quarter" midgets.

That confuses readers. Were two types of midgets racing on Sunday?

Getting past all the crap on Page 1

Image by expertinfantry via Flickr
An image from the Pearl Harbor anniversary in 2010.

You can just hear illegal immigrants muttering "Shit!" or "Mierda!" as they read the lead story in The Record today: authorities bust a black-market driver's license ring. 


But few illegals read the Woodland Park daily, so why did interim Editor Doug Clancy think this was the best local story he had for the front page? 


Why should the vast majority of readers care about this? Are the phony licenses the reason MVC lines are so long?


Then, under two one-column headlines on A-1, there's the same old story about the mob running the garbage industry, and shocking love-triangle murders -- the latter from The Star-Ledger, not The Record.


Burying real news


Indeed, why did Clancy bury on A-4 the report that Governor Christie is hurting the environment by approving a plan to rely more on natural gas and nuclear power and less on renewable energy -- playing into the hands of his fat cat supporters?


That's Page 1 news.


The best thing on A-1 today is the remembrance of the Pearl Harbor attack -- newspapers just love anniversaries. 


This 70th anniversary story comes alive on A-8, the continuation page, when Staff Writer Jay Levin extensively quotes two survivors, Andrew Myers, 88, and John Walton, 97. 


And the sidebar on how The Bergen Evening Record and competing Passaic Herald-News reported the big story is priceless.


But leave it to Editor Liz Houlton's news copy desk to screw up the Pearl Harbor package with a puzzling headline on a second A-8 sidebar:

An honored vet recalls

family reunion on deck

Huh? "Family reunion"? What the F does that mean? You have to read the story to find out Thomas Mahoney became separated from older brother Raymond on Dec. 7, 1941, and feared he may have been killed in the attack on their ship.


Many hours later, the soot-covered Mahoney brothers came face to face with each other on the deck, so "family reunion" is absolutely the wrong phrase to use in the headline.


Hibernating reporter


Leave it Staff Writer John Cichowski, one of the laziest reporters in the newsroom, to wait until "Older Driver Safety Awareness Week" to write about the challenges facing senior citizens when they get behind the wheel (L-1).


As important as that neglected issue is, there's no relief in sight for hard-pressed commuters, a group Cichowski is supposed to cover.


And head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes is so desperate to fill the columns of her Local news section, she couldn't possibly kill the column, make Cichowski a transportation reporter and order him to write about mass transit and other commuting problems.


The photo on the front the section reports "another rainy day," but there's no explanation for why today is another day without Hackensack news or news of many other towns.  

Local news takes a holiday

Image via Wikipedia

Hackensack residents gather, hoping to catch sight of a Record reporter.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When the legal citizenship process in New Jersey stretched to two years or more, The Record couldn't care less, preferring to push readers' buttons with endless stories about illegal immigrants.


Today, on the front page, Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado provides a glowing report on a streamlined, 4.2-month citizenship process.


Another positive story about immigrants appears on the Local front (L-1). God bless America.


Don't look for much in the way of local news today.


Taking a break


The assignment desk working under Editor Deirdre Sykes is a well-honed machine, mining press releases, surveys, reports and meetings for the local report, as pathetic as it is.


"Nothing happens" in the towns over a long holiday weekend. The incoming faxes are few and far between in the newsroom.


Municipal reporters like Alvarado don't even have to go to their communities regularly, unless they have to cover an occasional meeting.


Talk to residents? Write a Talk of the Town every once in a while to gauge the mood of taxpayers and uncover government incompetence? You've got to be kidding.


Just quote the gadflies who attend every meeting. No fuss, no muss.


Still missing?


On Friday and Saturday, stories in Local reported Megan Lewinson, an eighth-grade girl from Englewood, was missing. 


There has been nothing in the paper since, even though she was found unharmed and, according to a family friend, attended church in Englewood on Sunday. 


New oppressor


An editorial on A-11 is about the Declaration of Independence and its guiding principle: the right to be "fairly governed" and if not, "to throw off the yoke of the oppressor."


Next to the editorial, "the oppressor" is identified in the Margulies cartoon as Governor Christie.