Showing posts with label junk food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label junk food. Show all posts

Saturday, November 2, 2013

On Page 1: The Laurel and Hardy of right-wing politics

At Passaic Street and Summit Avenue in Hackensack, above, and at other intersections, crews are making curbs wheelchair accessible. What about improvements to ease the flow of traffic, such as turn lanes on Passaic, a notorious bottleneck? Don't hold your breath.



By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Today's Page 1 photo of Mitt Romney and Chris Christie -- a latter-day Laurel and Hardy -- runs with a story on a new book that exposes the dark side of right-wing GOP politics.

"Double Down: Game Change 2012" reveals the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that went into Romney's choice for a running mate in his ultimately failed bid to unseat President Obama last November (A-1).

Christie love affair

The book tackles subjects -- Christie's record, style and weight -- The Record's adoring editors and reporters have largely ignored in their effort to groom the GOP bully for a second term as governor, as well as a presidential run in 2016.

"The book makes fun of Christie's weight at every turn," according to the story, but it also reports on "the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record" (A-6).

Readers may be doing double takes, trying to recall when, if ever, The Record has discussed Christie's "spending as U.S. attorney, lobbying activities, steering contacts to donors and allies..., a 1994 defamation lawsuit" -- all deemed "a potential political nightmare," if Romney chose Christie as a running-mate.

Ignoring new poll

Another Page 1 story on the battle between Christie and Democratic challenger Barbara Buono reports in the first paragraph that "some polls" put the GOP bully ahead of her "by more than 30 points."

But that ignores this week's Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind Poll that shows Christie's lead has narrowed to 19 points in the run-up to Tuesday's election, as reported by The Star-Ledger. 

Is The Record deliberately ignoring the Fairleigh Dickinson poll?

A-2 carries two more embarrassing corrections.

An editorial on A-9 urges a "no" vote on a constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage -- a move Christie vetoed.

The Woodland Park daily claims it would "lock small businesses into automatic increases."

Small businesses? Are McDonald's and Walmart "small businesses"?

Utility pole update

The big Hackensack news today is the arrest of a 73-year-old man on charges of sexually abusing three children (L-6).

On the same page, a photo keeps readers abreast of North Jersey utility pole news, this time in Franklin Lakes.

The photo shows six PSE&G crewman repairing a downed utility line. No wonder our rates are so high. And where were they after Superstorm Sandy?

A Better Living cover story reports on the crappy food served at sports arenas, and the exorbitant prices paid by inebriated fans who can't get enough harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones (BL-1).

Saturday, June 26, 2010

More fishing for news

FAA airport diagram for Teterboro Airport (TEB...Image via Wikipedia

























The desperate editors couldn't run the photo on Page L-3 any bigger -- it's as wide as it can get, as wide as the page. Let down by the lazy assignment and news staff under Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes for yet another day, the layout editors had no news for that page today, and plugged the hole with a photo of people fishing and looking as bored as readers of The Record of Woodland Park.



Who can blame them? No news of Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck and other important towns appears in Local today. Local? Why not call it Yokels, which is how Editor Frank "Castrato" Scandale regards residents of key communities. Bears in West Milford get better coverage than Hackensack, where the paper was founded in 1895 and where it prospered for more than 110 years.

On Page 1, the paper reports that failing students in some districts now have to pay for summer school. Isn't that good news for taxpayers? But is it really A-1 news? 

The plan to break up Teterboro -- a plan few thought would be successful -- is on hold, the lead story on the front page discloses. Why did the paper write endlessly about the politics of the proposal, but not bother to report on Teterboro Airport's impact on the quality of life of tens of thousands in Hackensack, Maywood and other towns annoyed by noisy aircraft filled with such fat cats as the Borgs?


For cutting-edge food coverage from Better Living, see the newest junk food on F-1. The copy editor calls a doughnut cheeseburger part of a "culinary renaissance." "Artery-clogging renaissance" would be more accurate. A reader-friendly story would report on what healthy options are available at the fair.

(Illustration: Teterboro Airport. Only two runways, but endless noise.)
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