Editors know crime is an easy sell

Cover of Michael Jackson

Lawyers for Michael Jackson's doctor
 used the classic blame-the-victim defense.

Where is the North Jersey news on Page 1? Where is the New Jersey news people need to know? What is Governor Christie doing, and why isn't that on A-1 instead of inside the paper?


Interim Editor Doug Clancy is just exploiting stereotypes about Paterson by devoting much of Page 1 today to the fatal shooting of an off-duty Newark cop outside a sleazy strip club.


To put this story in perspective, if the sleazy strip club was in Newark, the story certainly would have ended up inside.


Clancy also continues the paper's tradition of dumping on Paterson by burying on an obituary page (L-6) the story about the Great Falls becoming a national park. And why is there no photo with the story?


Wrong story


Why run the anticlimactic conviction of Michael Jackson's doctor on the front page, and why choose a sour-grapes story about obstacles facing the defense that should have appeared before the trial began?


And why is Clancy making a last-ditch effort to help pass today's sports-betting ballot proposal by wasting precious A-1 space on a story about Pennsylvania casinos?


Governor Christie has done little or nothing to improve the environment, and his latest refusal to fight for a federal cross-state air pollution rule is a hell of a lot more important than sports wagering (A-3).


Rich men quake


Are six break-ins in Tenafly really the biggest news for the front of Local --  even if Publisher Stephen A. Borg is worried the burglars are getting uncomfortably close to his $3.65 million Churchill Road mansion?


Another L-1 story -- "Poverty in Bergen alarming, study says" -- seems like A-1 news to me.


The Local patch on downtown Norwood just makes readers wonder why it's been years since they've seen stories about downtown Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and many other larger communities.


Another great job by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who doesn't seem to know her ass from her elbow when it comes to giving stories their proper play.


More screw-ups


Jerry DeMarco of Cliffview Pilot.com noted a nor'easter damage story on L-8 and NorthJersey.com misspelled the last name of Lt. Dwane Razzetti of the Bergen County Office of Emergency Management.


On A-3 today, a story incorrectly reported a tanker truck was carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline. The state police said it carried 8,500 pounds of gasoline -- or about 1,300 gallons -- DeMarco said.


Related post

• What's Christie got against Paterson? (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

See previous post on the Road Warrior

Everyone drops the ball

Image by prefers salt marsh via Flickr

The Ramapo River is endangered by toxic dirt piles in Wayne, officials say.

The dominant story on Page 1 of The Record of Woodland Park today is a sad tale of business owners who have for more than a decade resisted efforts to clean up piles of toxic dirt near a river. But despite the involvement of half a dozen staff members, this takeout puts the focus on dirt, not people.

Let's start with the stupid headline:

Court orders fail

to move mounds

"Mounds" are inanimate objects, and I'm sure the judge didn't order them to do anything. Why isn't the focus on the owners of the business, and why are their names buried on the continuation page, as if all of this is some sort of bureaucratic snafu?

It's bad enough the reporter can't get the father and son involved in the business, Allan Rombough Sr. of Medham and Andrew Rombough, to comment. But was an effort made to contact their attorney for comment? And why doesn't the reporter address an obvious question: Why didn't the state or the town hire a contractor to remove the dirt years ago, during flusher times, and bill the business?

The Local news section is another laughable effort from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her minions. It's a typical Monday section: A charity walk and an awareness-raising walk are written about at great length and played out front, because that's all the desperate editors have.

An overturned car is the gee-whiz, "Accident of the Day" photo element on L-1, and more non-profit news fills all of L-3.


Columnist Mike Kelly is really angry at the imam behind the Lower Manhattan mosque proposal, and continues his smear campaign against him on L-1 today. 

Kelly's language is uncharacteristically harsh for a reporter who treats just about everybody else with kid gloves, including his pal, convicted felon and former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie "The Crook" Kerik. Is this an anti-Muslim tirade?


Editor Francis Scandale got rid of the paper's only black, Hispanic and female news columnist, but kept Kelly the Mouse. Amazing.


Don't look for any Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood news today.