More lessons in bad journalism

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Readers who once laughed at Lou Costello now are laughing at The Record.

How could The Record's front page promise "full coverage of school board elections" today when it never published the candidates' positions on issues facing districts?

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes couldn't muster the energy or staff to brief readers before Tuesday's election -- something the paper had been doing for decades -- so they were forced to rely on campaign literature. 

Basically, she told them to vote blind.

How about the three standard photos of voters and a kid at the polls (A-1 and A-8). They are as exciting as watching paint dry.

Language barrier

Another A-1 story in the Woodland Park daily reports a group of students from the Dominican Republic got a democracy lesson in Passaic County. 

If readers managed to get through the story, they realize the reporter also needs a lesson -- in the English language.

Staff Writer Richard Cowen, who is no novice, reports the students showed up at a freeholders meeting "dressed in formal attire" (A-5). Does he mean tuxedos and gowns or just suits and dresses? 

Errors 'R' Us

On Wednesday, a Page 1 story by Staff Writer John Gavin peddled the preposterous notion that a train station would be an invasion of nearby residents' privacy. 

The reporter said one man lived a "few feet" from the proposed station in Wood-Ridge. Is that even possible? Three feet from the proposed stop?  He must be homeless.

On A-2 today, an embarrassing correction notes Wednesday's lead story made two serious errors.

Snow job

Former Gov. Jim McGreevey and folk-jazz singer Phoebe Snow couldn't be more different, so how could Mike Kelly lump them in the same L-1 column today?

Front-page correction

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Under Publisher Stephen A. Borg and Editor Frank Scandale, The Record of Woodland Park discarded high standards for its front page.

Recall the shameful episode on 9/11, when Scandale put money over journalism and buried Tom Franklin's incredible flag-raising photo at Ground Zero on a back page. And since Borg took over in 2006, Page 1 has reeked more and more of the locker room. (I'm not referring to the helmet scam story at the bottom of A-1 today.)

So what happens when a a cop is shot and a police chase ends in the death of an innocent? Do you discard your lead front-page story and go tabloid? If you are The Record, you go for it, especially if Tom Troncone, a former police reporter, is the assignment editor on duty, as he might have been on Monday night.

But the bold headline that was designed to sell papers Tuesday morning -- "Cop shot; woman killed" -- came back to bite the incompetent editors the next day, when law enforcement officials said a man, not a woman, was killed. So today, the story goes back on A-1 with a real clunky headline -- "Cops unravel tragedy." I submit it's the family and the editors who are unraveling what happened.

Jerry DeMarco's Cliffview Pilot.com reported the incident correctly.

This story didn't belong on The Record's front page to begin with, and its placement there again today is questionable. (On the jump page, A-6, editors run not one but two photos of cops "canvassing" the scene of a fatal accident. What a waste of space.) The correction on A-2 notes "incorrect information from a law enforcement official," but doesn't refer to the A-1 story, where the reporter blames the error on police "confusion."

If Borg, Scandale and their lazy, incompetent minions had any standards, Governor Christie's slash-and-burn cost cutting would command space on Page 1 every day, joined by such important stories as looming fare hikes and service cuts at NJ Transit, which will affect tens of thousands of people in North Jersey, many of whom have to rely on the wheezing local bus system because they can't afford cars.

In Local, three-quarters of a page is devoted to listing the names of school board candidates in Bergen County and part of Hudson County. I guess you have to do this a day after you assign eight reporters to the same story, and give readers little information. 

The Record can't hide how its editors and reporters are bored with covering municipal and school board elections.

Click on this link: The Record's front page today