A titanic error in editorial judgment

An iceberg gashed the hull of the Titanic below the waterline.

I'm trying to imagine the conversation at the meeting where Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin approved the cartoon that appeared in The Record on Sunday (O-2).

For the 100th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Titanic, Margulies the cartoonist shows a faceless, older couple looking at a large painting of the passenger ship as it was going down in the Atlantic.

In one of those bubbles, these words appear (woman to husband):

"Did they ever figure out exactly what the captain was texting at the time?"

Texting? What the F is the cartoonist thinking?  What bubble does he live in?

Is the death of more than 1,500 such a light topic that Margulies can bring up a total non-sequitur in a pathetic attempt at humor? 

Putz Prize

Keep in mind, this man won a number of prizes before and after he came to The Record in 1990, and his cartoons are syndicated all the over the United States. 

What does this ridiculous cartoon say about the  committees that give out the nation's most-coveted journalism prizes?

What does it say about Doblin?

This is a really lame attempt at making the sinking relevant to a nation of mostly young people who are walking and staring down at their smart phones, and texting so much that they have lost the ability to speak to each other.

Today's paper 

Except for the off-lead story on Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, the rest of A-1 is pretty ho-hum.

Editor Marty Gottlieb gives readers another story on Marcantonio "Marc" Macri, the lawyer and municipal prosecutor who is charged with money laundering in connection with a marijuana-buying ring (A-1). 

The Record should be putting lawyers on Page 1 every day for charging ridiculously high hourly rates, which deny most people access to the courts.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section offers readers even less than the front page.

Screwing Zisaville

Hackensack readers get another blow-by-blow account of testimony in the criminal trial of suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa (L-3).

Police Officer John Hermann testified that Zisa came to the rescue of the chief's drunk girlfriend after she drove his car into a pole in 2008.

The lead paragraph is incorrect in saying "former girlfriend." At the time of the accident, Kathleen Tiernan was reportedly living with Zisa.

The next day, according to Staff Writer Stephanie Akin, Zisa made it clear to Hermann that he should keep what he saw to himself.

"He said," Hermann testified, referring to Zisa, 'I just wanted to make you aware, I don't want anybody to know about this. There are only three people aware of this. And if it were ever to come back to me, I would know who to come see.'" 

Fill in the blanks

"When you cross Ken Zisa ... ," Hermann continued, before he was cut off by an objection from defense attorney Patricia Prezioso.

Of course, anyone who lives in Zisaville can complete that sentence.

Sykes and Akin have been so busy covering the Zisa trial, they didn't find time to report and write a story on the six candidates in today's school board election.

Were you planning to vote? Just close your eyes and punch a couple of buttons.

More screw-ups by the news copy desk

Wide receiver Victor Cruz couldn't find time for a hometown parade until Sunday, nearly three months after the Giants' Super Bowl victory over the San Francisco team. He also hasn't found time to marry the mother of his child.

Leave it to Editor Liz Houlton's news copy editors to embarrass The Record again -- this time on today's front page.

The large photo of Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz appears on Page 1 over a caption that says he is "performing his signature salsa with his mother, Blanca," in Paterson.

If you read that literally, Cruz is performing his signature "sauce." Yes. Salsa also is a music and dance style, but when the word stands alone, it means sauce.

Out of the pot

Staff Writer Jay Levin, who covered the parade, doesn't make that error, being careful in his L-1 story to pair "salsa" with a modifier, as in "salsa-dancing wide receiver" and "his famous salsa steps."

How did Levin, who is the local obituary writer, get roped into writing about Cruz's Sunday homecoming on the same day his triumphant Titanic story dominated Page 1? 

Maybe Levin should stick to writing about dead people.

Another error

Houlton's error-prone copy editors screwed up another caption, this one under a photo of Sen. Frank Lautenberg on A-7.

"The senator will be 90, if he decides to seek reelection in 2014."

How old will he be, if he doesn't run?

The Lautenberg story, which starts on Page 1, is entirely too long, which has been the case with many front-page stories since Editor Marty Gottlieb took over in late January.

In another overlong story -- on the Trayvon mural in Elmwood Park -- the biggest unanswered question is why any one man should be mayor of that borough for 41 years (A-1).

Tragic Titanic story never gets old

A seaman from Hawthorne saved others and then went down with the Titanic.

A moving homage to a North Jersey seaman who went down with the Titanic after saving passengers 100 years ago today is the only story you really must read on the front page of The Record.


Staff Writer Jay Levin employed old-fashioned leg work to find postcards and letters seaman William Cahoone Johnson Jr. wrote to his sister in Hawthorne, including one sent only 10 days before the ship hit an iceberg.


'Met death like a hero' is the headline over the photo-and-text package that dominates Page 1 today. A sidebar on Titanic's chief baker, who survived and lived in Paterson, appears on A-8.


Page A-8 is also where you'll find a paragraph that explains why the Titanic story is so much more compelling than today's other A-1 stories on politics and corruption -- themes editors overplay day after day.


People stories


" ... The sinking of an 'unsinkable' passenger ship [and] the terrorist destruction of twin skyscrapers are really a collection of intensely personal tragedies," Levin wrote.


They're stories about people who put others above themselves, who exemplify the best of the human spirit, not the worst.


Corruption isn't news


You'll find the worst of the human spirit in Staff Writer Jeff Pillets A-1 account of a federal audit of the Hudson River rail tunnels, which Governor Christie killed in October 2010.


I have a great deal of respect for Pillets, but he leaves unanswered several major questions, including:

1. Why should commuters be penalized with loss of the tunnels -- forcing them to stand in the aisles of crowded trains and buses for the next decade -- because of cost overruns, including tens of millions paid to greedy landowners, lawyers and real estate consultants?
2. What other public projects of the same scale were built without delays and cost overruns?

Road-rage victim


It's hard to believe what one 60-year-old Leonia woman went through at the hands of a maniac with a license (L-1).


The Road Warrior column describes the ultimately unsuccessful prosecution of an enraged pickup-truck driver, who was charged with reckless driving.


But Staff Writer John Cichowski doesn't put the blame where it belongs: an abysmal lack of enforcement.


Maniacs rule roads 


Where are the cops? Why are the maniacs getting away with speeding 20 mph to 30 mph over the speed limit, tailgating at high speeds and cutting off other drivers?


Cichowski should spend more time on the highway and less time on his padded rear-end in front of the computer. 


And when he gets only 1 out of 50 columns right, does The Record really need him at all?


News for yokels


Also on L-1 today, The Record continues its rabidly anti-Castro news coverage, which is so out of sync with the moderating views of an increasing number of Cuban-Americans.


Don't look for any Hackensack news today from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who also spends an excessive amount of time on her well-padded derriere.


Sin of omission


In Business, consumer Columnist Kevin DeMarrais writes about a Consumer Reports poll on supermarkets.


He notes good finishes for Trader Joe's, Costco Wholesale and Whole Foods Market, all of which sell a lot of organic and naturally raised or grown items (B-1).


But DeMarrais doesn't explain why The Record's own monthly Marketbasket Survey -- which he compiles -- has never listed any organic food.


Senior moments


The Better Living editors rely on a cover story filled with mindless T&A to attract readers (F-1).


In Travel, Editor Jill Schensul suffers her own senior moments with her cover story on lists and a sidebar on Austin (T-1).


She forgets to mention in the list story that one reason people make lists is so they won't forget to do or buy something.


And in her Austin story, Schensul forgets to mention the Texas city is joining the international Formula 1 circuit in November with a race on the new Circuit of the Americas.

Fat president or black president?

Newark Mayor Cory Booker would be a worthy successor to Barack Obama.

Why is the media, including The Record of Woodland Park, obsessed with trying to predict the future -- from the outcome of the criminal trial of suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa to the next presidential election and beyond?


Recall the two breathless columns written by Mike Kelly about Governor Christie's puzzling visit to Israel, and how the reporter knocked himself out trying to assess the impact on the GOP bully's aspirations for national office.


Obama successor


Look at Page 1 today and the story about whether Newark Mayor Cory Booker gave a "lift" to his "national profile" by rescuing a woman from a house fire. Give me a break.


Wouldn't it be sweet if Booker ran for president and succeeded Barack Obama after the latter's second term? And wouldn't it be even sweeter if Booker defeated the GOP nominee -- Christie? LOL.


That would be a real Jersey smack down and a rebuke to the racism and greed of the GOP.


Englewood coverage


Today's paper isn't much of an improvement over Friday's edition.


On Friday, for the second day in a row, Editor Marty Gottlieb ran a story on A-1 about a dishonest former employee of Englewood who stole $50,000 from a city account.


The Record has written pathetically little about residents of the multi-ethnic city -- including the God-fearing, hard-working Jamaican community -- and even less about the lack of white students in the elementary and middle schools.


Mac and sleaze


Head Assignment Editor Deirde Sykes covered Englewood as a reporter for a weekly paper ages ago, but seems to know nothing about the city, where Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" lives in an East Hill mansion.


Mac's presence in the city and his paper have done nothing to improve conditions for the vast majority of residents in a classic two-sides-of-the-tracks community.


I recall how Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza seemed to deliberately leave Mac's name out of stories concerning a controversial synagogue on the multimillionaire's block -- a temple Borg opposed.


(201) magazine


In the April 2012 issue of (201) magazine -- the pride and joy of Publisher Stephen A. Borg -- Englewood is described as "a thriving community."


Of course, the younger Borg chose a private high school over the city's public high school, so why should his newspaper care whether the schools are segregated or about all of the other problems in Englewood?


More errors


Two corrections and a clarification were published on A-2 in The Record on Friday, and another error was corrected today -- this one made by the Road Warrior, who misidentified an NJ Transit spokesman.


That's significant, because Staff Writer John Cichowski has written so few columns about mass transportation that he isn't familiar with agency spokespeople.


His ridiculous column on Friday (L-1) explored whether commuters would stop taking trains after a woman was stabbed at the Secaucus railroad station. I can't make this stuff up.


'Political climber'


Also on Friday, in a letter about cancellation of the Hudson River rail tunnels, a reader said what Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin doesn't have the courage or conviction to say:


Abraham Weintraub of Fair Lawn said the Government Accountability Office report "is showing Christie for what he truly is -- a self-promoting political climber who was willing to throw his constituents' dreams under the bus, er, train, of his future rise in the Republican Party" (A-22).


Twisted reviewer


Friday's Better Living section was notable for what amounts to a celebration of unhealthy, artery clogging food served at Twisted Elm in Elmwood Park, a "gastro pub" awarded 2.5 stars by Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung.


The review also was historic. Ung mentioned sampling only one dessert -- instead of her normal four -- and didn't bore readers with her usually orgasmic descriptions of taste and texture.


But she squandered a full paragraph on the chef's resume and didn't have room to tell readers whether Twisted Elm serves anything but low-quality, additive-filled beef, lamb and steak.


Did you notice this -- her use of "cheffed"?


The only healthy dish Ung mentions is baked scrod. She sampled no salads or vegetables. 


Today's paper


The only Hackensack news in Sykes' Local section is about two  firefighters injured by falling bricks in Bogota (L-1).


The big headline on L-1 -- "Reviving downtown" -- refers not to the ailing Main Streets of Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood, but to Tenafly, where the younger Borg lives in a $3.65-million McMansion.


F.U. to Hackensack


On L-3 today, a story about school board candidates in Englewood discusses desegregation efforts at the high school, but says nothing about how few white students there are in the lower grades or whether administrators are addressing that.


No story about the Hackensack school board race has appeared in The Record, leaving residents to rely only on deceptive campaign literature they receive in the mail.


Related articles

• Deirdre disses Hackensack again
• Ken Zisa's lawyer blows his defense
• Where is the local news in our local paper?