Is the swearing in of the U.S. attorney for New Jersey worth nearly half of the front page in The Record of Woodland Park today, especially when he's been on the job since Oct. 14? How about leading Page 1 with a proposed $3 tax on arena tickets and downplaying potential cuts in aid to state colleges and universities?
The answer is that the lazy, incompetent editors simply could not come up with anything better.
Another example is continuing coverage of an alleged "Columbine-like" bomb plot at far-off Bridgewater-Raritan High School. It's likely Editor Frank Scandale is keeping this story alive to remind the staff of his exploits a decade ago covering the original Columbine massacre for the Denver Post.
The former Hackensack daily loves to run conservative columnists without pointing out their gross distortions or omissions, such as former Gov. Christie Whitman and former state Sen. Henry McNamara, whose column is on Page A-21 today. He doesn't tell readers the battle over "affordable" housing in the state dates to a 1975 Supreme Court decision or how most towns have fought tooth and nail for more than three decades to keep out low- and moderate income minorities. He's a disgrace.
The Local section seems to have room for only one story each day from Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood, the three most diverse towns in the paper's circulation area. Today, it's Teaneck's turn, with a story on its abysmal employer-employee relations and a panel's recommendations on how to end the acrimony. This is an old story, but at least it's something. As in the past, Staff Writer Joseph Ax tries to scare readers by telling them lawsuits have cost the township "well more than $10 million," without saying if insurance covered any of that.
The continuing Route 80 east repaving is back in the news, with a big photo on the front of Local, but the paper stubbornly refuses to tell readers about a shortcut through Paterson that would ease their commute.
I finally found something to praise in Better Living, the paper's soft, unfocused features section. Virginia Rohan's "Boomer on Board" column states unequivocally: "Age discrimination, though illegal, is a reality." That's a subject you rarely see discussed in The Record or other newspapers, which have laid off a fair number of employees during the recession, while owners such as the Borg family continue to enrich themselves.
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I can answer one question, raised in paragraph 5 above: no, Teaneck has not had any insurance to cover these lawsuits. Some time in the past, the town council decided in it's infinite wisdom, to save money by "self-insuring." At more or less the same time, the council determined that it should fight any suits , without regard for their merits, in order to discourage other suits. Now the council people tell us they would like to purchase insurance but, naturally, we are too high risk to purchase it affordably. I think there is definitely a story for Mr. Ax in here: who were these council members who proposed these disastrously short-sighted policies, and what role might they continue to play in shaping township decisions through current council members who have enjoyed their political patronage in the past 2-3 council terms?
ReplyDeleteIt would be useful if The Record gave us a little background, a time-honored journalistic device, to help readers who are not as familiar as Margot is with the machinations of the Teaneck Council. Sounds like the township really botched the insurance situation.
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