Desperate for a real newspaper

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The earthquake survivors in Haiti are desperate for relief, according to the front page of The Record of Woodland Park today, but I'm just desperate for a newspaper that has the balls to go to bat for people who have been ignored by the world for far too long.

You won't find anything in today's disaster coverage -- not even an editorial -- expressing outrage at the failure of government in Haiti, at the collapse of law and order, at the slowness of the rescue effort and at the realization the world may have allowed this Caribbean nation to descend so far, it may be beyond help without a truly massive, unprecedented infusion of aid. But how many Haitians will this neglect have killed?

(Similarly, the Borgs may wake up one day and actually read the paper, only to realize too late that the lazy, incompetent editors have run it into the ground so deep, it can't be saved.)

The absolute failure of government quickly became evident only a day or two after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, but The Record was unwilling to go out on a journalistic limb to say so. It waited -- for an "expert," a story from one of its wire services, anything to avoid its own responsibility to report what a poor job the Bush administration was doing to help one of the nation's greatest cities.

We're seeing the same thing with the earthquake in Haiti. Look at the nonsense from Columnist Mike Kelly (see yesterday's posts). Where is an editorial criticizing the Haitian government and its greedy ruling class? Where is the editorial on how little the world community has done for Haiti in the last few decades?

If ever there was an argument for busing students to school, look at the story on the front of the Local section about a teen driver who manages to hit a tree -- cutting the car in half -- and nearly kill himself and his sister. Does anybody believe he wasn't speeding? Why was the reporter, Marlene Naanes, able to get his sister's name, but not his? What is a story about Giants Stadium memorabilia doing on the Local front?

Reporter Monsy Alvarado's byline on a Hackensack story appears for the first time since Dec. 30, with another detailed piece on disciplinary hearings for police officers who are suing the chief. This is a subject she has reported far more than any other, ignoring schools, development, the City Council and  municipal government. There is no news of Teaneck or Englewood, two other premier towns in Bergen County. Between Dec. 20 and today, only one Englewood story has appeared in the paper, outside of police and fire news.

The restaurant review today, in the centerfold of Better Living, is written by food editor Bill Pitcher, whose sudden visibility is welcome now that Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung is on leave until summer. Pitcher's familiarity with fresh fish, in this review of a Greek restaurant, is a revelation, compared to Ung's constantly obsessing about dessert. But why run a photo of  "overcooked and flat-tasting" grilled shrimp and a second one of the owner holding that dish?

There is an unusually long list of restaurant sanitary inspections on Page 24 of Better Living today, but what about Wyckoff and other towns that never appear? And is it really fair to readers to run a long story on the next page supposedly containing "facts" about antibiotics in poultry and other issues written by the National Chicken Council, an industry promotional group?