Image via WikipediaThe Record of Woodland Park today was all over the parking garage collapse on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack, and may have beaten competitors by reporting that "at least two people" were trapped. Other media said rescuers were trying to reach only one person.
Coverage by 11 staffers -- including Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado -- takes up almost all of Page 1 and continues to nearly two full inside pages. The other story on those pages is the suspension of state vehicle mechanical inspections to save $11 million a year.
Although the coverage of the disaster is good, the human element is missing. To Hackensack residents, the luxury high-rises along Prospect Avenue are almost a city apart. Who are the thousands of people who live here? Are they mostly New York commuters with little or no attachment to Hackensack, or interest in civic affairs?
In today's paper, you won't find anything about the people who live there, and only limited information on the lifestyle of Prospect Avenue residents, who are accustomed to doormen, concierges and so forth in return for high rents or condo and co-op fees. You'd think Alvarado, who is assigned to Hackensack, would provide such specialized knowledge, but like the other reporters on the story, this might be the first time she has spent any time on Prospect Avenue, if she even went there.
In other words, you won't find much context, typical of the paper's system of entrusting most reporting and story decisions -- not to staffers in the field, but to a group of lazy, moronic assignment editors under Editor Frank "Castrato" Scandale and Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes. This continues in the office, where the assignment editors do the rewrites that any reporter worth his or her salt should be doing themselves.
Local is a thin section for another day, missing any municipal news from Englewood, Teaneck or Hackensack, but the flurry of Englewood Cliffs news continues, the second day in the row that small town is covered. Sykes and her minions are doing such a great job inspiring their reporters.
(Photo: The Church on The Green, Hackensack)
Sunday, July 4, 2010
I just flipped through The Record of Woodland Park for Sunday, July 4, when I was away. It took only about five minutes, but I didn't see any news about Hackensack's proposed budget and tax hike, the new mayor or any other subject.
Some scoop. Google "garage collapse hackensack" and NorthJersey.com finally appears on page 3.
ReplyDeleteNow that Burgos is gone, who will they blame?
I heard today that no one was trapped by the collapse.
ReplyDeleteHey the Record was all over that story like mosquitoes on a bug zapper. If 30 people got crushed in their cars, it would probably have had a shot at a Pulitzer prize. Such is the Record's luck.
ReplyDeleteWoulda, coulda, shoulda. A paper needs more than that to win a Pulitzer, and so far, The Record has been firing blanks. The micromanaging editors usually bobble the big stories, no matter how many they work on. The paper is so editor-driven, talented reporters are stifled, then leave.
ReplyDelete