Keeping alive a dead story

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What do you do when you have important state news that isn't easily illustrated and a Cold War-era story that didn't amount to a hill of beans when it broke about two weeks ago?

If you're the editor of The Record of Woodland Park -- locked into having a large color photo on Page 1 every day, in a desperate attempt to match the impact of color TV -- you play up the dead story with everything in your bag of journalistic tricks -- even though the actual spy swap occurred Thursday and led the paper Friday.


You make sure your news copy desk uses such headline words as "fast-paced" and "whirlwind," then you blow up a  photo of one plane on the tarmac and another leaving a European airport (A-1 today). Boy, that's an exciting photo.

Then you shove inside real news -- that the BP oil gusher in the Gulf may be stopped soon -- and hope North Jersey readers don't notice the absence of Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood news, not to mention lack of coverage of a bunch of other towns among the 90 or so in your circulation area.

For these kinds of boneheaded editorial decisions, Frank "Castrato" Scandale was promoted to vice president by clueless Publisher Stephen A. Borg, and presumably given a raise. And no one bothers to ask head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes why so many of her reporters -- including Jean Rimbach, Shawn Boburg and Monsy Alvarado -- allow days, weeks, months, even years to separate their lame stories.


I'm sure readers today would have been far more interested in reading about Governor Christie's privatization plans, such as making motorists pay for emissions tests (A-3). That's A-1 news in my book -- not a bunch of laughable Russians. In fact, I'd be more interested in reading about the young Russians and other foreign workers who staff Jersey Shore resorts and highway rest stops, but that would require old-fashioned legwork.

Why do that when you can slap a wire service story and photo all over the front page? (One of the aircraft is operated by Vision Airlines. Just reminds you of how little vision Scandale, Sykes and all the other overpaid editors have.)

A reader's letter today (A-9) notes the former Hackensack daily missed the 100th anniversary of the cornerstone laying for the imposing Bergen County Courthouse (photo), whose dome is visible from the long-empty, fourth-floor newsroom at 150 River St., Hackensdack. You can just imagine what else  the crack local staff has missed -- in a continuing disservice to readers.


On the front of Local, a story on town officials' mixed reviews for all-electric MINI prototypes makes no mention of the Nissan LEAF, an electric car that will be going on sale this year, with full-market roll-out by 2012, compared to 2013 for the smaller but more expensive and far-from-flawless BMW models.

Friday, July 9, 2010

With a possible new lease on life for the Xanadu retail-entertainment complex, and a sensational New Jersey inheritance battle among billionaires, does anyone really care about those buffoonish Russian "spies" or that a professional basketball player will be playing in Miami, not New York or New Jersey?


Friday's front page was dominated by LeBron James and the swap of those 10 Russian suspects for other alleged spies. How do those stories affect my life or the lives of tens of thousands of other readers? They don't.

In Local, Staff Writer Giovanna Fabiano has two stories about Englewood, in contrast to no stories for days and weeks at a time, but there is no Hackensack or Teaneck municipal news. 

The front page of The Hackensack Chronicle, the weekly delivered with The Record of Woodland Park on Fridays, reports on the swearing in of a new mayor in Hackensack on July 1. I didn't see that story in the former Hackensack daily on July 2.


In his review of Hamilton & Ward, a high-end steakhouse in Paterson's new mall, Food Editor Bill Pitcher inexplicably discusses the source of salmon, but ignores the origin of the steaks. We are left to guess whether they are naturally raised or stuffed with antibiotics, hormones and animal byproducts.

I also feel he is being unfair by citing the Silk City's "reputation for being a rough spot after dark." That certainly is not the case for South Paterson, the neighborhood with Middle Eastern restaurants, bakeries and markets. Has he ever visited that section -- day or night?


His rating of the steakhouse -- two and a half stars -- is diluted by the two stars Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung gave a chain restaurant on the highway in Wayne. In fact, her generosity in rating the faux-Caribbean Bahama Breeze (Page F-22 on Friday) will continue to hurt the credibility of all restaurant reviews in Better Living.