Image via WikipediaThe Record of Woodland Park, which has denied the front page to New Jersey Supreme Court justices who have died, today leads Page 1 with a column on a stadium public address announcer most readers have never heard of. The tribute is in the form of a sports writer's tortured prose, and on the front of the Sports section, there's another big story on the dead guy. Bob who?
This likely is the work of Editor Frank "Castrato" Scandale, who often dictated what went on A-1 when I was still at the former Hackensack daily. Scandale acts more like a high-fiving, ass-slapping jock than a journalist.
You'd think another front-page story -- asking if homeowners will save money under Governor Christie's proposal to cap property taxes at 2% -- would have gotten the biggest play, but that doesn't happen with Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes, who have shown contempt for the concerns of North Jersey residents, especially those who live in Hackensack, where the paper was founded in 1895.
The lack of state and local news must have driven the desperate wire editor to use a story on upscale hamburger restaurants on A-6, when such a story should appear in Better Living. Only one of the new chains uses naturally raised meat -- many years after Fuddruckers began serving natural ostrich and buffalo burgers.
The misplaced food story raises the question of just how much work is being done by the overpaid food editor, Bill Pitcher, who has been filling in for the restaurant reviewer while she is on leave. Although he has written weekly reviews, he hasn't attempted to write her Sunday column. About all he seems to do is edit recipes, run wire stories on food and, this summer, visit farmers' markets.
Today's thin Local section contains no municipal or development news about Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood. Did the Hackensack City Council pass the budget and set the tax hike? Maybe that was reported while I was away, but I am still reviewing a week's worth of papers. (My "Vacation Pack" was missing Thursday's paper.)
Even if Monsy Alvarado (Hackensack) and the other municipal reporters had gotten off their asses to report and write something, non-profit news today would have prevented the layout editor from using those stories.
And would you look at all the space the incompetent editors devote to a pair of wealthy Asian Indian sisters from Franklin Lakes who made their "artistic debut" before a select audience of 200 on Saturday (Page L-6). What's next, lavish coverage of bar mitzvahs?
It was Publisher Stephen A. Borg's idea to hire a non-profit reporter, but the editors have never matched his enthusiasm, placing the charity copy in the Business pages for several years before moving it to Local, where it fills space the local reporters can't fill.
Maybe that was why it was moved to Local, just as more and bigger accident photos and stories are being run to fill the section, in the absence of basic news every North Jersey resident needs.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
A half-dozen staff members managed to work on the Page 1 heat wave story last Wednesday without leaving the building and interviewing people on how they were coping with the heat. Apparently, the entire story was done by phone. Not a single ordinary person is quoted, not one cook trapped in a hot restaurant kitchen, not one motorist without air-conditioning.
Reporters at The Record of Woodland Park are no fools, and their assignment editors allow them to get away with such incompetence on a daily basis. It just shows you what a great job head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes is doing in inspiring her staff.
The only Hackensack "news" in Local is an L-2 photo showing three men watching a World Cup game at Lazy Lanigan's. Obviously, it was too hot for Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado to venture out or even to pick up the phone.
An L-7 story reports that Michel Bittan, the Englewood businessman linked to one of those alleged Russian spies, is named as a defendant in a lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault. Staff Writer Giovanna Fabiano has yet to report the extent of his holdings in Englewood beyond his ownership of a restaurant and a club.
I beg to differ with you on the Page 1 placement of the Bob Sheppard obituary. His death was all over the mainstream media, and even the Yankees' opponents gave him a moment of silence before the game in Seattle. He was an important figure in Yankee history, and there are many Yankee fans among Record readers. I was very comfortable seeing it on the front.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I felt the choice of headline, referring to Sheppard as the "Sultan of Syllable," was weak. How weak was it? It was so weak a 98-pound weakling could kick sand in its face. Give the guy a dignified headline, not a weak pun that would have a tenth of the Record's highbrow readership asking, "What's a syllable?" Even something like "Yankee fans mourn major loss."
If the copy chief is reading this, it is meant as constructive criticism and not as a knock on the paper.
I'm not a baseball fan, but know Mel Allen and the other great Yankee announcers, all of whom deserve the bottom of A-1 when they die. But not in a paper that denies that placement for a Supreme Court justice and other prominent members of the community. As for the head, I agree with you. The play on "Sultan of Swat" doesn't work here and likely was intended to hype the man and justify the Page 1 lead.
ReplyDeleteI thought the klapisch column was good, the headline was terrible. Sheppard was big enough to end up on page 1 of the Times, so I've got no problem with the Record's placement of his obituary.
ReplyDelete