Image via WikipediaFor the third time in less than a week, a front-page story in The Record of Woodland Park today has a confusing first paragraph that leaves readers wondering if it's them or just incredibly sloppy editing.
And the biggest element on the page -- mosque opponents and proponents rallying near Ground Zero (photo) -- carries a headline that merely restates what has been obvious for weeks: "Mosque emotions high." Maybe the headline writer was high.
Transportation reporter Tom Davis and his clueless assignment editor abhor straight writing. Their lead paragraphs often contain a play on words or a distorted angle or some gimmick to snare readers, and so it is today with the A-1 story on the possible privatization of NJ Transit parking lots. (Why is this leading the paper; isn't it just a study now?)
"North Jersey commuters may soon have to pay more to park near trains and buses so that they can pay less to ride them."Huh? "Pay less to ride them." What does that mean? Will the fares be cut? They just went up. Does the reporter mean pay less than driving? Commuters who use trains and buses are doing that now, have been for years. He couldn't resist the "pay more-pay less" tension, but he loses readers in the process.
Davis is like the other transportation reporters at The Record. He prefers writing about proposals, studies and reports rather than riding and rating mass transit on behalf of long-suffering commuters, who have to ride standing up on many lines.
And when writing about NJ Transit's deficit, as he does today, he never reminds readers that Governor Christie cut state aid to mass transit, forcing the recent fare hikes.
A-1 coverage of the mosque controversy merely duplicates what other media have been doing for a few weeks now. Where are the North Jersey voices? Where are quotes from Muslims who opened mosques in Teaneck, Hackensack and Paterson?
The Local section today is consumed with non-profit and charity news. I wish the desperate editors would ban stories about bikers who roar around North Jersey on charity runs until the motorcycle owners stop making their machines as loud as possible and destroying the quality of life of every block they blast down, usually at some ungodly hour.
The lead story is about Bergenfield joining other towns in putting solar panels on public buildings, and last week a story reported how much Waldwick is saving from doing the same thing. Hackensack officials also have plans to install solar panels on their buildings, but I guess Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado and head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes still have their beauty-sleep masks on.
At least two people wrote letters to the editors recently, saying they couldn't find the entrance to the new Overpeck Park, but the letters were printed without comment by Editor Charles Saydah, who was out for his midday jog. Now, Mike Kelly devotes an L-1 column to the question, in a lame attempt to ridicule county officials.
For those who don't want to slog through Kelly's drivel, the entrance's address is shown in the photo with the column: 199 Challenger Blvd., Ridgefield Park.
Susan Leigh Sherill, the new food editor hand-picked by Publisher Stephen A. Borg, hasn't joined the staff yet, according to Page F-2 of Better Living today. Her previous journalism jobs are as food and entertainment editor of (201) magazine and editor of The Ridgewood News, a weekly owned by the Borgs' North Jersey Media Group.
She proved controversial in the Ridgewood editor's job, as a review of The Ridgewood Blog for 2007-08 shows. Although she had supporters, many faulted her for favorable coverage of the school board, and a multitude of other so-called sins.
You have to take these comments with a grain of salt, especially if you are familiar with the hysterical residents opposed to the expansion of The Valley Hospital. They are so desperate, they've resorted to saying construction will endanger the health of children at a nearby middle school, without providing any evidence to support that contention. (Of course, that didn't stop The Record's Mary Jo Layton and other reporters from printing and reprinting the allegation without ever asking for that evidence.)
If you read The Ridgewood Blog comments about Sherill, you'll probably agree with me the village should be renamed "Richwood" or "Bitchwood."
Here's a link to some of the comments: "What's wrong with The Ridgewood News?"
I want to thank Editor Francis "Castrato" Scandale for the great job he is doing with the front page, appealing to readers' base instincts with fear-mongering, as today's mosque story is designed to do.
This mosque baloney is nothing more than an election year ploy by Republicans, Tea Partyers and Rupert Murdoch to topple the Democrats in national races and divert attention from the devastated state of the economy. By not taking a stand in favor of the cultural center the Record is pandering to its Republican readers and slapping in the face the large Muslim community it should be trying to attract. Never mind that such a stand would be the right thing to do.
ReplyDeleteI agree wholeheartedly. The editors are desperate to sell papers, and they push readers' buttons to do that almost every day.
ReplyDeleteThe opinion section has its cadre of regular writers from the Muslim community. You'd think the paper would start one of their submissions out front, unless they've been banned from the paper by now as well.
ReplyDeleteYes. I'd like to see more columns and opinion stuff on the front page, now seemingly reserved for some of the lousy columnists at the paper, including Mike Kelly and John Cichowski. There is so much crap on Page 1 day after day, you'd think they would have opened it to others long ago.
ReplyDeleteThe mere fact that the Record and other media continue to refer to it as a mosque on Ground Zero is a farce. The proposed mosque is not on Ground Zero, it is 2 blocks away. I have been afraid of the direction this country has gone in the past 8 years or so however the continued "us against them" attitude of many white Americans (who in their heads believe they are some sort of endangered species) makes me even more afraid.
ReplyDeleteThe proposed site is actually farther away than that. The Record ran a FACT CHECK from the Associated Press the other day, reporting it is four, normal Lower Manhattan blocks away, but the two-block reference won't die, especially on TV news.
ReplyDeleteThis whole mosque debate, plus the way it is being covered by the media, is making me ashamed to be an American and a journalist.
ReplyDelete