Please tell me the whole story

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Look at that Page 1 photo of a fully loaded garbage truck seemingly suspended over a stream in Glen Rock, where Editor Frank "Castrato" Scandale lives. Pretty dramatic. Read the caption, then the so-called story on L-6. Have questions? The answers are nowhere to be found today in The Record of Woodland Park.

Next to that A-1 photo, a story says the state has to borrow $2.25 billion to pay bills. Gee, would revenue from a millionaires' tax Governor Christie refused to impose on the Borgs and his rich friends help cut the borrowing? What about raising the low gasoline tax? No answers here.


I get a real kick out of the front-page story today on the new Meadowlands stadium, and the incomprehensible sidebar on A-6 about parking. Did jock-itching, high-fiving, ass-slapping Scandale put this on the front page to expose how the teams are gouging fans -- from $1,000 personal seat licenses to $25 parking passes to $19 steak sandwiches? Nope. These stories seem to promote, nay celebrate, the venue.


The same reporter, John Brennan, had two more stories about the new stadium on Thursday, though they looked out of place in the Local news section. Don't expect anything hard-hitting from Brennan, who has a lucrative public-relations career ahead of him. Do you think we'll see an editorial suggesting "Rip-Off the Fans Stadium" as the new name? 


Back to the garbage truck hanging over the stream. That L-6 photo is huge -- to fill space the Local staff and head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes couldn't possibly fill. That's also why there are three wire obituaries (on people no one has heard about before) filling a half-page of L-5, and Star-Ledger stories about a man in East Brunswick (L-3) and a town near Cherry Hill (L-2).


The story about the garbage truck, by veteran reporter Merry Firschein, doesn't name the stream and doesn't say how much diesel oil was spilled, whether the driver was speeding, lost his brakes or fell asleep; whether police issued a summons or summonses; or whether the state or town will be suing the truck owner to recover cleanup costs. 



Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado writes about the plans of a Hackensack restaurant to expand and reopen, while ignoring  the problems of Main Street restaurants and other food businesses, some of which have closed during the recession, made worse by the move of hundreds of North Jersey Media Group employees out of the city. 

Did she do a story on The Restaurant on Prospect Avenue because it is represented by Joseph Ferriero, the onetime Democratic power broker?  

Does anyone edit any of these stories? What about Dan Sforza and the other clueless assignment editors? What about the news-cum-layout editors? What about the news copy editors? Or do the copy editors merely resign themselves to just processing an endless stream of waste matter, knowing that any attempt to improve stories or even make them complete will be soundly rejected by Scandale, Sykes and their minions?  

(Photo: New Meadowlands stadium and train station.)