Image via WikipediaIn her first Sunday column since returning from a six-month maternity leave, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung informs readers: " We're in a period of transition here, reevaluating all aspects of our coverage of food and dining [an apparent reference to new Food Editor Susan Sherill]."What do you find the most useful? What would you like to see more of? What should we dump."
What should The Record of Woodland Park dump? In a word, Ung or, as I like to refer to her, Ugh.
That would complete a house cleaning that began with the presumably voluntary departure of her previous boss, Bill Pitcher.
In their restaurant reviews and other coverage, Pitcher and Ung almost completely ignored rising consumer concern with how food is grown or raised on America's factory farms, while celebrating artery-clogging desserts and hamburgers made with drug- and hormone-filled beef, as Ung does in today's column.
Ung has been in the job since 2007, and came to The Record from the Philadelphia Inquirer. But I guess she has never learned journalists, including food writers, should be leaders, not followers. Ung and her editor should be setting the criteria for food coverage, not readers.
The imam as landlord
What exactly is the connection between poorly maintained North Jersey apartment buildings owned by a Muslim cleric and the mosque and Islamic cultural center he wants to build near Ground Zero (lead story and Mike Kelly column on Page 1 today)?
This coverage, including a rare byline for Jean Rimbach, clearly is intended to smear the imam, because The Record has virtually ignored all the slumlords in Paterson and Passaic city over the years, despite fire deaths, lead-paint poisonings and all the other ills visited on their working-class and immigrant tenants.
The front page today has a lot of hard news, but the story on shootings in Paterson is difficult for the majority of readers in North Jersey to relate to.
More change needed
You wouldn't catch John Cichowski dead riding a train or bus to evaluate the service for his Road Warrior commuting column. But here he is today on the Local front with a blame-the-victim piece on pedestrians killed by trains. It's time for him to go, too.
Nowhere does he question the adequacy of fencing and other safety measures taken by NJ Transit to prevent those deaths. And Cichowski's claim that one man determined to kill himself tried suicide by train three times before he was successful raises a question the gullible reporter never asked: How did anyone know that?
No Hackensack news appears in today's paper.
Victor, I too was at a loss when trying to make the connection between the Imam's reputation as a landlord and the mosque 4 blocks away from Ground Zero. The only purpose of the article was to further Islamphobia in this area. What a joke.
ReplyDeleteAs for the food section, I too would like to see less of Ung. Also had to laugh when I read the Eating out on $50 piece by Jeffrey Page. The restaurant was King of Shish Kabob in West Paterson. Really Jeffrey, was it that difficult to eat at King of Shish Kabob in West Paterson for under $50? He ordered majadara as one of the entrees for $7. Had Eating out on $50 still been for 4 dinners this would of still been a weak review, however for 2 dinners it was pretty pathetic.
I agree with you on both points.
ReplyDeleteJeffrey Page keeps on going back to King of Shish Kabob, apparently unaware there are so many other better choices in South Paterson.
And, of course, as you say, the review is of no use to readers, who don't need help finding places where two can eat for $50. They probably still throw him these freelance crumbs and allow him to do these reviews because of all his years of loyal service in The Record newsroom.
When I did the $50 reviews for four people, I was paid a $150 fee, plus mileage and $50 for food, tip and tax. If I spent more, I was out of luck.
Unfortunately, Page has a big weight problem, so should he even be doing these reviews and eating dessert?
Typical Record hatchet job on the imam, reminds me of their vendetta against Bob Torricelli. Guilt by association with Janiszewski, who the Record is careful to point out was bribed by other parties, no evidence pointing a finger at Rauf, only the implication. And even Menendez, that lowlife, got him a grant, how did ol' Bob ever get into Congress after being tainted by Hudson County politics.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, the Asshole Becks and Fox Newses aren't even going to try and protect their asses from a libel suit in sullying the imam's reputation. What I didn't see in this story was: Are these Section 8 apartments, as one commenter seemed to imply? Are other buildings on the same and surrounding blocks in similarly poorly kept up condition?
Don't get me wrong. No landlord should tolerate rats and roaches. But many do. I'm surprised, however, that the Record didn't seize the opportunity to blame the imam for all the bedbugs in Hudson County.
In a way, it's nice to see ol' Kelly get fired up about something, even if his righteous indignation is misdirected. At least he's expressing some indignation.
As for ol' Elisa Ung, I'm sure she was only doing what her new boss suggested, see what the readers would like in a new food section. Instead of taking a negative "dump Ung" attitude, it might be more effective to simply write that as a reader of the Record, which you are, you would like to see more coverage of the origin of food, and you could encourage the many readers of your excellent food blog to respond to Ung's request with a similar request. Why, before you know it, you may be reading that the raspberry mousse for dessert was made from a grass-fed mousse in Maine. Just kidding, I'm serious about taking the more-flies-with-honey road.
Thanks for giving all of us a lot to chew on.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if there will be a follow up piece by Shmuley Boteach, the Englewood Rabbi who lives next door to the home owned by the Libyan government. He is one of the Record's favorite people, they have actually done 13 pieces on him in the past 18 months.
ReplyDeleteYou wouldn't think a rabbi would be such a publicity monger, and you wouldn't think reporters would be so gullible. But they are because it makes "good copy." Boteach also is an author, and you can just imagine the mortgage on that pile of stone he lives in, so he's got to keep his publicity machine going. On the one hand, you have Former Publisher Maclolm A. Borg and his neighbors trying to block the expansion of a synagogue on his East Hill block, and on the other hand, The Record's desperate editors prostrate themselves in front of Rabbi Boteach, who lives about a mile away from Borg. Boteach knew full well he was moving in next door to the Libyans. What a joke.
ReplyDelete