Image via WikipediaIf you doubt Record Staff Writer John Brennan is in the pockets of Jets and Giants owners, just look at today's highly promotional, gee-whiz, Page 1 coverage of technology at the New Meadowlands Stadium. The story isn't labeled advertising, but it reads exactly like the best public relations money can buy.
To make his case that the stadium is the "most technologically advanced ... in the world," Brennan has to attribute that boast to Giants co-owner John Mara. Still, the reporter is so inept, his lead paragraph is poorly constructed, with the attribution in the wrong place. You'd think Brennan is getting season tickets in return for gushing stories about the new venue.
Why doesn't he write about the sacrifices many Giants fan have to make to pay for exorbitant seat licenses, parking passes and $19 steak sandwiches?
Instead, Brennan's breathless story in the Woodland Park daily is aimed at season ticket holders who like to stare at busty cheerleaders, informing these fans -- with a wink of an eye -- that for $259, they can access a "cheerleader cam ...yes, really." He's a hack -- yes, really.
Will Editor Francis "Frank The Castrato" Scandale come to his senses, and stop running this promotional garbage on A-1? It's doubtful.
The debate over teenage drivers' license tags is back on Page 1 today, but if predators will use tags to identify their victims, as opponents claim, what did these perverts do without license-plate tags in all the decades girls were snatched and killed in North Jersey?
An editorial on Page A-10 opposes making all NJ Transit train and bus riders pay for parking near stations and stops, but doesn't address why some commuters have had to pay and others have parked for free. There's also no mention of how Governor Christie's cuts have forced the transit agency to raise more revenue from its parking lots.
This editorial stance only reminds you of what a piss-poor job lazy transportation reporters Tom Davis and Karen Rouse, and Road Warrior John Cichowski are doing covering mass transit now. They should plant their asses -- not in front of their computers for hours at a time -- but in buses or trains to see how the other half lives.
In Local, Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado provides readers with an update on a proposal for a 19-story, acute-care hospital, but the first paragraph must be in in error by saying it would be built "at Summit and Prospect avenues," which don't intersect (more sloppy copy editing).
Homes would be demolished, and hundreds of residents have attended hearings, but this Hackensack plan hasn't gotten anywhere near the gobs of coverage devoted to opponents of The Valley Hospital expansion in Ridgewood, though no homes or land would be taken there.
I guess head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes is pulling the strings of Alvarado and the reporters on the Ridgewood hospital-expansion controversy.
Alvarado's last story on the Hackensack proposal appeared nearly a year ago. A brief, it reported the original height of the hospital was 24 stories.
Gee, I wonder if the cheerleader cam goes into the dressing room, and if you have to buy a football ticket in order to be eligible for the cam deal. I was sorely disappointed that a picture didn't accompany the article. The Record could use a little T&A in the paper. They sure have enough of it in the newsroom, thanks to a couple of wandering eyes in the recruiting department.
ReplyDeleteI noticed all the T&A in the newsroom when I first went to work there, in 1979, and it just got better and better during all the years I worked there. The male editors don't always think exclusively about journalism, it seems.
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