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Baseball above the fold on Page 1 of The Record of Woodland Park today, and it's not even the World Series.
On the front of Local, a story that should have been on the front page, paired with the Tyler Clementi-inspired suicide prevention forum in Ridgewood, but Editor Francis "Jock Itch" Scandale doesn't see it.
No Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood municipal news in the paper.
The Teaneck-based newspaper, The Jewish Standard, is reconsidering a decision to ban same-sex marriage notices after buckling under the criticism of Orthodox rabbis. (The editor is the wife of former Record staffer Warren Boroson).
Why is this on the front of Local, unless it is filler for stories the staff didn't file -- again?
The poor residents of Garfield. They've waited 27 years for the cleanup of cancer-causing chromium, and now even if the work begins today, it will take another decade.
But isn't the story the same in Pompton Lakes, Ringwood and other communities?
All these cases expose massive failures of government to protect residents -- and how pathetically weak The Record has been in bringing about change in the communities it covers.
The story is the same inside the newsroom, where Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Loafs A Lot" Sykes resist change at all costs.
And how about the column about the Fort Lee mayor who reported a bribe attempt? That would have been perfect paired with the A-1 story on the bribery trial of Ridgefield's mayor.
Oh, that baseball game. Much more important, and Scandale gets to slap the asses of the other male editors in self-congratulations.
Local food coverage in Better Living? Nope. Just more wire service pieces -- one on canned pumpkin on the front and, inside, a pasta recipe. Food coverage appears to be in the same steep decline as local news coverage.
It's 11:20 Thurs night and I just got a phone call on a RESTRICTED line from a woman who sounds suspiciously like someone we both know. She claims her name is Sarah and she asks where I got the scoop tonight on the FOX5 guy arrested in Wyckoff and charged with sexual assault on a minor.
ReplyDelete"Whoa, hold on....Why do you want to know?"
She calls herself "an interested resident" (how many real people use that term?) who's curious about where I got the story from.
"I was just wondering: Did the police call you and tell you?"
Eventually the shock wore off and I said:
"Do you think I was fuckin' born yesterday?" Then I hung up.
I will not mention a name, lest it get me in a legal predicament. But I will say there was more than a hint of a familiar ValGirl tone that I once was familiar with.
That's right, douchebags. I got the story. Not you, not anyone else. Wanna know how?
Sorry. I tried telling people how to do it in a previous life and was ignored. Why should I give it away, gratis, now -- esp. when I'm on the brink of adding new people, at a time when my numbers are skyrocketing, when I've connected with two schools of higher learning and am working on a few others to tap into some rich talent and man/womanpower?
I accuse no one. But when you think about it -- the time of night, the circumstances....
Remember the Joe Pesci character in "Raging Bull" (reprised on YouTube as Barney Rubble)? He has that great line: "Where do you get your balls askin' me somethin' like that?"
Where, indeed.