Image via WikipediaEven when the Yankees lose, Editor Francis Scandale just can't stop the itching from his jock strap and resist the need to slap the other male editors' asses in the news meeting, where he undoubtedly ordered the layout drones to cover most of the front page today with a photo and caption about those turkeys.
The other stories on Page 1 of The Record of Woodland Park are more federal fine-tuning on the cost of the Hudson River tunnel Governor Christie dislikes so much, a story about charter school teachers who have joined a union and another on third-party candidates.
How boring can you get? A-1 seems to alternate between gory, tabloid news and process stories that put readers to sleep.
In Local, Hackensdack reporter Monsy Alvarado has the second story in three days on the possible rezoning of the struggling Main Street shopping district -- after she ignored public forums on the proposals held in the past couple of months.
Today's story reports the City Council on Thursday night hired a planner and an attorney "to help revamp zoning regulations along Main Street." Why is this buried on L-3?
Gee, I'm surprised the city doesn't already have enough planners and attorneys to do the job in-house. Alvarado reports Douglas Doyle of the DeCotiss Fitzpatrick & Cole law firm will be paid $125 an hour. The hourly rate for Planner Francis Reiner isn't given.
The reporter doesn't quote one of the city's many gadflies on the need to hire them.
City taxpayers should be concerned because the Main Street Business Alliance hired Street-Works LLC of New York to work up a detailed proposal for rezoning Main Street, with specific suggestions on what kind of developers could be invited to remake downtown, including a return to two-way traffic.
Is the planner and attorney hired by the council just going to duplicate that work?
See previous post on the first anniversary
of Eye on The Record
of Eye on The Record
Whether you like sports or not, a local team losing in the playoffs will always be front-page news, save for a major, national catastrophe. It has nothing to do with ass-slapping or the male editors. And I highly doubt that those poor "layout drones" were saying to themselves "geez, the Yankees on page 1? This should be buried!"
ReplyDeleteThis is all basic information in journalism school. The sooner you accept this, the better.
Why should I accept this -- sooner or later? A photo in the bottom corner of the front page would suffice, if it has to be on the front page at all.
ReplyDeleteA far bigger story, and one of more concern to readers than baseball, is the possible remaking of Main Street in Hackensack, including a return to two-way traffic.
This "local team" is on the front so much because a huge photo takes up the space of stories the editors were too lazy or irresponsible to do.
Surely, there are other issues that deserve to be on Page 1. This is supposed to be a newspaper, after all, and it has a great Sports section, I'm told.
Victor, it's too bad you're not a sports fan, because you're missing out on one of the reasons people buy the Record. Ask Jerry how well that department functions.
ReplyDeleteThe Yankees ARE news, they always have been. Check their TV ratings, more people watch a Yankee game on the YES Network than the local news. Fact. And thousands of parents and grandparents buy the Record every day to read their kids' name in the paper.
So an issue that affects people living, working or driving in Hackensack deserves bigger play over a professional baseball team that is loved all over this area - including Hackensack? I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteWish you had mentioned Klapisch, who on Wednesday said that the Yankees had struck fear into the heart of Texas, on Thursday said there was no resaon the series would not go to 7 games and on Saturday said the Yankees were outplayed in the entire series. What a joke. Love the comments on here from the typical arrogant Yankee fans. How bout them Yankees fellas?
ReplyDeleteVictor's just off base (ha, ha) on this. Philly Inky made the Phillies the patch when they were eliminated. Most papers do it that way in those circumstances. You almost have to.
ReplyDeleteDisagree, too, with the aforementioned remarks byy DeMarco, who seems impressed that the trains run on time compared with the news sections. It's that way lots of places -- just the nature of sports departments, partly because almost everything is scheduled well in advance so you can plan for it, unlike a stabbing or train wreck. The nightly deadline dance is a skill, but not one requiring intellectual depth. I was going to mention this when Jerry wrote his post, but let it go. But he clearly has not much experience observing sports departments.
A "great section?" No, it's about 10 years removed from that. That's how long since it's been a player in breaking news against the big boys. Now it's a decent summation of the previous day's news, but shallow. The writing snd the story selection aren't going to make anyone think, there are no "scoops" on pro beats now, and the recycled tabloid pun headlines just numb out regular readers. Some talented, glib folks over there, but the section is generally juvenile. The notion that one of them could replace Fatso on local news is a ludicrous suggestion -- they have no interest in local news, or in the real world, for that matter.
I'm with Victor on the sports issue. Leave the sports news on the sports pages. The front page should have real news. The argument that it's what most people want to see is irrelevant. A newspaper should aim higher. Instead of dumbing itself down to the lowest common denominator of the masses, it should seek to elevate intelligence.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDelete