Media fold when cops clam up

Florida officials took a full six weeks to file charges in the Trayvon Martin shooting.

Trayvon Martin is a name known around the world, but you'd probably have a hard time finding anyone outside North Jersey who knows Malik Williams.


The media hysteria over the fatal shooting of Martin, 17, of Sanford, Fla., finally led to a second-degree murder charge against George Zimmerman -- as The Record's lead Page 1 story reports today -- but the Neighborhood Watch captain was free since Feb. 26. 


Williams, 19, was shot and killed four months ago in Garfield, but no charges have been brought against the two police officers who claimed he was armed with "tools," nor have they been cleared.


The Record has covered the Williams shooting from the start, as well as protest marches and demonstrations, but only the family's lawyer went beyond the prosecutor's closed-mouth press releases to reveal the victim had two bullet holes in his back (Feb. 11, Page 1).


Rewriting handouts


Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her lazy, incompetent minions did no independent reporting after the Williams shooting. They never looked for witnesses or interviewed the owner of the garage where he hid from police.


The Malik Williams and Trayvon Martin cases clearly show the media roll over and play dead when cops and prosecutors clam up and refuse to release information.


Long-time newsroom workers recall the feud between now-suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa and the editors over the release of information on crime, arrests and so forth.


The editors have battled with police chiefs in almost every town The Record covers over the release of information. 


Often, the reporter is told only the chief is authorized to give out information, and, of course, he went home for the day or is off at the donut shop and unavailable for comment.


Tunnel vision


What's the point of another front-page story today -- this one on the hybrid locomotives NJ Transit purchased for use in the Hudson River rail tunnels, which were scuttled by Governor Christie in October 2010?


The locomotives pollute less than pure diesels and have the flexibility to operate on electrified rail lines. That sounds like a win-win, not a waste of money, as The Record story seems to suggest.


The story makes no effort to put the blame on Christie for sticking NJ Transit and the Port Authority with having to honor contracts in connection with the tunnel project.


Nor has the Woodland Park daily reported that commuters will be standing in the aisles on crowded NJ Transit trains and buses into the city for a decade or more before new tunnels are built.


Let's hope officials bury Christie in the cornerstone of that project whenever it begins. 


The locomotive story doesn't belong on Page 1, especially in view of poor editing of the lead paragraph, which claims Christie killed the project "nearly  two years ago."


It was October 2010, as the story says on the continuation page (A-10). That's not "nearly two years ago."


Trees v. solar


On A-22, two letters to the editor concern Tuesday's editorial (and an earlier front-page news story) about 5 acres of trees being cleared for solar panels in Moonachie.


Did The Record run an A-1 story and editorial when acres of trees were cleared for a new Lowe's in Paramus or any housing development you can think of?


News from Zisaville


In Sykes' Local section, continuing coverage of the Zisa criminal trial in Superior Court is the only Hackensack story in the paper (L-3).


Sykes ran a Page 1 story on the start of the trial eight days before testimony actually began, and since then, she has had Staff Writer Stephanie Akin write a blow-by-blow account that is trying to draw meaning from every motion, every objection and every cross-examination.


Few assignment editors have ever covered a civil or criminal trial, but they insist that their reporters read tea leaves and try to predict the outcome long before the jury returns its verdict.


Meanwhile, Zisa's defense attorney, Patricia Prezioso,  is saddled with overwhelming evidence of her client's guilt, so she is putting the prosecution witnesses on trial to distract jurors.


Graphic is mere filler


The lead story on the front of Local today is on a Route 80 crash that killed two men.


But the graphic on L-6 doesn't really show how the Ford F-150 pickup truck is far bigger and heavier, and higher off the ground than the Honda Civic in which the victims died -- factors that contributed the severity of the collision.


An advertising section -- "Boomers Consumer Guide" -- is included in today's paper.


The stories on fitness centers fail to tell readers some Medicare supplemental insurance plans come with free membership in 24 Hour Fitness, Gold's and other gyms.


Maybe if Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg worked out at a gym every day after his spoiled brat of a son took over as publisher, he would have spent less time in front of the computer allegedly sending porn to other managers.