My vacation from fuzzy, amateurish journalism

The line was long and slow moving on Friday at Starbucks Coffee in the New Jersey Turnpike's Thomas Edison Service Area. Speeders, tailgaters, weavers and other aggressive drivers were plentiful on the turnpike and Garden State Parkway, but state police were scarce -- a lack of enforcement The Record continues to ignore.



By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

It's always good to get away from New Jersey and The Record's fuzzy journalism.

I spent several days in Montreal, and didn't read any newspapers, but I did glance at The Globe and Mail, the widely respected national daily published in Toronto.

Returning home on Thursday, I found looking over unread Records a real chore.

I left last Sunday, when The Record's front page was dominated by the 25th anniversary of the Hackensack Ford fire that killed 5 of the city's bravest.

I remember seeing the fire from the newsroom's fourth-floor library on July 1, 1988, when I was a reporter assigned to cover business news.

Major local news

The pathetic Local news section on June 30 led with a real North Jersey scourge: feral cats (L-1).

The Road Warrior column that day continued Staff Writer John Cichowski's minute examination of driving and parking issues with breaking news about repairs to the Route 46 bridge "this fall" (L-1).

The next day, July 1, The Record's front page carried a large photo of a memorial to the 5 firefighters who died in the Hackensack Ford fire.

Falling asleep over A-1

The rest of A-1 is a real snoozer, typical of the balanced approach to boredom under Editor Marty Gottlieb, once a prominent journalist at The New York Times:

The stories were a "new era" at Rutgers University,
a political column on Sen. Jeffrey "Who?" Chiesa, R-N.J.; and a lawsuit filed against Paterson police officers who allegedly beat two handcuffed men.

Dissing Paterson

Under Gottlieb, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes; and Gottlieb's predecessor, Francis Scandale, Paterson has been treated as little more than a center of drugs and prostitution.

The Record has completely ignored the inability of the Silk City's Police Department and its overpaid police chief to protect residents from drive-by shootings and other gun violence -- even before Governor Christie's cut in state aid forced the layoff of 125 cops.

Accident filler

On the July 1 Local front, Sykes ran another filler photo of an overturned car and first responders standing around bullshitting, complete with a photo caption that contained "no information."

The swearing in of a reform City Council in Hackensack ran as an afterthought on a July 2 front page dominated by the memorial service for 19 firefighters in Arizona, and a second arrest in the murder of a Wayne teen (A-1).

Bad headline

The headline on the Hackensack story is a real clunker -- what readers have come to expect from Production Editor Liz Houlton:

Changes

right off 

the top 

"Off the top" is a phrase used in barber shops, but whoever wrote this headline probably was looking for "at the top" to describe replacement of three professionals tied to the Zisa political family.

And I didn't see any interviews with residents who wanted to say good riddance to the four Zisa family allies who wreaked havoc during their 8 years on the council.

Mayor Michael Melfi and the others allowed Ken Zisa to run amuck as police chief instead of firing him many years ago.

On July 3, Road Warrior John Cichowski actually expected readers to believe adults "lose track" of children in the back seat, leading to their death from heat stroke (L-1).

Another food scam

On July 4, Better Living acquainted readers with so-called foodie Sameer Sarmast's Halal Food Tour, set for tomorrow at the armory in Teaneck (BL-1).

A previous report on June 24 omitted the hours, noon to 8 p.m.

But the paper lets down readers, as it has done so many times when discussing kosher meat and poultry, which are more expensive than non-kosher food.

Kosher and halal meat and poultry don't guarantee higher quality; the vast majority of animals are raised with harmful antibiotics and growth hormones, and higher prices aren't justified.

Real fishy

Freelance Julia Sexton continued The Record's promotion of fattening, artery clogging desserts on Friday in her lukewarm review of Ridgewood Fare, another overpriced restaurant (BL-16).

Sexton didn't like some of the food, including the $22 mahi mahi taco her husband ordered, but she goofed when she referred to the fish as "none-too-fresh tuna."

Mahi mahi is also known as dolphin fish; it isn't related to tuna.

More problems

Today's paper is filled with sloppy, amateurish journalism.

Readers might wonder why the lead story on Page 1 doesn't refer to the Jersey shore until they get to the continuation page and learn the gas pipeline would be 8.5 miles closer to Jones Beach in New York than to Long Branch, which is 28 miles away from the planned route (A-6).

As do past stories, the umpteenth report on LG's controversial plan to build a 143-foot-high corporate headquarters fails to emphasize the building would be built on top of the tree-shrouded Palisades, between Sylvan Avenue and the Hudson River (A-1).

The description used now -- "along Sylvan Avenue in Englewood Cliffs above the Palisades" -- is too vague.

No news here

On the Local front, a huge photo of a house fire in Cliffside Park is complete with a caption that tells readers nothing beyond what they can see (L-1).

Finally, in a story on today's Local front, does The Record really expect readers to believe a group of Passaic city natives actually drank water from the polluted Passaic River (L-1)?