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| The rush-hour stampede for a seat on an NJ Transit train at Manhattan's Penn Station is one of the unpleasant features of using mass transit, but The Record would rather write story after story on Superstorm Sandy damage to locomotives and rail cars. |
By Victor E. Sasson
Editor
You can't exactly call a story about how many dead people are buried in North Arlington a bright spot, but there is so little else of interest on Page 1 of The Record today it will have to do.
Editor Marty Gottlieb keeps shoving Superstorm Sandy reports and politics down our throats, including a Herb Jackson column that pretends the U.S. Senate election between Democrat Cory Booker and Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan isn't a forgone conclusion (A-1).
Service is story
Staff Writer Karen Rouse has been scooping other media on NJ Transit's incompetence in storing equipment in a low-lying rail yard that was swamped by Superstorm Sandy (A-1).
But 10 months after the storm, she has yet to connect the dots, and tell readers whether all those ruined rail cars have 1) intensified the scramble for a seat during the rush hour, and 2) what NJ Transit is doing about the problem.
Talk about deadlines
The story on Holy Cross Cemetery by Jay Levin, the local obituary writer, would have been a lot better, if anecdotes appeared out front and the opening paragraph's gee-whiz statistics were left for the continuation page (A-6).
As it is, I lost interest plowing through all of those numbers on the front page.
As for the U.S. Senate, Governor Christie's lame pick to fill the late Frank Lautenberg's seat has been a no-show on 21% of the votes cast (A-3).
What excuse did former state Attorney General Jeffrey "Who?" Chiesa offer? A family vacation.
Local news
There is more weirdness today.
Why run a huge Page 1 photo of an overweight Charley Samuels, 15, of Ridgewood at Sandy Hook after the 17.5-mile Ederle Swim, but not a recognizable photo of 46-year-old Lynn Ascione, the Ramsey woman who beat the teen's time decisively (L-1)?
She swims 17 1/2 miles and you're pointing out she's overweight. I love this blog and the window in gives us.
ReplyDeleteYes. Can you imagine how much she has to eat to maintain all of that extra weight? She must be reading Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's obsessive reporting about desserts, such as her enthusiastic report today on fruit empanadas at Fusion Empanada in Hackensack (Better Living cover).
ReplyDeleteWhen I looked at the photo of Charley Samuels, my first thought is that all that fat insulates her against the cold water, but Lynn Ascione, the 46-year-old who beat her, is probably in great shape and shows excessive weight isn't needed.
The Record, of course, has consistently avoided reporting on the obesity epidemic and what Governor Christie has or hasn't done about it.
And the paper has carefully avoided comparing the GOP bully's lame efforts to those of Michelle Obama and Bill Clinton.
And that you're obsessing about a 15-year-old's weight publicly. I love that!
ReplyDeleteHer parents should be the ones who are concerned, but obviously they have no control over her.
ReplyDeleteThe whole family may be in denial like Governor Christie and some of the obese editors at The Record. Maybe even you. How's your weight?