Inside the world of The Record's DEADBEAT EDITORS

On a typical weekday morning, traffic on Route 3 east toward the Lincoln Tunnel grinds to a halt more than 2 miles from the tollbooths and then proceeds bumper to bumper, a delay of about 45 minutes.

In the afternoon, New Jersey drivers join the long lines of cars on Canal Street in Manhattan to enter the Holland Tunnel, a quarter of a mile away. The lack of mass-transit alternatives to and from New Jersey is especially dramatic during the rush hour.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Except for Page 1 teases, readers of The Record today get only three elements, Gaza, sports and a takeout on "deadbeat dads" -- a less-than-compelling issue in dysfunctional New Jersey.

Staff Writer Colleen Diskin apparently worked on the child-support story for a long time, judging by how few bylines she has had recently, but is that any reason to put the story on the front page?

And what is the point, that taxpayers pay more to jail the "deadbeat" men and women than the child support they finally cough up?

Editor Marty Gottlieb could run a Page 1 takeout every day on the property taxes wasted on services duplicated in every one of Bergen County's 70 towns.

He could run a front-page takeout every day on the broken mass-transit system, increasing traffic congestion and declining enforcement of speeding and aggressive driving.

Gottlieb could, in fact, assign reporters to issues of far greater general interest than "deadbeat dads," if he hadn't, in fact, become one of The Record's "deadbeat editors."

The list is long: Deirdre Sykes, Dan Sforza, Tim Nostrand, etc., etc.

More screw-ups

In big, black type, a headline on Saturday's Local front "gave the wrong location for a fatal car accident that happened Thursday," according to a correction on A-2 today.

A copy editor wrote "Fort Lee" instead of "Ridgefield," which is slightly longer and probably didn't fit in the headline. 

Anyone who has driven on the West Side Highway in Manhattan -- where many drivers exceed the speed limit by 10 mph, 20 mph and more -- knows a Bergen County police officer quoted in Road Warrior John Cichowski's July 18 column is wrong.

In New York City, speeding cameras are used only on local streets in school zones, as Cichowski reported in the same column.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior errors are captured by fact camera

Local news

On the Local front today, an obituary for Celestine Hoffman, the granddaughter of a professional baseball player, seems an odd choice for "A LIFE."

The major element on young people who die of drug overdoses probably is a better candidate for Page 1 than "deadbeat dads" (L-1).

But "opioid" isn't a headline word, and I can't imagine what Production Editor Liz Houlton was thinking when she approved it.

Big-cheese news

Why is the Business section running a glowing profile of multimillionaire William Procida, "who helped revitalize the South Bronx in the 1980s" (B-1)?

Procida's company is based in Englewood Cliffs, but he lives in Piermont, N.Y., and one of his major loans may go to renovate a hotel in Philadelphia.

No-cheese news

The Better Living cover on hard times at food pantries clashes with the excess usually celebrated in the section, including the best dishes food critic Elisa Ung ate this month (BL-1 and BL-4).

In Ung's 4-star review of Cafe Matisse on Friday, I didn't see any mention of salads or vegetables, but she raved about the artery clogging desserts.

You'll have to call the restaurant to find out whether price-fixed dinners for $68, $88 and $108 include dessert, and whether you can substitute another dish, because she is silent on that, as well as whether the meat she sampled is naturally raised.

Healthy eating isn't a priority of the Better Living editors, as readers can see from the Saturday feature on homemade ice cream from freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson, who, if she actually eats all the stuff she writes about, must be as big as a house.

Jackson obviously isn't thinking of all of the diabetics in her audience or the many readers watching their weight or cholesterol.

Downtowns

The Real Estate front on empty-nesters moving downtown includes more information about Englewood's and Hackensack's business districts than has appeared in the paper in the last five years (B-1).

Hackensack news?

Since a flurry of news stories and a column in late June and early July on the removal of Hackensack Economic Development Director Anthony Rottino, who also was acting city manager, residents haven't seen much about their city.

Staff Writer Christopher Maag, who was assigned to replace Hannan Adely, seems to be writing about everything except Hackensack.

Second look

I am just catching up on papers I missed while I was on vacation, and a story on Price Rite caught my eye (L-7 and L-8 on July 1).

The editors continue to struggle with delivering photo captions that are coherent and don't duplicate what readers can see in the photo.

On the continuation page, a photo caption says, "Serge Rodriguez sorting out produce at the Price Rite in Garfield on Monday ahead of the store's 8 a.m opening today."

I do a lot of food shopping. But what is "sorting out produce"?