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| The beach at Cape May, a jewel of the Jersey shore. |
By Victor E. Sasson
Editor
The danger of wrapping a supermarket flier around the main news section is that readers might find Thanksgiving promotions more interesting than anything a turkey like Staff Writer John Brennan has to report about horse racing (A-1).
And what is the publisher of The Record trying to say by wrapping a hearing-aid advertisement around today's Sports section?
Important news
There is compelling reading scattered throughout the paper today, starting with a dramatic Page 1 account of how three women and a girl from different walks of life were all victims of domestic violence, and another piece on the law (A-1 and O-1).
Giving a lie to the bounty promised by the ShopRite ad wrapped around the A-section today, a story on the Local front reports on a continued decline in donations to North Jersey food pantries (L-1).
Even a Business front story on the proposed ban on trans fats (B-1) has more universal appeal than all that front-page space Editor Marty Gottlieb wasted on The Meadowlands Racetrack and gambling addicts (A-1).
Veteran newsroom staffers will get a kick out of the black-and-white photo of a packed grandstand on opening day of the racetrack, Sept. 1, 1976, showing two lifers, Jim "Corny" Cornelius and Vinny Byrne, as young men eagerly pressing against the fence (A-6).
More A-1 space is wasted on Governor Christie, the new chairman of the Republican Goobers Association, and corporate campaign donations.
Tolls going up
On the Local front today, Road Warrior John Cichowski awakes from a deep sleep and finally takes notice of all the road construction that has been driving his readers crazy for several years (L-1).
But even without road work, commuting by car, bus and train is a nightmare -- a story Cichowski has ignored.
And another phase of the increases Christie rubber stamped go into affect next Sunday, when E-ZPass tolls at the Hudson River crossings go up to $11 during peak hours and $9 off-peak -- 75 cents higher than before.
The $13 cash toll doesn't increase, but the Dec. 1 hikes are only the third of five scheduled through 2015 by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which the governor packed with his cronies.
Why is the GWB cash toll $13 -- $8 more than at the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York?
Stupid idea
On L-3, a story on Englewood officials providing free LED bulbs to downtown store owners willing to leave their lights on until midnight would be only a cosmetic fix for the city's main street.
What do officials intend to do about all of the vacant storefronts on Palisade Avenue?
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| Palisade Avenue in Englewood. |
Downsized staff
A full-page ad on the back of the Local section shows what appears to be the entire skeleton crew running The Record, North Jersey Media Group's flagship daily (L-8).
Contrast the small number of employees shown in what I'm guessing is the publishing company's Rockaway Township press room with the 1,500 who worked for the paper at its peak in Hackensack, which the Borg family abandoned in 2009.
Sloppy editing
Poor editing continues, as confused readers can see from the Business front story on trans fats (B-1).
A photo shows Admiration-brand Pro-Fry -- liquid shortening made by the Supreme Oil Co. in Englewood -- with the words "ZERO TRANSFAT" clearly visible on the package front.
But in the second paragraph, the story reports "demand for Pro-Fry ... made with trans fatty partially hydrogenated oil ... has been on the wane and may soon disappear."
Production Editor Liz Houlton should be asked, Does it or doesn't it have trans fats?
Good neighbor?
Supreme Oil Co. is well-known in Englewood for using unusually noisy tractors to move truck trailers to an Englewood Avenue lot around the corner from its South Dean Street headquarters.
Because Dean Street is one way in the wrong direction, the noisy tractors wake up residents through the night as they use residential streets, including Grand Avenue, which is lined with apartments.
JFK and the media
The Record's three-week focus on where readers were when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, completely missed the point.
Most of that space should have been devoted to his legacy as a great president and the contrast he represents to the sorry lot of selfish, conservative leaders we have today -- from Christie to House Speaker John Boehner to your favorite Tea Party crackpot (See Your Views, O-3).
Say what?
It's hard to understand how Houlton, who is paid six-figures to supervise editing and proofreading, can allow the following sentence to get into the paper, especially on A-1.
"As of [Beth] Fabbricatore's death Monday, theirs constituted the gross majority of Bergen County's five homicides in 2013."
In other words, as of Monday, domestic violence killed four of the five homicide victims in Bergen County this year.
