Dead time at The Record

I flew through today's thin edition of  The Record of Woodland Park, which is filled with stories I saw on the TV news last night. Most of the front page is devoted to a story under the headline, "Dead time on campus," that was probably in a can for several weeks and hauled out by desperate, incompetent editors with no real news to offer.

As my dear, departed news copy desk colleague, Michael Thaler, used to say frequently, "You can't polish a turd."

The Local section leads with council reorganizations, including the swearing in of an official in Rutherford who looks like he is in his 20s and won by one vote. Good luck, residents. Inside, we learn a politically connected lawyer, Frank Huttle, will be sworn in as mayor of Englewood, replacing Michael Wildes, a relentless self-promoter. Good luck to you, too, Englewood residents. Will Huttle use his office to help integrate the city's elementary and middle schools?

News of Hackensack, Teaneck, Ridgewood and a host of other towns? Try a weekly.

Writing and editing of the newspaper continues to deteriorate. From Staff Writer Marlene Naanes, a busy police reporter, we have: "At least 10 drunken driving arrests marred North Jersey roads ...." That is really the wrong word.

Where the jocks are in control

Image via Wikipedia

If you believe The Record of Woodland Park should reflect the values of its sports-loving editor and wealthy owners -- the mansion-loving Borgs -- then you see nothing wrong with devoting most of the front page today to parking problems at the new Giants Stadium in East Rutherford.

You certainly won't find the former Hackensack daily questioning why our society can afford newer, bigger  and more expensive sports venues, while consistently serving up a royal F-U to the poor, the homeless and the hungry -- whose numbers continue to increase.

That big Page 1 story is written by Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski, who long ago lost sight of his core mission to report on commuters and mass transit. He is such a champion of people who'll fight to their death for the privilege of driving alone in their gas guzzlers, he's even got an attitude about the few red-light cameras slated for North Jersey.

Don't look in the Local section today for any education or municipal news about the highly diverse towns of Teaneck, Englewood and Hackensack, where the paper was founded in 1895 and prospered for more than 110 years before moving to Woodland Park. You also won't see anything about why the new homeless shelter in Hackensack was apparently finished weeks ago, but hasn't opened. I guess the paper is waiting for a news release to arrive.

On Page A-22 today, a letter to the editor from Andrew J. Stanish of Elmwood Park asked the same question "Eye on The Record" did Wednesday: Why was Al Frech of Wayne given such a big piece of the editorial page to misinform readers about health-car reform, and just who is Al Frech? He has been just about the only opinion writer who hasn't been identified by the paper.  

Peter Grad, the editor of the Opinion Page, hasn't responded to an e-mail from "Eye on The Record" on why Frech wasn't identified beyond the town he lives in. You can reach him at grad@northjersey.com.

In Better Living today, more precious space and ink is lavished on Blend in Ridgewood. Haven't we read enough about the ups and downs of this apparently flawed restaurant and lounge, judging from the two-star rating from Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung? That's the same rating she gave a faux-Caribbean, chain restaurant on the highway in Wayne called Bahama Breeze. If she had so many problems with the food and service, why run three highly promotional, mouth-watering, color photographs of the fare on the front of the section and inside? No wonder she is referred to in some quarters as Elisa Ugh.

Meanwhile, the lazy editors provide us with only a partial list of restaurant sanitary inspections in North Jersey. For example, when was the last time you saw ratings for restaurants in wealthy Wyckoff?