Editors no speaky Spanish

Image via Wikipedia

Many families in Guatemala are supported by illegal immigrants in North Jersey.

What do you do when a Guatemalan immigrant is killed in Passaic and apparently the only reporter you have who speaks Spanish covers the city of Hackensack?

"Screw Hackensack," Editors Francis Scandale and Deirdre Sykes of The Record said in unison at the Tuesday morning news conference in Woodland Park, dispatching Monsy Alvarado to report and write today's heart-rending story at the bottom of Page 1.


Alvarado, however, seemed intent on not telling readers right away that victim Antonio Chiroy entered the country illegally, and the story never actually uses the phrase "illegal immigrant." 


Was that an oversight by Alvarado's clueless assignment editor or Liz Houlton's news copy desk? The copy desk also uses "SLAYING" as a jump word on A-1, but the jump head on A-6 says "BEATING."


Stories about illegal immigrants who support families in Mexico, Guatemala and other countries are few and far between in The Record, and it's clear that to get in the paper today, Chiroy had to be murdered.


In white news ...


Of course, the big front-page news today is aimed at the paper's favorite demographic -- the overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly wealthy residents of Ridgewood.


Judging by the coverage of protesters, you'd think expansion of The Valley Hospital is a project akin to the Hoover Dam. The editors are clearly on the side of opponents.


Just look at the drop headline on A-1:

Hospital expansion could change face of village

That's  so exaggerated, it's laughable. 


The hospital's "expansion" plan is confined to its current campus, and doesn't require the taking of more land -- though you won't find that in today's story by Staff Writer Mary Jo Layton. 


That's rich


In the third A-1 story today, Rep. Leonard Lance, R-Clinton, calls for rejection of tax-deduction caps in President Obama's jobs bill -- tax increases that would affect individuals making more than $200,000 a year or couples making more than $250,000.


Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson actually quotes Lance as saying the tax hikes "will hurt, not help, the Garden State's struggling economy." 


But are wealthy residents the ones who are struggling?


Local yokels


Sykes' Local sections today and Tuesday contain little local news.


The lead story on L-1 Tuesday was a preview of today's A-1 report on the Ridgewood hospital-plan hearing.


A huge chunk of Tuesday's Local front is taken up by another No-One-Was-Injured photo, this one showing a truck fire on Route 17 in Paramus.


On Tuesday's front page, Scandale continued to turn his back on his staff by running a photo from Kenya -- rather than an image of life in North Jersey.


Fortress mentality


The big error in big type at the top of Monday's front page -- the headline over the unveiling of the 9/11 memorial on Sunday -- was never corrected, just as the editors ignored their confusion in two Page 1 stories recently between the borough of Point Pleasant and Point Pleasant Beach.

Sorrow etched in stone

Of course, the only problem is the names of 9/11 victims are etched in bronze. Who screwed that up?


Name game


Monday's paper also raised a question that was never answered -- what do we call the World Trade Center site destroyed a decade ago?


In Monday's paper, there are references in headlines, captions and text to "trade center memorial," "Ground Zero," "reborn World Trade Center site," "9/11 Memorial Plaza," and "new 9/11 Memorial Plaza" -- and that's just on the front page.


An A-6 photo caption on Monday called the reflecting pools the "National September 11 Memorial." Monday's New York Times continued to refer to a lower-case "ground zero."

More words, but not always the right ones

Image via Wikipedia

Artist's conception of the new World Trade Center.

The Record's overwhelming coverage of 9/11 in the Sunday paper is followed today by more overwhelming coverage of the 10th anniversary of the attack on America.


The top half of Page 1 carries an unusually large photo of one of the memorial pools and victims' names under a headline shaped from a few eloquent words: "Sorrow etched in stone."


Though well-written, the headline isn't accurate. 


The victims' names are carved in bronze -- not stone -- as noted in both the A-1 story and photo caption.


Only two stories appear under the photo, and if you compare them, Staff Writer Shawn Boburg's well-written news reports puts to shame Columnist Mike Kelly's trite, gimmick-filled column.


Boburg's first paragraph describes a "reborn World Trade Center ... and the transformation of a place that for a decade spoke of horror and destruction," while Kelly's lead seems to be delivering a weather report:

"NEW YORK -- Once again, it was a perfect morning, with a golden dawn streaking through Manhattan's canyons and a quiet seamless azure sky overhead like a protective canopy."

His second paragraph mentions "the threat of another attack scratching at our collective fear." 


Scratching???? I stopped reading there.


Kelly puts his foot in his mouth so often, he must be a favorite of Editors Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who seem to care nothing about the poor reader who has to plow through his turgid prose.


Most of Sykes' Local section is filled with coverage of 9/11 ceremonies closer to home -- 36 of them.


Then, readers are jolted by a story on L-7 about drunk Jets football fans tailgating at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford and waving American flags.


Why is this in the local-news section, and why is it juxtaposed with all that 9/11 coverage?


The story -- from Staff Writer John Brennan -- includes two uses of the phrase "just like usual."

More strikes against home rule

Image by U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Northeast Region via Flickr

The Great Swamp really was swamped by Hurricane Irene.

Today's editorial blames "civilization" -- not all those poorly run North Jersey towns desperate for ratables -- for repeated flooding that crested with the destruction of Hurricane Irene.


The editorial on Page A-20 of The Record of Woodland Park says:


"Environmentalists and state environmental officials have spent years shouting into the void that paving over flood plains, building houses in flood plains and generally ceding common sense to the lure of commercial development is about as wrong a move as civilization can make."


Of course, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin knows the shouting should have been at all those petty officials who hammer homeowners with high property taxes to run their expensive, inefficient home-rule towns, so why doesn't he say so?


Power plays


And how many businesses and homeowners have to lose power and sustain millions of dollars in damages before building officials insist that any new wires be installed underground, and that utilities begin to take down poles and put wires out of harm's way (A-1)?


Why do readers need an A-1 news story on the reopening of roads and a Road Warrior column on the same subject (Local front)?


In the second story marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11, what's the big deal about the rate of volunteerism falling from 28.8% in 2005 to 26.3% in 2010, and why did Editor Francis Scandale put the story on Page 1?


The only good thing about the piece by Staff Writer Harvy Lipman is the non-profit reporter's byline has been appearing more than once a week lately.


Why does Doblin's A-21 column on President Obama carry a headline with a really unfortunate double entendre: "Can you come later?"


Office-driven coverage


Four days after gawkers invaded some flooded Bergen County neighborhoods to make light of homeowners' misery, a story appears on the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section.


Apparently, no reporters or photographers visited those same neighborhoods until Thursday -- cementing the assignment desk's reputation as the laziest in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.


With all the news generated by the hurricane, tropical storm or whatever it was, it's a wonder Sykes found room on L-2 today for a photo and caption updating readers on telephone-pole news.


On L-3, a story and photo caption don't tell readers a police officer rescued the the driver from his smoking tanker truck until the fourth paragraph.


Stale review

In Better Living, the mouth-watering photos on the cover and Pages 16-17 deliver more than Gregory T's, an upscale diner in Emerson, where the "tough" prime rib "bore a grayish pallor," tortilla chips were stale and the crab cakes hid tiny pieces of shell.


Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung delivers the kiss of death with a 2-star rating -- what she gives to a mediocre chain restaurant.


The features copy editor also lost his way in writing the caption for three food photos in the centerfold, describing the photo on the left  as "far left."

What's Christie got against Paterson?

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Flooding in Paterson on Tuesday.

The Record made front-page news of Governor Christie's visits to Wayne on Tuesday and Lincoln Park on Wednesday, but the stories and today's editorial on disaster relief never explain why he didn't go the the hardest-hit North Jersey community -- Paterson.

Floods classified as disaster

The main headline on Page 1 of the Woodland Park daily fails miserably in conveying that federal aid is on the way to the storm-ravaged region. 


Using "classified" in a short-count headline and omitting the word "aid" is shooting yourself in the foot, but it's what we've come to expect from Liz Houlton's news copy desk.


Presumably, Christie will join President Obama in Paterson, but I haven't seen any explanation on why their visit has been set for Sunday. What's wrong with Friday?


The Record ran one small photo of flooding in Paterson. What one official calls the worst flooding in more than a century can be captured only in a photo from the air, but Publisher Stephen A. Borg won't spend the money.


More holes


In a letter that seems to be addressed directly to the laziest assignment desk in the Northern Hemisphere, Linda Palamara of Rochelle Park wants to know why Monday's local news coverage completely omitted "catastophic" flooding in her town (A-18).


Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes had their reporters running around documenting the impact on businesses, schools, shopping and water quality.


On L-2 today, the region's flooding history and long-term solutions are discussed, but the story belongs on A-1 in place of Christie's self-serving visits to flood areas. 


(The $1.8 billion for a flood tunnel -- deemed too expensive in the 1990s -- seems like peanuts today.)


Christie even refused to answer questions from flood-weary Lincoln Park residents, one of whom angrily told a radio reporter he visited only "to show his face."


In view of how often obituaries of prominent residents are literally buried on L-3 and the obit pages, why did Sykes give up so much space on the Local front today for the funeral of an EMT from Princeton?


Beer news


On the Better Living front, Starters, a feature on a recently opened restaurant,  carries the byline of Bob Probert, whose work has also appeared in (201) magazine.


Probert reports on a Hoboken restaurant and beer garden that is perfectly suited for carnivores with beer bellies. All the dishes he lists are meat.