Editors hide bad news for Christie

Image via Wikipedia

Governor Christie doubts Katie Couric knows anything about public opinion.

Two major stories about Governor Christie appear in The Record today (A-1 and A-7), but the editors were careful to avoid any mention of major opposition to the war against public workers being waged in New Jersey, Wisconsin and other states.

The New York Times/CBS News poll found a majority opposes weakening bargaining rights for public workers. A summary on the Times' Web site reported:

"As labor battles erupt in state capitals around the nation, a majority of Americans say they oppose efforts to weaken the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and are also against cutting the pay and benefits of public workers to reduce state budget deficits."

The poll was reported by the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric on Monday night, and Christie was asked about the poll results. He accused the media of wording the poll questions to get the results they wanted to keep what he called an entertaining story alive.

He also said he has a better idea of public opinion than Couric, and if that's not the case, the CBS News anchor should run for governor of New Jersey. Click on the following link to see a video of his comments:

Governor Christie dismisses poll results 

Today's front page

A big photo of a murder suspect on Page 1 today carries this heading: "FIRST GLANCE AT SLAYING SUSPECT," a puzzling choice given that his photo also appeared on the front page Sunday and Monday.

Cookie monsters

There is no truth to the rumor that Christie, former Food Editor Bill Pitcher and Project Editor Tim Nostrand are vying for the job of spokesman for Fatboy Cookies (Better Living, F-1).

See earlier posts on the Borgs' jet

How others see Editor Francis 'Frank' Scandale

Image via Wikipedia

The Pulitzer Prize.

Here are two comments on posts about Francis "Frank" Scandale, editor of The Record since January 2001:

Anonymous said...

As pointed out once before, Scandale likes to take credit for the Columbine Pulitzer, but he wasn't in the office when the news broke and an assistant made the initial assignments, not paging Scandale until later. "All I thought," Scandale later complained to American Journalism Review, "is why didn't they page me sooner?" Right, it's always all about you, Frank! I can guess why they didn't page him sooner -- probably didn't want the stumbling glory-hound getting in everyone's way and making assignments based on office politics rather than ability to do the job. http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=514

January 11, 2011 1:49 PM

Anonymous said... 

 

Really, a story ending in mid-sentence falls under the category of "shit happens." But the gross underplaying of the Arizona shootings is chimpanzee-level news judgment. I wish I could honestly say this qualifies Scandale as the dumbest top editor for whom I've worked, but sadly he remains the second-dumbest (you would not believe the stories about the dumbest). He remains No. 1 in overestimating his ability, though. The dumbest editor at least would recognize a screwup in hindsight, perhaps days later and not necessarily learning from it. But when Scandale badly botches a call, he rationalizes it as zigging while other newspapers zag and gives himself a pat on the back. This was an unquestionably stupid news call, unless you are editing some shit-kicker paper in South Dakota, someplace like that.

January 10, 2011 2:34 AM

Scandale was away at a conference when The Denver Post got word of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. Here is the link to a long article on how the Denver paper and others reacted to big stories:

 "Why didn't they page me sooner?"

Editor Frank Scandale's decade of failure

Image via Wikipedia

On Sept. 11, 2001, smoke rising from the Twin Towers after they were hit by passenger jets was visible from The Record newsroom in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR 

Francis "Frank" Scandale will mark his 10th anniversary as editor of The Record on Jan. 24. 

He may have outlasted all the others who were brought in from bigger, out-of-town papers to run the former Hackensack daily, but he also holds the distinction of being the worst editor ever.

Sunday's front page spoke volumes about his failings. Instead of clearing the decks for a story of national and international importance, he conducted business as usual: 

He crammed the shooting of a congresswoman under a one-column head to make room for a huge photo of a professional football player and a minor scandal over land purchases for the defunct Hudson River rail tunnels. 

He even relegated to an inside page his own Washington correspondent's story -- comments from the New Jersey congressional delegation on the sharp partisan rhetoric that has divided the country since the election of Barack Obama.

A day late

Today's front page tries to make up for the woefully inadequate coverage of the Arizona rampage on Sunday, but it's a day late. Why didn't the assignment desk under Deirdre Sykes know on the day of the shootings that a North Jersey woman was among those killed? 

But even today, instead of giving the entire front page to the attempted assassination of Gabrielle Giffords and the slaying of six others, including a federal judge, Scandale runs yet another A-1 story about DuPont pollution in Pompton Lakes. 

And where is the story on the failure of gun-control laws to keep weapons out of the hands of mentally unstable people like the suspected gunman?

Failed journalist

Still, the flawed coverage comes as no surprise to anyone who saw Scandale fall flat on his face when he faced the biggest story of his life -- the 9/11 terrorist attacks in Manhattan. 

Barely eight months after he came to The Record, Scandale rolled over and played dead for the business side, rejecting a potentially Pulitzer Prize-winning photo for the front page on Sept. 12, 2001. He was told it would "cost too much" to remake A-1 for the photo.

Given the  chance to score a clear beat with the photo and make the paper stand out from every other daily across the country, he turned his back on Staff Photographer Thomas Franklin's image of an inspirational flag-raising over the ruins of the World Trade Center. That set the tone for all the failures that followed.

Palooka Prize

Scandale was assistant managing editor for news at The Denver Post, where he led coverage of the Columbine High School massacre, for which the staff won a 2000 Pulitzer Prize, according to a Web site called NJ Creatives Network.

Did Publisher Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg hire Scandale, hoping he could win a second Pulitzer for The Record? 

If so, all the paper has won is the Palooka Prize for endless investigations that signified little or nothing, such as the nearly three year probe of former lawman Michael Mordaga under the unsteady guidance of Sykes, the head assignment editor.

20-year-olds

When circulation started to slip, Scandale ordered special coverage of 20-year-olds -- a "failed strategy" that was condemned by Stephen A. Borg when he took over from his father in mid-2006.

Scandale spurned readers in the baby boom generation who had the money to buy advertisers' good and services, and also showed disdain for baby boomers on the staff, including their need for ergonomic furniture. 

His "ageism" produced numerous stories about autism, few about Alzheimer's disease and nothing about the challenges facing older drivers.

Mobile journalists

Scandale's mobile journalist initiative led to decentralization of news gathering and the staff's loss of a shared purpose. 

It also resulted in a huge plunge in productivity, as reporters with laptops, mobile phones and cameras were scattered far and wide, and no one seemed to know that they were doing everything but covering their towns.

Minorities in the newsroom

Scandale dumped the paper's only Hispanic columnist, Miguel Perez, and its only black columnist, Lawrence Aaron. 

Minority reporters came and went, and the minority journalists he brought from Denver were poor replacements.

In a related matter, Scandale threw objectivity out the window by allowing two Castro-hating Cuban exiles to cover Cuba almost exclusively for the paper.

  

Asleep at the editing switch

Image via Wikipedia
















For the third time in less than a week, a front-page story in The Record of Woodland Park today has a confusing first paragraph that leaves readers wondering if it's them or just incredibly sloppy editing. 

And the biggest element on the page -- mosque opponents and proponents rallying near Ground Zero (photo) -- carries a headline that merely restates what has been obvious for weeks: "Mosque emotions high." Maybe the headline writer was high.

Transportation reporter Tom Davis and his clueless assignment editor abhor straight writing. Their lead paragraphs often contain a play on words or a distorted angle or some gimmick to snare readers, and so it is today with the A-1 story on the possible privatization of NJ Transit parking lots. (Why is this leading the paper; isn't it just a study now?)

"North Jersey commuters may soon have to pay more to park near trains and buses so that they can pay less to ride them."

Huh? "Pay less to ride them." What does that mean? Will the fares be cut? They just went up. Does the reporter mean pay less than driving? Commuters who use trains and buses are doing that now, have been for years. He couldn't resist the "pay more-pay less" tension, but he loses readers in the process.

Davis is like the other transportation reporters at The Record. He prefers writing about proposals, studies and reports rather than riding and rating mass transit on behalf of long-suffering commuters, who have to ride standing up on many lines.

And when writing about NJ Transit's deficit, as he does today, he never reminds readers that Governor Christie cut state aid to mass transit, forcing the recent fare hikes. 

A-1 coverage of the mosque controversy merely duplicates what other media have been doing for a few weeks now. Where are the North Jersey voices? Where are quotes from Muslims who opened mosques in Teaneck, Hackensack and Paterson?


The Local section today is consumed with non-profit and charity news. I wish the desperate editors would ban stories about bikers who roar around North Jersey on charity runs until the motorcycle owners stop making their machines as loud as possible and destroying the quality of life of every block they blast down, usually at some ungodly hour.


The lead story is about Bergenfield joining other towns in putting solar panels on public buildings, and last week a story reported how much Waldwick is saving from doing the same thing. Hackensack officials also have plans to install solar panels on their buildings, but I guess Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado and head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes still have their beauty-sleep masks on.


At least two people wrote letters to the editors recently, saying they couldn't find the entrance to the new Overpeck Park, but the letters were printed without comment by Editor Charles Saydah, who was out for his midday jog. Now, Mike Kelly devotes an L-1 column to the question, in a lame  attempt to ridicule county officials. 


For those who don't want to slog through Kelly's drivel, the entrance's address is shown in the photo with the column: 199 Challenger Blvd., Ridgefield Park.

Susan Leigh Sherill, the new food editor hand-picked by Publisher Stephen A. Borg, hasn't joined the staff yet, according to Page F-2 of Better Living today. Her previous journalism jobs are as food and entertainment editor of (201) magazine and editor of The Ridgewood News, a weekly owned by the Borgs' North Jersey Media Group.


She proved controversial in the Ridgewood editor's job, as a review of The Ridgewood Blog for 2007-08 shows. Although she had supporters, many faulted her for favorable coverage of the school board, and a multitude of other so-called sins.

You have to take these comments with a grain of salt, especially if you are familiar with the hysterical residents opposed to the expansion of The Valley Hospital. They are so desperate, they've resorted to saying construction will endanger the health of children at a nearby middle school, without providing any evidence to support that contention. (Of course, that didn't stop The Record's Mary Jo Layton and other reporters from printing and reprinting the allegation without ever asking for that evidence.)


If you read The Ridgewood Blog comments about Sherill, you'll probably agree with me the village should be renamed  "Richwood" or "Bitchwood."

Here's a link to some of the comments: "What's wrong with The Ridgewood News?"

I want to thank Editor Francis "Castrato" Scandale for the great job he is doing with the front page, appealing to readers' base instincts with fear-mongering, as today's mosque story is designed to do.

Scattershot approach to news

Image via Wikipedia



























How many stories are followed up by the newshounds at The Record of Woodland Park? And how many stories are dropped after one day?

It's bewildering to see what Editors Francis "Castrato" Scandale and Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes think is worthy of a follow and which stories appear for a single day, then disappear, despite all the unanswered questions from poor reporting and even poorer writing.

The front page today has a heart-warming story about a dog surviving a horrific Route 80 accident Sunday -- and being found and reunited with the victim's family -- but does this really belong on A-1? Even the original story, involving the death of a human, wasn't on the front page.

And there has been no follow on whether the 1996 Ford Explorer involved had been recalled for safety problems, so I guess readers are supposed to believe the driver lost control on a curve simply because it was raining.

When a 23-year-old Glen Rock woman was killed by a train recently, there was no follow, not even any comment from the family, and no attempt to find out if it was an accident or suicide.

The Route 80 dog story jumps to the animal news page, A-6, where we learn a bull ran amok in Spain and rampaged through the stands. Unfortunately, no one was killed, so the bull's revenge was incomplete and he not only died for his troubles, but will be eaten by grateful Spaniards. When are the food pages going to run a recipe for rabo de toro (tail of the bull)?

Today's weird Page 1 leads with the indictment of a baseball player on perjury charges -- who cares, except him and Scandale? -- while the middle of the page is taken up by photos of minor incidents at airports in Dallas and San Francisco that wouldn't be front-page news even if they happened at Newark Liberty International. 

But Scandale and Sykes are desperately trying to sell the paper, and distract readers in Hackensack and other important towns that are withering on the news vine.


For example, the Hackensack and Englewood reporters never asked officials if a plan to combine Teaneck's Police and Fire Departments would work in their cities, which also have professional firefighters and are similar demographically. It would save taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Thursday, on Page A-8, a sharp wire editor ran a "FACT CHECK" on the controversy over building a mosque "roughly a half-dozen normal Lower Manhattan blocks" from Ground Zero (not the two blocks you hear repeated on TV news), but the newspaper hasn't interviewed Muslims living in Teaneck and Hackensack, despite the peaceful establishment of mosques in both towns.

By the way, the FACT CHECK by the Associated Press reported that opponents lied or distorted information about the backers of the mosque in Lower Manhattan, where Muslims are already praying in the building that would be replaced by an Islamic cultural center. Two other mosques are five and 12 blocks from Ground Zero.

A great Page 1 story is Governor Christie making New Jersey a potential leader in offshore wind power (L-3), if for no other reason than to show Christie isn't just looking out for the Borgs and other millionaires. Another potential A-1 story is the resurgence of layoffs (L-7). 

Or maybe the lazy editors and their pampered staff can finally get off their rumps and profile some of the long-term unemployed, such as those people shown the door by greedy Publisher Stephen A. Borg in 2007 and 2008. Those profiles would make better A-1 stories than a dog rescue.


In Better Living, you'll find another restaurant review by Bill Pitcher, the food editor who left the paper but who repeats on readers like a bad meal. He calls the tacos Mexicanos at Chapala Grill in Bergenfield "the real deal," but doesn't know an authentic taco is garnished with cilantro and onion, not cilantro and diced tomato.


The weekly Hackensack Chronicle, another North Jersey Media Group rag, is doing a better job of covering Hackensack than the daily's Sykes and Monsy Alvarado, the reporter nominally assigned to the city. 


Today, the lead story is about residents of 310 Prospect Ave., which shared a garage with 300 Prospect, the luxury building that was evacuated July 16 after the garage collapsed. One of those quoted is David Blomquist.

Is this the same Blomquist who once worked at The Record as a reporter and pollster?

(Photo: Green aracari at Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Wash.)