More prize-winning journalism

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Wow. Check out that prize-winning photo on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park. Editor Frank Scandale really knows his journalism. Three Wayne police officers -- one armed with a refreshing drink -- are shown standing around with gas-station workers.


When you're locked into putting a big, color photo on A-1 every day, you're going to run a lot of crap. Today is a perfect example of why Scandale is unfit to be editor. He was the one who relegated Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin's unique, flag-raising photo on 9/11 to a back page -- in favor of the same image every other newspaper and TV station had.


What's next for a front-page photo? People waiting for a bus in Hackensack or a train in Secaucus?


You'd think the looming budget confrontation between Republican Governor Christie and the Democrats who control the Legislature would be enough for a strong Page 1, but the story is crowded into a two-column space. Now, the governor wants to cap local property tax increases at 2.5%. I thought he promised to cut property taxes.


There's more coverage on Page 1 of the drunk-driving accident after a soccer game in the Meadowlands, but instead of reporting whether the nine injured pedestrians had been drinking at the game, Staff Writer John Brennan turns out a piece about the alcohol policy at the new stadium worthy of a highly paid public relations man. An editorial on A-12 refers to the accident as a "tragedy."


I really don't care about two of the three A-1 stories -- a dozen, possibly related holdups and the injured pedestrians -- and the stuff I do care about is consistently ignored, like any news about Hackensack outside of the Police Department or suspended Chief Ken Zisa.


You also won't find any Englewood news in Local today (the last story from that community ran April 22) and Teaneck gets a brief on L-3.


The A-1 story about 12 holdups belongs on the front of Local and women hailing a law to help others with postpartum depression would have made a good front-page story in its place.


But women aren't always held in favor at The Record. The newspaper paid Bill Pitcher, its new food editor, $70,000 a year when he was hired in 2006 -- even though he was 31 and didn't have any food-editing experience. Patricia Mack, his predecessor, who had 20 years of food-editing experience, was paid thousands less. That's depressing.


 Jerry DeMarco's Cliffview Pilot.com has a link to a video that illustrates the dangers faced by police officers, such as the Wayne cop who was grazed by a suspect's bullet. (The A-1 story could have been far more dramatic if it led with a retelling of how he pursued the suspects even after he was wounded.) Click on the following link:


How'd you like to be a cop for the day?

(Photo: New and old stadiums in the Meadowlands.)

 

Desperate for a real newspaper

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The earthquake survivors in Haiti are desperate for relief, according to the front page of The Record of Woodland Park today, but I'm just desperate for a newspaper that has the balls to go to bat for people who have been ignored by the world for far too long.

You won't find anything in today's disaster coverage -- not even an editorial -- expressing outrage at the failure of government in Haiti, at the collapse of law and order, at the slowness of the rescue effort and at the realization the world may have allowed this Caribbean nation to descend so far, it may be beyond help without a truly massive, unprecedented infusion of aid. But how many Haitians will this neglect have killed?

(Similarly, the Borgs may wake up one day and actually read the paper, only to realize too late that the lazy, incompetent editors have run it into the ground so deep, it can't be saved.)

The absolute failure of government quickly became evident only a day or two after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, but The Record was unwilling to go out on a journalistic limb to say so. It waited -- for an "expert," a story from one of its wire services, anything to avoid its own responsibility to report what a poor job the Bush administration was doing to help one of the nation's greatest cities.

We're seeing the same thing with the earthquake in Haiti. Look at the nonsense from Columnist Mike Kelly (see yesterday's posts). Where is an editorial criticizing the Haitian government and its greedy ruling class? Where is the editorial on how little the world community has done for Haiti in the last few decades?

If ever there was an argument for busing students to school, look at the story on the front of the Local section about a teen driver who manages to hit a tree -- cutting the car in half -- and nearly kill himself and his sister. Does anybody believe he wasn't speeding? Why was the reporter, Marlene Naanes, able to get his sister's name, but not his? What is a story about Giants Stadium memorabilia doing on the Local front?

Reporter Monsy Alvarado's byline on a Hackensack story appears for the first time since Dec. 30, with another detailed piece on disciplinary hearings for police officers who are suing the chief. This is a subject she has reported far more than any other, ignoring schools, development, the City Council and  municipal government. There is no news of Teaneck or Englewood, two other premier towns in Bergen County. Between Dec. 20 and today, only one Englewood story has appeared in the paper, outside of police and fire news.

The restaurant review today, in the centerfold of Better Living, is written by food editor Bill Pitcher, whose sudden visibility is welcome now that Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung is on leave until summer. Pitcher's familiarity with fresh fish, in this review of a Greek restaurant, is a revelation, compared to Ung's constantly obsessing about dessert. But why run a photo of  "overcooked and flat-tasting" grilled shrimp and a second one of the owner holding that dish?

There is an unusually long list of restaurant sanitary inspections on Page 24 of Better Living today, but what about Wyckoff and other towns that never appear? And is it really fair to readers to run a long story on the next page supposedly containing "facts" about antibiotics in poultry and other issues written by the National Chicken Council, an industry promotional group?

Sports trumps the environment

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I would have loved to be in the news meeting yesterday when the weekend editors at The Record of Woodland Park decided how to play two major stories -- one about sports, the other about the environment.


I don't imagine two of the major jocks who run the former Hackensack daily -- Publisher Stephen A. Borg and Editor Frank "The Fish Stinks from the Head Down" Sacandale -- were working on a major holiday weekend. (I always wondered when Borg still had his office in the old Hackensack newsroom whether he attended the afternoon news meeting and whether he and Scandale slapped each other on the ass after deciding to run sports on the front?)

Borg may have been relaxing at his $3.65 million estate in Tenafly and Scandale at his Glen Rock home on Sunday, but it's well-known they have given front page play to inconsequential sports stories for years, so, of course, the beer and gas guzzlers who attended the last game at Giants Stadium went on Page 1 and the growing number of people who bring reusable bags when they go food shopping was relegated to the front of the Local section.

What do you expect from a paper with so-called environmental reporters like Scott Fallon who can write a story about recycling electronics and omit Hackensack's pioneering program among municipalities? And the reporter on the reusable bag story, Andrea Alexander, should have listed more North Jersey stores besides Whole Foods that give shoppers a refund for reusable bags and those -- like Trader Joe's and Fairway Market -- that don't give anything back. Does she know that H Mart, the Korean supermarket chain, refunds 20 cents for each reusable bag?

Dd anybody get through Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin's column about MTV's "Jersey Shore" on Page A-11? Does anybody edit this struggling writer? Can you make sense of the following sentence?

"I had the only car, and a bunch us would drive to points younger after our show."

 I stopped reading there. And can you believe he is so prissy, he avoids using the "vulgar Italian word for prostitutes"?

Did you see Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's article in Better Living? Does Ung and food editor Bill Pitcher really believe readers are going to rush to their stoves to prepare four long, elaborate recipes for "standout" restaurant dishes she ate on the paper's dime? In fact, what many readers want is more information about how restaurant food is raised or grown and less about her obsession for desserts and her fawning over chefs.

If you disagree with anything here, please click "comments" at the end of this post and unburden yourself. You can even do so anonymously.

Where the jocks are in control

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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?