More hard-luck seniors on parade

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Editor Francis Scandale runs far more on autism than on Alzheimer's disease.

Editor Francis Scandale of The Record is of two minds when it comes to seniors: 


He either ignores them, as in his pathetically poor coverage of Alzheimer's disease and programs to help older drivers.


Or he portrays them as down-on-their-luck old people who line up for a lousy meal at senior centers or live out their last years in grim nursing homes.


Today, Scandale's front page delivers a double senior salvo -- with the elderly breathing a sigh of relief at a tiny increase in Medicare premiums, while others are victims  of a "consistent rise in thefts" and abuse.


Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes love to have their staffers do easy stories taken from the 2010 Census, so why not find out how many seniors have investments, take river cruises in Europe and regard Social Security as a nice supplement to their incomes.


In affluent Bergen County, active, well-off seniors likely outnumber the sad sacks who have been making Page 1 news in the Woodland Park daily lately.


And Scandale continues to ignore a do-nothing Congress while running stories about a presidential election that is more than a year away.


Flood of stones


An A-1 photo of flooding in northwest Italy shows rocks, not water. What about the far-more-serious flooding in Thailand? Did Scandale run the Italy photo because he once visited the region?


The writer of an editorial on A-20 jumps through many hoops to avoid naming Governor Christie, who apparently killed state funding for an after-school program for low-income children.


Shame on Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin for not noticing the omission or editing out the name of the GOP bully.


Toiling on the toilet 


In Sykes' Local section, today's Road Warrior column on traffic deaths is written from press releases and reports, allowing Staff Writer John Cichowski maximum seat time in the bathroom or in front of the TV (L-1).


A Teaneck story on L-2 is about the Police Department, not the township, as was the L-1 story that ran on Wednesday.


News of Hackensack, Englewood and many other towns is missing today.


Room for sweets


Don't look to Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung to help you find healthy eating when you're dining out.


In her appraisal of Al Cavaliere in Clifton, she reports a good-three course meal would include artery-clogging tiramisu for dessert. No salads or greens sauteed with garlic are recommended.


She also doesn't bat an eyelash over the Italian-American restaurant serving fresh Florida grouper in a butter sauce (Better Living centerfold).


The paper's resident food snob doesn't tell readers whether veal, pork and chicken were raised naturally, but goes out of her way to ridicule the restaurant for calling the beurre blanc (hot butter sauce) "pure blank."


Related post

• Editors trot out pathetic seniors (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

Just like the old days?

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Hackensack news for a fourth day in a row might lead you to think The Record of Woodland Park has suddenly decided to repent for the neglect of the past few years. But today's story is about yet another suit filed against suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa, and it's reported on Page L-3 in far too much detail by Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado.

No. This is business-as-usual for The Record, using a dramatic photo from Thailand all over Page 1, despite having basically ignored the protests there for months; running another nonsensical column by Mike Kelly, who for some unfathomable reason is rehashing the history of Xanadu and speculating on whether the retail and entertainment center can be saved; and reporting on Zisa's continuing legal problems at the expense of other, more important Hackensack news.

In Local, a story on the Englewood Council's school budget cuts is the first municipal story from that city since April 22, when a follow on the defeated tax levy was published. 


No food coverage can be found today in Better Living. Food Editor Bill Pitcher apparently was too exhausted after writing his restaurant review, which will appear tomorrow.

Judging by salaries in the newsroom that have become public record, Deirdre Sykes and Barbara Jaeger, the editors in charge of Local and Better Living, respectively, likely are paid more than $100,000 a year. Your guess is as good as mine as to what they do, because there is little evidence in the paper itself that they are earning the money.

More 'responsible journalism'

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The editors at The Record of Woodland Park love politics, and they want  their readers to love it, too. But most readers are turned off by politics and the telling of so many stories by what the Democrats, Republicans, Tea Baggers or other groups think. 

Still, the lazy, incompetent editors know no shame and don't hesitate to cover Page 1, as they did today, with a story on Jon Corzine's contributions to fellow Democrats, complete with an elaborate graphic. "Corzine closes his wallet" is the headline. Who -- with the exception of Democrats who received his largess -- cares?

Why not devote the paper's resources to reforming a system that allows only the rich to run for office? I guess that wouldn't be the kind of "responsible journalism" espoused by North Jersey Media Group. Apparently, the Borgs like the idea that only rich and powerful people like themselves get elected.

Then, the editors squander more of the front page on a sensational story about pedophile tourists in Thailand, burying the shocking news that protesters in Greece killed three bank employees.

Another story the editors try to minimize quotes a powerful senator saying he won't hold a confirmation hearing for King Chris' nominee to replace the only black justice on the state Supreme Court. Ha, ha, ha.



On the front of Local, Columnist Mike Kelly inadvertently indicts head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and exposes the weak reporting of the team that was chasing allegations against Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa, who has been suspended with pay.


Kelly says a private investigator (working for an attorney who represented a Hackensack police officer) was the source of the allegations that Zisa covered up an accident involving his then-girlfriend, and that he informed the Bergen County prosecutor. Why didn't The Record's reporters get to this investigator first?