A titanic error in editorial judgment

An iceberg gashed the hull of the Titanic below the waterline.

I'm trying to imagine the conversation at the meeting where Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin approved the cartoon that appeared in The Record on Sunday (O-2).

For the 100th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the Titanic, Margulies the cartoonist shows a faceless, older couple looking at a large painting of the passenger ship as it was going down in the Atlantic.

In one of those bubbles, these words appear (woman to husband):

"Did they ever figure out exactly what the captain was texting at the time?"

Texting? What the F is the cartoonist thinking?  What bubble does he live in?

Is the death of more than 1,500 such a light topic that Margulies can bring up a total non-sequitur in a pathetic attempt at humor? 

Putz Prize

Keep in mind, this man won a number of prizes before and after he came to The Record in 1990, and his cartoons are syndicated all the over the United States. 

What does this ridiculous cartoon say about the  committees that give out the nation's most-coveted journalism prizes?

What does it say about Doblin?

This is a really lame attempt at making the sinking relevant to a nation of mostly young people who are walking and staring down at their smart phones, and texting so much that they have lost the ability to speak to each other.

Today's paper 

Except for the off-lead story on Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan, the rest of A-1 is pretty ho-hum.

Editor Marty Gottlieb gives readers another story on Marcantonio "Marc" Macri, the lawyer and municipal prosecutor who is charged with money laundering in connection with a marijuana-buying ring (A-1). 

The Record should be putting lawyers on Page 1 every day for charging ridiculously high hourly rates, which deny most people access to the courts.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section offers readers even less than the front page.

Screwing Zisaville

Hackensack readers get another blow-by-blow account of testimony in the criminal trial of suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa (L-3).

Police Officer John Hermann testified that Zisa came to the rescue of the chief's drunk girlfriend after she drove his car into a pole in 2008.

The lead paragraph is incorrect in saying "former girlfriend." At the time of the accident, Kathleen Tiernan was reportedly living with Zisa.

The next day, according to Staff Writer Stephanie Akin, Zisa made it clear to Hermann that he should keep what he saw to himself.

"He said," Hermann testified, referring to Zisa, 'I just wanted to make you aware, I don't want anybody to know about this. There are only three people aware of this. And if it were ever to come back to me, I would know who to come see.'" 

Fill in the blanks

"When you cross Ken Zisa ... ," Hermann continued, before he was cut off by an objection from defense attorney Patricia Prezioso.

Of course, anyone who lives in Zisaville can complete that sentence.

Sykes and Akin have been so busy covering the Zisa trial, they didn't find time to report and write a story on the six candidates in today's school board election.

Were you planning to vote? Just close your eyes and punch a couple of buttons.

Tragic Titanic story never gets old

A seaman from Hawthorne saved others and then went down with the Titanic.

A moving homage to a North Jersey seaman who went down with the Titanic after saving passengers 100 years ago today is the only story you really must read on the front page of The Record.


Staff Writer Jay Levin employed old-fashioned leg work to find postcards and letters seaman William Cahoone Johnson Jr. wrote to his sister in Hawthorne, including one sent only 10 days before the ship hit an iceberg.


'Met death like a hero' is the headline over the photo-and-text package that dominates Page 1 today. A sidebar on Titanic's chief baker, who survived and lived in Paterson, appears on A-8.


Page A-8 is also where you'll find a paragraph that explains why the Titanic story is so much more compelling than today's other A-1 stories on politics and corruption -- themes editors overplay day after day.


People stories


" ... The sinking of an 'unsinkable' passenger ship [and] the terrorist destruction of twin skyscrapers are really a collection of intensely personal tragedies," Levin wrote.


They're stories about people who put others above themselves, who exemplify the best of the human spirit, not the worst.


Corruption isn't news


You'll find the worst of the human spirit in Staff Writer Jeff Pillets A-1 account of a federal audit of the Hudson River rail tunnels, which Governor Christie killed in October 2010.


I have a great deal of respect for Pillets, but he leaves unanswered several major questions, including:

1. Why should commuters be penalized with loss of the tunnels -- forcing them to stand in the aisles of crowded trains and buses for the next decade -- because of cost overruns, including tens of millions paid to greedy landowners, lawyers and real estate consultants?
2. What other public projects of the same scale were built without delays and cost overruns?

Road-rage victim


It's hard to believe what one 60-year-old Leonia woman went through at the hands of a maniac with a license (L-1).


The Road Warrior column describes the ultimately unsuccessful prosecution of an enraged pickup-truck driver, who was charged with reckless driving.


But Staff Writer John Cichowski doesn't put the blame where it belongs: an abysmal lack of enforcement.


Maniacs rule roads 


Where are the cops? Why are the maniacs getting away with speeding 20 mph to 30 mph over the speed limit, tailgating at high speeds and cutting off other drivers?


Cichowski should spend more time on the highway and less time on his padded rear-end in front of the computer. 


And when he gets only 1 out of 50 columns right, does The Record really need him at all?


News for yokels


Also on L-1 today, The Record continues its rabidly anti-Castro news coverage, which is so out of sync with the moderating views of an increasing number of Cuban-Americans.


Don't look for any Hackensack news today from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who also spends an excessive amount of time on her well-padded derriere.


Sin of omission


In Business, consumer Columnist Kevin DeMarrais writes about a Consumer Reports poll on supermarkets.


He notes good finishes for Trader Joe's, Costco Wholesale and Whole Foods Market, all of which sell a lot of organic and naturally raised or grown items (B-1).


But DeMarrais doesn't explain why The Record's own monthly Marketbasket Survey -- which he compiles -- has never listed any organic food.


Senior moments


The Better Living editors rely on a cover story filled with mindless T&A to attract readers (F-1).


In Travel, Editor Jill Schensul suffers her own senior moments with her cover story on lists and a sidebar on Austin (T-1).


She forgets to mention in the list story that one reason people make lists is so they won't forget to do or buy something.


And in her Austin story, Schensul forgets to mention the Texas city is joining the international Formula 1 circuit in November with a race on the new Circuit of the Americas.