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| A white Paterson teacher is being disciplined after a 6- or 7-year-old student hit her and she referred to that boy and other disruptive students as "future criminals." |
On Page 1 of The Record today, Editor Francis Scandale makes an example of a white teacher who was accused of being a racist after she said on Facebook:
"[I]'m not a teacher -- [I]'m a warden for future criminals."
At a hearing, Jennifer O'Brien explained what prompted the comment: Six or seven unruly students disrupted her lessons in the Paterson classroom, one first-grader hit her and another pupil struck another student. Is that really racism?
And why doesn't Staff Writer Leslie Brody's teacher-performance stories ever discuss the role and responsibility of parents when their children misbehave in the classroom?
Racism editor
Scandale should know what racism is. After all, he dumped the paper's only black and Hispanic columnists, leaving the daily with only white columnists.
Even if you argue that's ancient history, why didn't Scandale ever replace Lawrence Aaron and Miguel Perez, especially after John Cichowski and other white columnists went off their rockers?
The top of A-1 today is devoted to a story on the "9/11 family" that has little general interest.
Let's hope this is not the first of an unbroken string of 9/11 stories in the run-up to the 10 anniversary next month. I'm sure the anniversary coverage will make readers sick of reading about the disaster and the families left behind.
Blow up that photo
The front-page photo today is a shot from The Associated Press of a non-fatal turnpike accident that caused a 7-mile backup way outside of the paper's circulation area.
Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes continue the daily dissing of their talented photography staffers, who have been reduced to ambulance chasers, forced to capture minor accidents so Sykes can fill columns in the Local section.
Today, the front of Local carries a big photo of a non-fatal fire from firetruck chaser Tariq Zehawi.
This is not breaking news. This is breaking down readers. This is breaking the spirit of the photographers. This is breaking wind.
Flag burner
Of course, Scandale will never live down relegating to a back page staffer Tom Franklin's incredible, exclusive, flag-raising photo on 9/11. The coming anniversary will only rub salt in Franklin's wounds.
Editor Liz Houlton continues to confound with photo captions from the news copy desk she supervises, like the one on Page A-4 today that introduces readers to a new species in Manhattan. The caption reads:
"Pedestrians starting their morning as surveillance cameras monitor the scene in Times Square."
At the end of the day, where do the "pedestrians" go? Into the manholes? Now, that's a story.
