Editors' one-two punch: Sports and two long corrections

Two-lane Passaic Street is a major thoroughfare through Hackensack, Maywood and Rochelle Park, but it hasn't changed much since the 1950s. On Saturday, the street was packed with a long line of cars heading toward Rochelle Park, above. 

With no turn lane on Passaic Street at Summit Avenue, a turning car, left, will bring trailing vehicles to a dead stop. The SUV, right, is too big to squeeze through.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

One glance at Page 1 of The Record's Sunday edition shows a strong focus on sports above the fold.

The editors consider victims of sexual assault important enough to put on the front page (A-1).

But not more important than a football team at a Catholic high school or the prospects of sports betting in New Jersey -- a subject even more boring than the story on Governor Christie's chief financial booster (A-1).

On A-2, two long corrections are like a slap in the face to readers.

This is what we have been getting for years after Liz Houlton, who earned the sobriquet of "Queen of Errors" when she ran the features copy desk, was promoted to the six-figure job of production editor, whose job it is to keep such embarrassing screw-ups out of the paper.

Local news?

The Local-news section carries stories on Teaneck, Fort Lee and Englewood (two), but nothing about Hackensack, the most populous community in Bergen.

The Road Warrior column claims this week's holiday will have everybody focusing on how to "drive on North Jersey's angst-ridden roads without killing or maiming themselves" (L-1).

Speak for yourself, John.

Isn't that what we do all year around after a dramatic decline in the enforcement of speeding and aggressive driving -- a story you have ignored for more than a decade?

Uncharitable chef

Some chefs give away leftovers to charities that help feed the hungry and homeless, but Staff Writer Elisa Ung is celebrating one who turns them into "popular dishes" (BL-1).

Or, as the chief restaurant reviewer puts it in The Corner Table column, "turning trash into cash."

How appetizing. 

Frugal Chef Al Scazafave's restaurant is called The Twisted Elm. That's not the only thing that's "twisted."

Child abuse?

Given the low quality of the food served to students in public schools, are Garfield school employees committing child abuse when they falsify their income to qualify their kids for free lunches (O-1)?

The great Mike Kelly might want to investigate the crap served at Hackensack High and other schools instead of rewriting news stories and asking a million rhetorical questions.

In my rush to recycle Sports, Real Estate, Travel and other useless sections today, did I also discard Business?

I can't find it. 

Here's a lot more news you can't use

George Washington Bridge at night.

When Governor Christie grants an audience to The Record's unnamed editorial board, the editors fall all over themselves to save a slice of the front page for every juicy morsel from the Republican pit bull.

As you can see from today's front page, there is no "news" here -- just more divisive partisan rhetoric blaming the Democrats for everything that has gone wrong since Christie took office, including a state economy that can't get out of low gear.

What a dismal front page, and you won't find much else in an edition that seems designed to put you back to sleep. 

Instead of humoring Christie's chest thumping on Page 1, Editor Marty Gottlieb should have given better play to the governor saying he's disappointed in the Jets and Giants trying to stop the expansion of American Dream Meadowlands (A-6). 

Celebrity pest

It's too bad actor Andy Griffith died, but do we have to endure Bill Ervolino's fascination with the "television legend" (A-1)?

I'd much rather read about an interesting local resident, such as the 93-year-old man I met the other day in the Stop & Shop in Teaneck who still goes to the office.

Sports betting at Monmouth Park in the fall? Who cares, except gambling addicts who get high on the smell of horse shit (A-1)?

Pass the toilet paper

On the Local front, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes approved a Road Warrior column on "those little pieces of paper police hand out," instead of helping ease the commute of tens of thousands of readers (L-1).

Anyone who tries to read John Cichowski today will need their own little pieces of paper, the ones you use in the toilet.

Where's the local angle?

On the first Business page, a story about low lobster prices in Maine should appeal to the handful of readers who have a second home there, such as Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill (L-7 and L-8).

The rest of us would like to know whether those low prices will be seen in North Jersey, too.

That's news we could really use.

Editors know crime is an easy sell

Cover of Michael Jackson

Lawyers for Michael Jackson's doctor
 used the classic blame-the-victim defense.

Where is the North Jersey news on Page 1? Where is the New Jersey news people need to know? What is Governor Christie doing, and why isn't that on A-1 instead of inside the paper?


Interim Editor Doug Clancy is just exploiting stereotypes about Paterson by devoting much of Page 1 today to the fatal shooting of an off-duty Newark cop outside a sleazy strip club.


To put this story in perspective, if the sleazy strip club was in Newark, the story certainly would have ended up inside.


Clancy also continues the paper's tradition of dumping on Paterson by burying on an obituary page (L-6) the story about the Great Falls becoming a national park. And why is there no photo with the story?


Wrong story


Why run the anticlimactic conviction of Michael Jackson's doctor on the front page, and why choose a sour-grapes story about obstacles facing the defense that should have appeared before the trial began?


And why is Clancy making a last-ditch effort to help pass today's sports-betting ballot proposal by wasting precious A-1 space on a story about Pennsylvania casinos?


Governor Christie has done little or nothing to improve the environment, and his latest refusal to fight for a federal cross-state air pollution rule is a hell of a lot more important than sports wagering (A-3).


Rich men quake


Are six break-ins in Tenafly really the biggest news for the front of Local --  even if Publisher Stephen A. Borg is worried the burglars are getting uncomfortably close to his $3.65 million Churchill Road mansion?


Another L-1 story -- "Poverty in Bergen alarming, study says" -- seems like A-1 news to me.


The Local patch on downtown Norwood just makes readers wonder why it's been years since they've seen stories about downtown Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and many other larger communities.


Another great job by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who doesn't seem to know her ass from her elbow when it comes to giving stories their proper play.


More screw-ups


Jerry DeMarco of Cliffview Pilot.com noted a nor'easter damage story on L-8 and NorthJersey.com misspelled the last name of Lt. Dwane Razzetti of the Bergen County Office of Emergency Management.


On A-3 today, a story incorrectly reported a tanker truck was carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline. The state police said it carried 8,500 pounds of gasoline -- or about 1,300 gallons -- DeMarco said.


Related post

• What's Christie got against Paterson? (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

See previous post on the Road Warrior

Front-page stories ask, 'What if ...?'

Image via Wikipedia

One-third of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's
 money is going to pay politically connected consultants.

Life in North Jersey would be hunky dory if:

1. Public-school teachers add on an extra year before they are granted tenure.
2. Businesses finally got grants to help them repair damage from Hurricane Irene.
3. The federal courts or Congress allow the state to legalize sports betting.

At least that's what Editor Francis Scandale of The Record seems to be saying with today's what-if front page.


With the economy tanking and people losing their homes, is sports betting really on the front burner with anyone besides jock-itching Scandale and his clueless reporter, John Brennan?


A correction on A-2 notes a story on Sunday "incorrectly identified Hawthorne's mayor." How embarrassing.


Face the music


On A-4, The Star-Ledger reports about a third of the first $13 million in education grants from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has been paid to consultants with ties to Newark Mayor Cory Booker and acting state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf.


Gee, isn't that Page 1 news?


Meanwhile, on A-10, Governor Christie loses another round with the state judiciary, which has blocked his attempt to have judges pay more for pensions and health plans.


Gee, isn't that Page 1 news? It's certainly better than a sports-betting proposal that is going nowhere fast.


Formula writing


An editorial on A-20 opposes Formula One racing in Hudson County, noting incorrectly, "The race is coming to New Jersey, because the cameras can show Manhattan."


No. The race is coming here to tap into one of the world's biggest sports markets, the New York-New Jersey metro area, and fans from all over the world will pack North Jersey hotels, restaurants and malls. 


The race is sure to be sold out, despite ticket prices of up to $360 for a three-day grandstand pass, just as F1 races sell out every year in Belgium, Italy, England, Monte Carlo and many other places.


No news today


On head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local front, Englewood reporter Melissa Hayes reports issues in the 37th Legislative District race -- in an election nobody cares about.


The L-1 story is one in a series that seems to have crowded out any local news. Readers will search in vain today for news from Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and many other towns.


On L-3, Columnist Mike Kelly -- the resident mouse -- also blasts the idea of a Grand Prix race in two of the "most densely populated towns in America."


Of course, most of the circuit will be laid out between the Palisades and the Hudson River -- an area that is relatively uncrowded. 


Also on L-3, why didn't The Record name the stupid man who left his $45,000 Mercedes-Benz unlocked at 2:30 in the morning -- with the keys in the ignition -- outside of his restaurant, Trovato's in Elmwood Park, only to find it gone when he returned?


The story also doesn't say why he went to his restaurant at that hour.

No-news front page is editor's specialty

Image via Wikipedia

This ad influenced Francis Scandale's family.

If it's Tuesday, it must be another no-news front page from Francis Scandale, The Record's editor, who has crafted hundreds of them since he took over more than a decade ago and began running in place.


Today, as on many occasions in the past, he's allowed reporter-turned-promoter John Brennan to hijack Page 1 with an exaggerated story on voter support for sports betting in New Jersey.


Scandale is known to wear an old, itchy jock strap every day to hold what little manhood he has left after head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes got through with him. 


He barely salvaged the right to decide what goes on A-1, heavily favoring sports and what he calls "the business of sports."


Mighty 800


The lead story -- "N.J. favors sports betting" -- is based on a poll of only 800 registered voters. How do 800 people morph into "New Jersey"? Did they call me? You?


Scandale and Brennan are so used to prostituting themselves in front of sports business interests, they have no shame in leading the paper with tripe like this.


I'm not even going to waste my time recapping the other "soft news" stories on A-1 today, but this trio is about as boring as you can get.


Five corrections and a clarification on A-2 today must be a new record. They testify to what a lousy job of damage control Sykes' assignment editors, Liz Houlton's news copy desk and the sports copy desk are doing.



Borg's hoods


On the front of Sykes' Local section, a nature area called Borg's Woods is in the news again, but "The back story" blurb distorts the history of the 14-acre parcel on the Hackensack-Maywood border.


The land was the back yard of Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg when he was growing up in the big, white house at Summit and Fairmount avenues in Hackensack, and his father was running The Record.


Bergen County bought the wetlands for $1.74 million in 1994 from the parent company of the newspaper, as today's story says, but only after fierce neighborhood opposition to Borg's plan to sell the parcel to a townhouse developer. 


That part of the story apparently was deliberately omitted. You can always count on the assignment editors to revise history, especially when it comes to the Borg family.


Kissing Borg's ass


I recall how Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza repeatedly refused to include Borg's opposition to a synagogue down the block from his Walnut Street home, on the East Hill of Englewood, claiming he couldn't find "room" in the stories for that essential bit of information. What a turkey.


The pissing match over the brook running through Borg's Woods is the only Hackensack municipal news today, though readers will also find stories about Teaneck, Glen Rock and a few other towns.


In Better Living, the only food coverage is a story in which native-born Italians lecture Americans on how to eat pasta (F-1 and F-3).