Editors are minding police only when they break the law

The man who parked this minivan in a reserved space steps from the entrance to 24 Hour Fitness in Paramus this morning appeared to be able bodied, but his enormous beer belly may have qualified him for a handicap parking permit.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The tabloid news leading The Record's front page today -- a Glen Rock detective accused of sexting teen girls (A-1) -- exposes the editors' refusal to examine how well the police protect us.

Whether it's a rash of burglaries in tony Tenafly or drive-by shootings in impoverished Paterson, the irresponsible Woodland Park daily has simply ignored the performance of police departments, even when innocent lives are lost.

In 2010, The Record did report on the impact of police salaries on property tax bills and crime. A chart listing salaries stated:

"The average police officer's 2009 base pay was almost $104,000 in Bergen County and nearly $88,000 in Passaic County, with some of the highest pay in lower-crime areas and some of the lower salaries in higher-crime communities.

"Here are averages by municipality, along with crime rates and the percent of officers earning at least $100,000. Data covers patrolmen up through police chiefs."

P.R. for cops 

One reason police performance is ignored by The Record's editors is their continued reliance on routine crime, fire and accident news to fill their columns.

To keep the flow of police, fire and accident news coming, local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza knock themselves out doing public relations for the police and other first responders.

What other explanation is there for why they ran photos showing water-emergency training for local firefighters on the front of Local today (L-1)?

Or, how about a long story on wealthy Wyckoff adding five police officers (L-2)?

And then there is a preview of the Ramsey Rescue Squad putting on "a simulated rescue of a person trapped in a sewer" (L-3).

We pay them handsomely to do those jobs. If they don't, the editors should be pointing that out.

Salary cuts

Another sign the editors want to stay on the good side of the police is their reaction to Governor Christie's order to limit local school superintendents to his salary of $175,000 a year, resulting in many cuts.

The Record never questioned then or in the five years since that move why he didn't order the same cuts for nearly 70 local police chiefs in Bergen County, many of whom are making close to or more than $200,000 a year, a huge burden on property tax payers.

Goes to far

Also on Page 1 today, a photo over line goes way too far:

"CRUSHING BLOW TO WATER SUPPLY"

Before you rush to your faucet, take a look at the caption for the photo under that sensationally exaggerated statement.

Residents in only three of the 70 towns in Bergen County towns were "warned to boil water" (A-1).

Eye on The Record

will return on Sunday

Choking on tabloid news

Image via Wikipedia

















After being chased by police, a suspect runs his car into a police cruiser at slow speed in Ridgefield. It's all over the front page of The Record of Woodland Park today. I'm so bored, I wonder whether the dead woman found in the passenger seat was belted in.

Bret Schundler is back in the lead, A-1 story, and the fired state education czar admits he is personally responsible for scratching out budget data that sunk the application for a $400 million federal education grant. Will Governor Christie, who fired Schundler, ever admit he made a mistake of any kind?

Staff Writer Leslie Brody says the Schundler-Christie story is "an unfolding drama that has riveted the education world and outraged taxpayers." Gee. Aren't taxpayers really outraged the governor let the Borgs and his rich friends off the hook by not imposing a special tax on millionaires?   

What local news?

The front of Local today has lots of law and order news, and there is more inside the section, which has no municipal stories from Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood or a host of other towns. In fact, there is so little local news, the desperate layout editors had to run just about every photo as large as possible to fill space.

Of course, the victims of this kind of coverage are the readers.

The hot weather returned with a vengeance Sunday, but Editor Francis "Frank The Castrato" Scandale, head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes and their minions are cooling their heels in the office and don't think a heat wave is worthy of mention. 

Calling all carnivores


There's no sign of the new food editor, but the old food editor left behind a poorly disguised advertisement for two North Jersey steakhouses that serve drug- and hormone-filled beef at prices only the Borgs can afford (Better Living, F-5).

(Map: Bergen County, at the top of the state, at the bottom in The Bergen Record.)

In tabloid mode

The murder of a 9-year-old North Jersey boy in the city is the best the desperate, incompetent editors could do for the front page of The Record of Woodland Park today.

Doesn't that big Page 1 photo of grieving relatives make you sick over the paper's tabloid-like exploitation of them? Why doesn't the reporter discuss the obvious child-care issues of entrusting a child to relatives on a regular basis. Later, we have to endure sloppy editing, with a quote from the principal of the boy's school running twice at the end of the story.

At the bottom of the front page, another EnCap story appears, as if anyone still cares about the botched attempt to remake Meadowlands garbage dumps. Do we need any more examples of how New Jersey is a political cesspool of greedy developers and even greedier public officials? Why not highlight the good that may come of this debacle -- open space and more solar energy -- instead of leaving it to the end of the story? 

On Page A-4, there's a flattering "profile" of Mary Pat Christie, who will become first lady Jan. 19. The reporter doesn't have the good sense to ask her whether she is going to encourage her husband to eat a healthier diet or reform a campaign-finance system that allows only the rich to run for county or statewide office in New Jersey.

Looking for news of Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood in the Local section? You won't find any. Yet a great deal of space is squandered on 10 political figures "to watch in 2010." I'm wondering whether we'll see any of them in handcuffs.

The rest of the paper went right into the recycling bin.