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| The "What it means to you" box on The Record's front page on Friday distilled the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the health-care law into easily understood elements. Good work. |
There has been one constant since a veteran New York Times editor took over The Record's newsroom in late January:
The assignment and news copy desks -- which long ago gave up the pretense of serious local journalism -- have been unable to keep up with the demands of Editor Marty Gottlieb, who is trying to give readers news coverage that approaches the length, depth and complexity of The Times itself.
As a result, local-news reporters are being pulled off their beats at an alarming rate, and assignment and copy editors are making serious errors in news stories -- even those on Page 1 -- that are rarely corrected.
Page 1 error
On Thursday, the lead, front-page story misquoted the prosecutor in a sub-headline and in the first paragraph on what Malik Williams, 19, of Garfield allegedly was doing before he was shot and killed by police last Dec. 10.
The head and deputy assignment editors, and the supervisor of the news copy desk -- where the headline was written -- completely dropped the ball, and Williams was said to be "charging" at two officers and a police dog with a hammer and a saw in the moments before he was shot five times.
Molinelli flees
Prosecutor John L. Molinelli's statement had said something far less serious -- that Williams "advanced towards" the officers -- and Molinelli didn't meet with reporters or Williams' mother to answer questions.
Significantly, a follow-up on Friday's Local front never used the word "charging" when describing Williams' actions (L-1).
Did you see the hilarious video on North Jersey.com, showing a flustered Molinelli fleeing out a side door of a meeting room after shouting, "Not now," when confronted by Williams' mother and her supporters on Wednesday?
The Record's story on Thursday only referred briefly to the confrontation, without highlighting its comic elements.
Local news suffers
Hackensack reporter Stephanie Akin was assigned to the Williams story on Wednesday and Thursday, even though it has nothing to do with her beat.
What is clear is that Hackensack municipal news has plummeted in recent years as head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza assigned Akin and her predecessor, Monsy Alvarado, to anything but coverage of the city.
Just below the Williams story on Thursday's front page the bylines of three reporters appear over a story that makes much ado about nothing:
What "seemed to be tapping" from a shipping container in a cargo ship at Port Newark.
Even though this was a potential illegal-immigration story, the Port Authority reporter was assigned to it, guaranteeing he would continue to ignore the bistate agency's pathetic record on providing mass transit.
Never mind
The second paragraph reported the Coast Guard called off the search at 10:10 the night before after nothing was found, but the third paragraph appearing on A-1 is completely garbled -- as if the assignment and copy editors broke under the demands of deadline reporting.
On Friday, The Record's staff appears to have done a wonderful job of covering the U.S. Supreme Court's endorsement of health-care reform, but sloppy editing left problems on A-1.
The first paragraph of the story by Staff Writers Lindy Washburn and Mary Jo Layton is long enough to choke a horse, but it could have easily been broken up into two elements -- if Sykes, Sofrza, copy desk supervisor Liz Houlton and others were doing their jobs.
And why does the first paragraph refer to President Obama's "health care plan"? It's a law, not a plan.
An A-1 sidebar below the main story, carrying the bylines of Staff Writer Barbara Williams and Layton, had an extra word in the first paragraph:
"Lisa Gladwell spent weeks trawling for affordable health care after she was lost her job [my italics] ..."
Elsewhere in Friday's paper, an incomprehensible phrase appears in the data box with the restaurant review in Better Living (BL-16 and 17).
The "ambience" of Nagoya in Mahwah is described as "busy neighborhood sushi meal."
Today's paper
Governor Christie isn't shy about showing his strong Republican bias toward the wealthy, whose campaign contributions helped put him in office (A-1 and A-6).
He vetoed earned income-tax credits for low-income families; grabbed $200 million in affordable housing funds to help balance the budget; refused to restore cuts in family planning clinics; and is expected to veto a tax surcharge on millionaires that would provide additional property tax relief of nearly $800 million.
Ambulance chasing
A large A-1 photo of two non-fatal accidents on Route 46 in Teterboro sends readers to a six-paragraph story at the top of L-1 -- typical of Sykes' and Sforza's use of ho-hum news to fill space.
Sykes and Sforza ignore the real news of the roads: massive traffic jams every day caused by a lack of mass-transit alternatives.
Far from kosher
The big element on L-1 today is more lavish coverage of the campaign of Republican Shmuley Boteach for Congress -- only reminding readers that they've seen nothing on the campaign of Teaneck Deputy Mayor Adam Gussen for a seat from the 5th District, which includes the township, Hackensack, Fair Lawn and other communities.
Boteach and Gussen are both Orthodox Jews, so one can only wonder why Sykes and Sforza are ignoring the latter and paying so much attention to the former, an Englewood rabbi and author whose publicity mongering is well-known.
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