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| Paramus is the "center of the baseball world," The Record reports. |
If the losing team of Paramus Little Leaguers are "heroes," as the Page 1 headline in The Record declares today, what would the players be if they had won -- 'gods'?
Combine the desperation of Editor Francis Scandale for local news and Liz Houlton's inept news copy desk, and you get a story that is blown way out of proportions.
The word "hero" or "heroes" appears nowhere in the Paramus story, so how did it get in the headline? Did Scandale order its use to sell papers? How do real heroes feel to be lumped in with these losers?
Blowhard mayor
Paramus residents are expected to launch a recall of Mayor Richard LaBarbiera for knocking its famous malls, which keep property taxes low.
"Paramus has always been known as the center of the shopping world," the mayor said. "After this year and this team, we're now known as the center of the baseball world."
What hyperbole. What B.S.
Far better choices for A-1 would have been the hearings on the Port Authority's toll-and-fare hike plan (A-3) and the foreclosure story (L-7).
Newsroom tensions
Staff Writer Andrea Alexander hasn't covered Teaneck that long, so you can't blame her for not knowing tensions between Orthodox Jews and minorities surfaced years before the recent debate over school busing (A-1).
But you can blame Editor Deirdre Sykes and her minions, who run the laziest assignment desk east of the Mojave and Sonoran deserts.
Page A-2 carries two embarrassing corrections from Local.
On the front of Local, Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado gives a soapbox to gadflies who want the city to hire a civilian police director.
Alvarado has written more stories about the Police Department than any other agency -- even though less than one-tenth of the officers have been accused of wrongdoing.
