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| The glass exterior of a 47-story residential tower overlooking the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee is nearing completion, above. The building as seen from Main Street, below. Some residents fear more traffic, though in a borough that already has nightmarish traffic, how will they tell? |
By Victor E. Sasson
Editor
A Page 1 story in The Record today exposes more payouts for unused time in Hackensack, but also hides an elaborate correction of Friday's front-page story on similar payments to the corrupt Ken Zisa, onetime police chief and state assemblyman.
And the dominant story on today's front page -- video frames of the man who committed suicide at Garden State Plaza in Paramus -- again ignores the irresponsible lack of security at the state's biggest shopping center.
Cashing in
The Hackensack story reports more than 30 employees rushed to retire and cash out unused sick and vacation time as Governor Christie "tried to cap sick-leave pay for retiring public workers" (A-1).
But on the continuation page, Staff Writer Hannan Adely takes back Friday's front-page story, which claimed Zisa was paid twice in 2010 for unused time (A-6).
Now, Adely reports Zisa received $94,513 for unused sick days or $53,671 after taxes. On Friday, they were reported as separate payments.
Today's story contains new errors:
That Zisa received the payment "just before his arrest on charges of insurance fraud," when Adely previously reported it was after his arrest at the end of April 2010; and that he is appealing his conviction on official misconduct charges, when he is appealing two convictions, one for official misconduct and another for fraud, as well as a 5-year prison sentence.
$2.4 million deal
The lawsuits against Zisa reported in today's story -- and the millions of dollars paid to settle them -- prompt long-suffering residents and taxpayers to wonder why the City Council didn't move to fire him years before his arrest.
On A-6, Adely reports the former girlfriend of then-Deputy Police Chief Frank Zisa Jr., the chief's brother, won a $2.4 million settlement from a lawsuit alleging Ken Zisa retaliated against her because she refused sexual advances by him and Frank Zisa Jr.
More A-1 errors
Also on Page 1 today, video frames of Richard Shoop, 20, an armed Teaneck man who entered Garden State Plaza on Nov. 4 to commit suicide, drive home the pathetic lack of security provided by the mall's Australian owners and Paramus police.
The Record has ignored that story, and today (Nov. 16) describes the events of Nov. 4 as "last week."
Though that is technically correct, it is confusing and a more precise phrase, such as "12 days ago" would have been better.
The Woodland Park daily quotes police as saying Shoop "did not appear to be intent on killing anyone but himself and avoided confronting" officers, who arrived minutes after he fired random shots into an elevator door, the ceiling and signs.
Still, burned-out Staff Writer Mike Kelly distorted the incident in three columns, comparing Shoop to the gunmen at Columbine High School and in Newtown, Conn.
If police weren't summoned until shots were fired, does that mean no one was monitoring security cameras or that a man in black wearing a helmet and carrying a rifle didn't alarm guards who were?
Today's story and photo caption variously describes the part of the mall where Shoop's body was found as "a back hallway," "an area of catacomb-like hallways" and the "basement."
Where is Houlton?
The confusing time element and fuzzy reporting in today's story again dramatizes the incompetence of Production Editor Liz Houlton, who is paid a six-figure salary to supervise news editors, copy editors, copy desk supervisors and page proofers.
Their job is to act as a last line of defense against factual and grammatical errors in stories that are missed by the local assignment desk, notably Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, who is running this farce in the unexplained absence of lifer Deirdre Sykes.
They seem incapable of catching even the most obvious errors, as today's Page 1 screw-ups and two more corrections on A-2 demonstrate.
Another story that exposes copy desk incompetence appears on L-5 today, where the headline suggests that only one taxicab operates in Paterson.
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