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| Staff Writer Christopher Maag of The Record, front, shown covering the Hackensack City Council work session on Monday night, didn't say anything about the alleged use of the N-word by Councilman David Sims in his story on Tuesday. |
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| Councilman Sims, seated right, listening to a consultant's report at Tuesday night's City Council meeting. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
If an African-American official uses the N-word to refer to himself, is that a "racial slur"?
The Record is reporting today that it was a slur, claiming Hackensack City Councilman David Sims has sparked "an intense debate in the city over language and race" (Local front).
Today's story reports Sims' alleged use of the term was the "focus of outrage and intense argument" at the council's Monday work session and its regular meeting on Tuesday.
Staff Writer Christopher Maag doesn't explain why his stories about those meetings -- which appeared on Tuesday and Wednesday -- didn't mention the controversy.
Why did The Record wait until today to report Monday night's "heated" debate? Sims denies using the term to describe himself.
(I attended both meetings, but left early each night, and didn't hear anything about Sims.)
More sloppy editing
"I am the Head N-----. It don't get no higher than me," Sims allegedly said in front of Hackensack High School, where he works as a paraprofessional.
But sloppy editing dropped one of the hyphens in "N-----" and missed a lower-case "i" as the first letter of the next quoted sentence.
Maag also doesn't say whether Martin, the detective, is African-American.
On the obesity front
On the Better Living front today, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung once again succumbs to her obsession with desserts and other sugary treats in a story on last-minute gift suggestions for mothers who love food or cooking (BL-1).
She recommends a strawberry huller -- "a major time-saver for jams and pies" -- as if the concept of eating the healthy fruit on its own is completely foreign to her.
Second look
In his Thursday column, Staff Writer John Cichowski again showed his obsolescence as the Road Warrior by using six-year-old statistics from the National Safety Council.
The Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers reports Cichowski used 2008 statistics and ignored updated statistics for 2014.
Cichowski also committed a number of errors in transcribing the statistics:
He said they were for being "struck" by lightning, when they are for being "killed" by lightning; he said they were for being "killed" by an earthquake, when they include volcanoes, landslides and other earth movements; he said they were for pedestrians killed only when crossing the street, when they were for deaths of pedestrians anywhere.
See:
The Road Warrior crashes and burns again
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