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| Spotted on Cortland Place, near Newcomb Road, in Tenafly after 8 on Sunday morning. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
The Record's editors seem obsessed with animals, the original inhabitants of our "suburban jungle," if you accept the phrase used in a clever Page 1 headline on Monday.
But the sad truth is readers can't bear all of this hype about critters displaced by development in North Jersey -- a story the paper seems to cover ever few years, starting way back in the 1980s (A-1 today and Monday).
Editors go wild
"Suburbia is growing more wild," Staff Writer James M. O'Neill claimed in Monday's takeout.
But that's contradicted by the A-1 photo caption and sub-headline, both of which report some species are disappearing or are "virtually extinct."
Today's front page holds little interest for the human residents of North Jersey.
And the humans who work at the Woodland Park daily still struggle with preventing error from getting into the paper, especially in the Road Warrior column.
Two more embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today.
Insulting women
Then, you turn to the Local front today, and wonder why a bloc of female lawmakers calling for financial penalties against the National Football League was deemed less important than another bear running loose in Ridgewood (L-1).
Indeed, some professional athletes have been treating girlfriends, spouses and children like so many footballs.
But sports-loving Editor Marty Gottlieb doesn't seem to notice or care.
Dissing commuters
What is the point or relevance to North Jersey commuters of the Road Warrior column on comedian Tracy Morgan not wearing his seat belt before a truck slammed into his limo van on the New Jersey Turnpike in June (L-1)?
Was Morgan's friend, James McNair, wearing his seat belt? If so, it didn't prevent his death.
The local assignment editors again rely on Law & Order news to flesh out their thin section today (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).
Second look
Staff Writer John Cichowski's Sunday column was filled with numerous errors as he attempted to report on a poll about unsafe driving behavior, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:
"The Road Warrior reported that a Rutgers-Eagleton poll indicated that 81% of drivers over 64 considered driving while eating, drinking and cellphone yakking to be very unsafe -- a much higher rate than drivers 18 to 29 (45%), drivers 30 to 49 (50%), and drivers 50 to 64 (58%).
"Road Warrior's cited survey statistics were only for talking on a hand-held cell phone. There was different statistics for talking on hands-free cell phones, as well as for eating or drinking."
Cichowski also was wrong on whether driving fatalities are rising:
"The Road Warrior indicated that the perceptions of New Jersey residents that road safety is improving is wrong because Garden State driving fatalities are rising.
"Residents’ perceptions are correct since fatalities have decreased over the previous four years and the past decade. While fatalities are higher in 2014 than 2013, it is because road fatalities reached a record low in 2013."
For the blow-by-blow on a reporter who is setting a record for inaccuracy, see:
Readers Poll: Get rid of error-prone Road Warrior
Restaurant expose?
I agree that Claire Insalata Poulos, founder and president of the 15-year-old Table to Table, is doing important work by collecting fresh restaurant leftovers to feed the hungry, but why does this Better Living cover story go on and on (BL-1)?
If you bother plowing through all the testimonials, Poulos sounds like she is ready for sainthood (BL-1 and BL-6).
Poulos is a natural for the work; her name "Insalata" means "salad" in Italian.
But in general, shouldn't Food Editor Esther Davidowitz be writing more about restaurants and consumers?
Instead, she makes multimillionaire celebrity chefs and restaurant owners like Mario Batali, Drew Nierporent and Emeril Lagasse seem like such swell guys for donating food they had been throwing away for decades.
Garrett blinders
On Monday, The Record published a Page 1 column on Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, and his opponent in the Nov. 4 election, but failed to report the arch-conservative initially opposed spending $50 billion for Superstorm Sandy aid.
On Tuesday's A-6, Columnist Herb Jackson was outed by the campaign of challenger Roy Cho, a Hackensack attorney.
The six-term Republican's reelection campaign, it turns out, sent out a postcard claiming "Scott Garret worked to bring immediate relief to Sandy victims."
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