Gannett editors ban African-American achievement from The Record's front page

Actress Melissa McCarthy made a surprise appearance on "Saturday Night Live" to deliver a hilarious send-up of White House press secretary Sean Spicer losing it time and again, above and below.

Here, McCarthy as Spicer uses a lectern to assault a reporter at the press briefing.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Before Gannett Co. bought The Record last July, African-American readers could expect Page 1 coverage of their achievements every February.

But five days into Black History Month, I haven't seen any mention of the annual observance on the front page or any page of the Woodland Park daily.

Instead, today's Sunday edition squanders precious Page 1 space on "sexting" and a column on one of the coaches in the Super Toilet Bowl.

With Gannett, as with former Publisher Stephen A. Borg in any month but February, one of the few ways blacks get on the front page is to be elected president, kill someone or commit some other horrible crime.

Court stops Trump

A federal appeals court early today denied a Trump administration request to immediately restore the travel and refugee ban after a Seattle judge blocked it (1A).

The State Department said it was restoring tens of thousands of canceled visas for travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, while the Department of Homeland Security "suspended" all actions for enforcing the ban, a front page story reports.

The Record's story refers to people who were affected by the ban as "foreigners" (1A).

Dictator Trump's many executive orders in his first two weeks have been greeted with horror, but they were also lampooned on "Saturday Night Live," "Real Time with Bill Maher" and other programs.

Maher said he believes Trump is "mentally ill," and that only the "sane Republicans" who control Congress can save the country.

On Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jews were stunned when Trump neglected to mention 6 million of their ancestors were slaughtered.

In the opening sketch on "Saturday Night Live," a cast member played White House senior counselor Stephen K. Bannon as the Grim Reaper, who is called "president." Actor Alex Baldwin, right, did his usual send-up of President Trump.

Terrorism debate

See Columnist Mike Kelly on the Opinion front today for a tedious discussion of the debate over whether Trump's travel ban was effective in keeping terrorists out of the country or unfair to refugees and other immigrants (1O).

The opening paragraphs scream "me, me, me" as the veteran reporter hits readers over the head with his credentials -- he researched a book on terrorism and studied "suicide bombing."

Isn't that impressive?

Food coverage

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz doesn't spend much time discussing heart disease, obesity and healthy food.

So, you might want to read a seven-paragraph story on 3L in Local today about Ridgewood firefighters who are shopping and cooking healthy with a grim statistic in mind:

Cardiovascular disease is cited in 45 percent of on-duty deaths of firefighters and, as one said, "diet can help that."

More typical was the Better Living cover story on Friday.

In place of a weekly restaurant review, editors ran a story on the Dumont Crystal diner, and a dish called "Dumont Police Sandwich" (Friday's 1BL and 10BL).

The ingredients are described as "hot roast beef, brown gravy, sauteed mushrooms, onions and fresh mozzarella," but the story doesn't warn readers all of that saturated fat from the cheese and the mystery meat is really bad for your heart.