Not-so-hidden agenda

Image by Rrrodrigo via Flickr

The Record of Woodland Park today covers its front page with two anti-stories, the latest in a series reflecting its hidden agenda.

The lead story is anti-teachers union. What's new? Governor Christie's acting education commissioner blames the union for the loss of $400 million in federal school reform grants. Even though the accusation is not proven in the story, it leads the paper under a big, black headline calling the whole thing a "$400M flop." This is the state of Record journalism these days.

But most of the rest of the page is devoted to another anti-mass transit tirade by Staff Writer Tom Davis, who is supposed to be a transportation reporter. You might recall Davis' distorted story last year, apparently designed to turn the public against the proposed extension of light rail to Englewood and Tenafly. (Photo: Light rail in Newark.)

This latest story is similar -- a transparent smear job against NJ Transit. The headlines -- "Where taxpayers aren't taken for a ride" and "Some transit systems avoid hefty handouts" -- are laughably inaccurate, when you compare them with the front-page graphic and the text. It looks like it was just thrown together.

Only one transit system of the four listed receives no government assistance, according to the graphic, so where are the "some transit systems avoid hefty handouts" and where is it that "taxpayers aren't taken for a ride"? 

It's Davis taking readers for another ride, likely in concert with Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, who did a pathetic job when he was a Record transportation reporter. 


When you include the driver-friendly columns turned out religiously by Road Warrior John Cichowski, and the refusal of Staff Writer Karen Rouse to report on the decrepit local bus system, you can only conclude the paper wants to do everything possible to keep people poring over its auto advertising and buying cars.

ADDENDUM

This afternoon, I re-read Davis' story and it's even more exaggerated and inaccurate than at first glance.

Although the graphic says Bay Area Rapid Transit in California receives zero "government assistance," the story notes "sales and property tax proceeds" contribute one-third of BART revenues. 

Well, who collects sales and property taxes? The government. And who pays them? The taxpayers.

So why is government assistance listed as zero? Aren't taxpayers being "taken for a ride here," too? How does this rubbish get into the paper, let alone on Page 1? Why are the copy editors duplicitous in this farce, instead of putting a stop to it?
 
Maybe Davis and Sforza should be assigned to ride the trains and buses until they get their facts straight.

Davis doesn't even give NJ Transit credit for recovering a higher percentage of expenses through fares than the other agencies, except for BART -- which serves far fewer riders.

And although he says NJ Transit ridership is down 4 percent since last year, he doesn't explain that is likely due to the economy and company bosses like Publisher Stephen A. Borg and his big sister, Jennifer A. Borg, who downsized North Jersey Media Group after they took over from their Dad.

In Better Living, we get another two-star review (good) from Food Editor Bill Pitcher. But that rating is  another way of saying mediocre ever since Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung devalued it by giving two stars to Bahama Breeze, a fake Caribbean chain restaurant on the highway in Wayne.