Shame on Columnist Mike Kelly

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When a columnist is deliberately dishonest just so he can make a point, you know you are in trouble as a reader. Why it keeps on happening with Mike Kelly -- and none of the editors seem to notice or care -- just shows you how far The Record of Woodland Park has fallen.

In his column on the Opinion front today, Kelly sets up a deeply flawed comparison of the New York City and Hackensack Police Departments -- claiming the former is focused on terrorism and the latter was dominated by cronyism and run by a chief who didn't hesitate to commit fraud.


But if you look at the New York event Kelly focuses on -- the attempted Times Square bombing --you realize no one was hurt because the suspect was inept. It had nothing to do with good police work. And you also realize how conveniently Kelly omits any mention in today's column of disgraced New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik.
 
This is what I wrote in February about Kelly's affection for Kerik, whose crimes were far more serious than the allegations against Zisa:

"On the front of  Opinion, Columnist Mike Kelly perpetrates another fraud, the second installment of his attempt to rehabilitate his pal, Bernard Kerik, the convicted felon who once was New York City's police commissioner. Kelly had the chance to ask bosom buddy "Bernie" the hard questions, but didn't. This isn't confrontation. It's masturbation.


"Kelly loves to push words around to create a mood and ask lots of unanswered questions, but this so-called veteran journalist is afraid to use the appropriate words for Kerik: greedy and arrogant. I wanted to throw up reading Kelly's nonsense and the ridiculous, unchallenged quotes from Kerik."

Hey, Kelly, what about all the unarmed civilians reduced to Swiss cheese by trigger-happy New York City police officers over the years? 


 Kelly couldn't compare Hackensack to the police departments in Teaneck, where he lives, and Englewood, because they are dysfunctional in their own ways. But he could have written a good column without indulging in what amounts to another Jersey joke.

Kelly must think this is what the Borgs and North Jersey Media Group mean by "responsible journalism." You'll make them proud, Kelly.

What does the rest of today's Record have to offer? Not much. Just two stories on Page 1.

Most of A-1 is taken up by a hit-and-run accident involving an allegedly drunken driver and nine idiots who tried to cross a highway after a soccer game in the Meadowlands, while Governor Christie's bid to cap the raises of public workers is squeezed into a one-column space. 


The Local section has another dreadfully boring infrastructure story on the front. The reporter neglects to mention that Christie has consistently refused to raise the low gasoline tax to replenish the Transportation Trust Fund. There are five police or fire stories in the section.


No Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood municipal news appears.

 (Photo: Times Square.)