Wednesday, February 9, 2011

What the story doesn't tell you

Map of New Jersey highlighting Hudson CountyImage via Wikipedia
Hudson County, where many Hispanics live, wasn't included in a story on how Asians and Latinos have fared in New Jersey politics. The Record once covered the county as part of North Jersey.

How does Editor Francis Scandale lead the paper with a state budget story that doesn't mention how Governor Christie blew $400 million in federal education funds and turned his back on hundreds of millions dollars from a tax surcharge on millionaires?

The Page 1 report by Staff Writer John Reitmeyer also doesn't explore the nearly bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund, which could have been replenished by raising the low gasoline tax. But that would have angered Christie supporters in their gas-guzzling limos and SUVs.

In the second paragraph, Reitmeyer comes up with a euphemism for the governor's all-out assault on programs for the middle and working classes. The reporter calls them "a series of unpopular spending cuts" in Christie's first year in office. 

Now, Christie may again pander to the wealthy with cuts in business taxes.


No room on the front


There are a few other A-1 stories in the paper, but they were shut out by a large photo of a Super Bowl celebration in Wisconsin that sports-loving Scandale slapped on the front page, even though it's so yesterday.

On A-3, we learn Christie vetoed an offshore liquefied natural gas pipeline. Who knew a Republican could care about the environment? That story should have been outside, not a sports-related photo or yet another story on the clean-out of a sewerage commission.

The freeing of the young leader of the uprising in Egypt also is worthy of Page 1, but ends up on the back of the section (A-12).

Snow on the brain


Road Warrior John Cichowski's brain has been frozen by all the snow that fell. Today, he gives us another column on the state's new flying-snow law. I'm waiting for a half-dozen or so columns when the broken record discovers all the potholes that have developed in the last few weeks. He needs to get out more.

Hackensack municipal news appears in head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section today for the second day in a row. There are two stories on L-3, as well as a Teaneck story, but the section hasn't had any Englewood municipal news since Jan. 22.




Albio SiresImage via Wikipedia
Rep. Albio Sires

A second look

On Sunday's front page, the sub-headline with the census story said:

Asians, Hispanics show little gain in N.J. politics

Well, what about U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Rep. Albio Sires? They are Hispanic, from Hudson County, which The Record once covered, but which wasn't included in the story for some reason.

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