Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Road Warrior puts driving foot in mouth

Chevy VoltImage by cseeman via Flickr
The Chevy Volt. Errors by Road Warrior John Cichowski continue to mount.

A reader of northjersey.com points out errors in John Cichowski's recent column for The Record on the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, which the reporter insists on incorrectly calling an "electric" car:
"The Road Clown rides again for a good laugh. Check out link below for a FIOS1 follow-up video interview with John based on his 4/24 online article on the Chevy Volt.  In speaking about students not using NJ-mandated seat belts in school buses [start at 3-minute point of the video], John mistakenly indicates that “it took years for the NJ legislature to BAN [instead of correctly stating something like “require” or ”mandate”] belts on school buses…… [Hee! Hee!]  As I was laughing about how John not only confuses his readers, but he now also confuses himself, the FIOS interviewer never corrected hm.


"John also apparently likes to double-down on his mistakes. In his 4/24 article, he thoughtlessly repeated over and over the Volt did not qualify for NY’s Clean Pass [toll discount] due to relatively lower fuel efficiency in gas mode. He then repeated this same nonsense on the FIOS1 interview.

"Based on past experience, John thinks that repeating something over and over makes everything he states correct.  However, John was badly mistaken based on the facts, which I guess he did not bother to properly verify, for EPA’s combined fuel efficiency ratings for the electric and gas modes of the Volt are within NY Clean Pass requirements. And the NY Clean Pass Web page clearly states the Volt is not approved solely because it does not meet the more stringent, California-based emissions limits -- a second requirement for being approved for NY Clean Pass."
Eye on The Record notes Cichowski omitted saying the toll discounts denied the Volt driver from Teaneck are part of the Port Authority's Green Pass program.

The day after the column appeared, an A-2 correction noted Cichowski had erred on the Volt's gasoline mileage.

Not on my front page

What's this nonsense on Page 1 of the Woodland Park daily today? 

Do people who bought homes "less than 30 feet" from railroad tracks have any right to complain about a plan to build a station near them?

You'd think they would be thanking NJ Transit for 1) increasing the value of their homes by making mass transit available to residents, and 2) reducing noise by stopping the 30 trains that roar by every day.

But Editor Francis Scandale is so desperate for copy, he allows the reporter to disguise a not-in-my-backyard issue as one of "privacy." How ridiculous. 


The reporter even has the nerve to call the neighborhood "secluded." 

The front-page photo shows a man on his deck as a commuter train passes. His shit-eating grin tells you he is relishing the tens of thousands of dollars he saved by buying a house next to the tracks. 

Also on A-1 today is a rare obituary -- an intimate portrait of folk-jazz singer Phoebe Snow and her ties to Teaneck. 

Two embarrassing corrections on A-2 involve names that were screwed up. Getting names right is a cardinal rule of journalism, but not at The Record.

Another bad head

Who wrote the misleading headline on former Editor James Ahearn's OpEd column today (A-11)?

Ahearn doesn't link a favorable Supreme Court ruling on educational funding in the Corzine administration and Governor Christie's threat to defy the court now.

Much of the Local section is devoted to Law & Order news, with hardly a municipal story in sight. Another good job by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her minions.


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