Christie rolls over on the editors

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Readers are bored to tears by the Republican circus in Iowa, but that didn't stop The Record from putting it on A-1.

The Record's editors got into bed with Governor Christie long ago, so it's no surprise today's Page 1 "analysis" on his first two years in office sounds like he rolled over and crushed their objectivity.


Interim Editor Douglas Clancy gave away the store with a glowing lead paragraph, only to jerk readers around in the second paragraph by telling them that's "the version promoted by the governor and his supporters."


That is bad journalism -- compounded by bad editing.


Why give more front-page space to a warehouse blaze that injured no one than to this supposedly even-handed assessment of the first half of Christie's first term?


And why leave out so much negative information, including the GOP bully's regressive policies of refusing to impose a tax on millionaires or raise the low gasoline tax to pay for road and mass-transit improvements?


Forgoing $1 billion in tax revenue -- to protect his wealthy supporters -- forced Christie to make deep cuts in aid to public schools and cities, and to slash homestead rebates and programs for low-income women and children.


Farm news


Today's hayseed vote for Republican presidential hopefuls in Iowa has been endlessly hyped and analyzed by the media, which are bored with any election that isn't a horse race.


The Record jumps on the bandwagon with a front-page story, another on A-4, an editorial on A-10 that compares the Iowa caucuses to spring training "for pitchers and catchers" and an OpEd piece on one of the candidates (A-11).


In fact, the Woodland Park daily has done a far better job of covering the caucuses than head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes has done in covering Hackensack, as shown once again by today's Local section.


Think of all the stories the media ignored while it was chasing the seven or eight GOP turkeys vying for the party's presidential nomination -- such as the partisan gridlock in Washington or the attempt by Christie and other Republicans to destroy our middle class way of life.


Imagine what it would be like if The Record and other media waited for the Republican National Convention in August and the selection of a nominee before starting to cover the 2012 election.