Editor pairs bums with princes

Revealed: What Governor Christie scrawled on a piece of paper crammed into the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, where he supposedly prayed.

Readers of today's front page in The Record get to choose from the lesser of two evils -- suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa and globetrotting Governor Christie, who continues to eat his Israeli hosts out of house and home.

Zisa -- part of the family that has controlled Hackensack for decades -- is being tried on charges of official misconduct. In addressing the jury, the prosecutor lumped in Zisa with "rulers and despots" (A-1).

But the story, by Hackensack reporter Stephanie Akin, says the "trial threatens to put a black mark on the legacy of a family that has been influential for deacdes."

What 'legacy'?

Where have Akin and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes been?

Hackensack residents long ago put a black mark on the Zisa family, which, in addition to the errant police chief, has supplied two mayors, two city attorneys and a deputy police chief.

In fact, Zisa's cousin, Joseph Zisa, is the current city attorney.

Late last year, the weekly Hackensack Chronicle badly beat the Woodland Park daily when it reported the city paid Joseph Zisa's law firm more than $500,000 in legal fees to defend the chief from police officers' lawsuits.

Bowing to Christie

For the second day in a row, Staff Writer Mike Kelly reports Christie's visit to Israel as if the GOP bully is a head of state --  not a governor who is doing his best to destroy the middle-class way of life in the Garden State (A-1).

Christie's visit is billed as a trade mission, but Israeli officials who have invited him to dinner complain the governor, first lady Mary Pat and three of their children hog all the falafel, schnitzel, hummus, pita bread and whatever else is on the table.

The governor keeps on asking when the beer and pizza will be served.

Poor Ireland


Why the Irish Catholic family didn't go to Ireland for Easter eludes many readers. If he is on a trade mission, he has so far struck out in attracting more Israeli businesses to New Jersey.


The editors and many staffers, including Kelly and Charles Stile, climbed into bed with Christie after he was elected, and their positive stories about the governor amount to so many journalistic orgasms.


In a related development, reporters have learned what Christie wrote on a piece of paper he crammed into a crevice in the Wailing Wall, where the rotund governor prayed the other day, prompting a New York Post headline: "The Whale at the Wall."


Christie asked for divine guidance on the sexual positions he could use to avoid suffocating all the journalists who are cozying up to him.


Weird front page


It's weird enough that Editor Marty Gottlieb juxtaposes Page 1 stories about two bums, Zisa and Christie, with two princes, a fallen Marine from Waldwick and Jersey rocker Bruce Spirngsteen.


But would you get a load of the thumbnail photo showing Kelly's phony, shit-eating grin less than 2 inches away from the thumbnail photo of a smiling Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph D'Augustine, who was killed in Afghanistan last week.


Of the four stories on Page 1, the reporting and writing by Allison Pries on D'Augustine coming home "a hero" was the most effective. And the photos were really moving.


'Coming home' echo

But the editors really dropped the ball on the Springsteen story, failing to remove a first-paragraph reference to the singer coming home to New Jersey -- right next to the story and reference to the dead Marine coming home.

Also, the reporter must be too young to know that Springsteen used an unknown Courteney Cox in the 1984 music video, "Dancing in the Dark," which showed him pulling her onto the stage to  dance with  him -- her first step to stardom.

In the lead paragraph of today's Springsteen story, the reporter makes reference to a "young girl on stage to sing with the band," but when she brings it up later, the girl is not named and there is no reference to Cox (A-6).

More screw-ups


On A-2, there are three corrections, including the mislabeling of photos showing two African-American men on trial in Paterson on attempted murder charges. 


It's clear that to the editors, all black men look alike.


On Monday, a front-page story on tougher license renewals was a waste of space, because drivers face that only every four years.


But a Road Warrior column today merely rubs sand in readers' wounds (L-1). 


Now, Staff Writer John Cichowski is, in effect, saying "never mind" to anyone over the age of 47, because they will be able to renew their license by mail starting in July -- without documentation.


F.U. to Hackensack


With Akin off covering the Zisa trial in Hackensack, Sykes and her assignment-desk minions have been unable to come up with any other news about the city.


But stories from Bogota, Englewood and other towns in recent days have explored their school budgets in greater detail than the short piece on the budget for Hackensack schools that ran a couple of weeks ago.


Sykes still needed a big photo of a minor accident on Route 4 to fill her Local news section (L-6).