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| Newark Mayor Cory Booker would be a worthy successor to Barack Obama. |
Why is the media, including The Record of Woodland Park, obsessed with trying to predict the future -- from the outcome of the criminal trial of suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa to the next presidential election and beyond?
Recall the two breathless columns written by Mike Kelly about Governor Christie's puzzling visit to Israel, and how the reporter knocked himself out trying to assess the impact on the GOP bully's aspirations for national office.
Obama successor
Look at Page 1 today and the story about whether Newark Mayor Cory Booker gave a "lift" to his "national profile" by rescuing a woman from a house fire. Give me a break.
Wouldn't it be sweet if Booker ran for president and succeeded Barack Obama after the latter's second term? And wouldn't it be even sweeter if Booker defeated the GOP nominee -- Christie? LOL.
That would be a real Jersey smack down and a rebuke to the racism and greed of the GOP.
Englewood coverage
Today's paper isn't much of an improvement over Friday's edition.
On Friday, for the second day in a row, Editor Marty Gottlieb ran a story on A-1 about a dishonest former employee of Englewood who stole $50,000 from a city account.
The Record has written pathetically little about residents of the multi-ethnic city -- including the God-fearing, hard-working Jamaican community -- and even less about the lack of white students in the elementary and middle schools.
Mac and sleaze
Head Assignment Editor Deirde Sykes covered Englewood as a reporter for a weekly paper ages ago, but seems to know nothing about the city, where Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" lives in an East Hill mansion.
Mac's presence in the city and his paper have done nothing to improve conditions for the vast majority of residents in a classic two-sides-of-the-tracks community.
I recall how Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza seemed to deliberately leave Mac's name out of stories concerning a controversial synagogue on the multimillionaire's block -- a temple Borg opposed.
(201) magazine
In the April 2012 issue of (201) magazine -- the pride and joy of Publisher Stephen A. Borg -- Englewood is described as "a thriving community."
Of course, the younger Borg chose a private high school over the city's public high school, so why should his newspaper care whether the schools are segregated or about all of the other problems in Englewood?
More errors
Two corrections and a clarification were published on A-2 in The Record on Friday, and another error was corrected today -- this one made by the Road Warrior, who misidentified an NJ Transit spokesman.
That's significant, because Staff Writer John Cichowski has written so few columns about mass transportation that he isn't familiar with agency spokespeople.
His ridiculous column on Friday (L-1) explored whether commuters would stop taking trains after a woman was stabbed at the Secaucus railroad station. I can't make this stuff up.
'Political climber'
Also on Friday, in a letter about cancellation of the Hudson River rail tunnels, a reader said what Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin doesn't have the courage or conviction to say:
Abraham Weintraub of Fair Lawn said the Government Accountability Office report "is showing Christie for what he truly is -- a self-promoting political climber who was willing to throw his constituents' dreams under the bus, er, train, of his future rise in the Republican Party" (A-22).
Twisted reviewer
Friday's Better Living section was notable for what amounts to a celebration of unhealthy, artery clogging food served at Twisted Elm in Elmwood Park, a "gastro pub" awarded 2.5 stars by Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung.
The review also was historic. Ung mentioned sampling only one dessert -- instead of her normal four -- and didn't bore readers with her usually orgasmic descriptions of taste and texture.
But she squandered a full paragraph on the chef's resume and didn't have room to tell readers whether Twisted Elm serves anything but low-quality, additive-filled beef, lamb and steak.
Did you notice this -- her use of "cheffed"?
The only healthy dish Ung mentions is baked scrod. She sampled no salads or vegetables.
Today's paper
The only Hackensack news in Sykes' Local section is about two firefighters injured by falling bricks in Bogota (L-1).
The big headline on L-1 -- "Reviving downtown" -- refers not to the ailing Main Streets of Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood, but to Tenafly, where the younger Borg lives in a $3.65-million McMansion.
F.U. to Hackensack
On L-3 today, a story about school board candidates in Englewood discusses desegregation efforts at the high school, but says nothing about how few white students there are in the lower grades or whether administrators are addressing that.
No story about the Hackensack school board race has appeared in The Record, leaving residents to rely only on deceptive campaign literature they receive in the mail.
Related articles
I've clarified today's post. Stephen Borg attended a private high school in Englewood.
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