'That's such a crummy newspaper'

Port Authority police have been trying to discourage drivers from using the $3.50 car-pool discount at Hudson River crossings, including the George Washington Bridge.

This week, I met a woman who never cancelled her subscription to The New York Times after she moved to Fort Lee from Manhattan decades ago.

"That's such a crummy newspaper," she sniffed, when I mentioned The Record.

You'd think she would be interested in The Record now that it has ex-Timesman Marty Gottlieb running the newsroom and ordering his subeditors and reporters to rewrite the New York paper and other media.

Get me rewrite

For three days running this week, the Woodland Park daily's front page was dominated by a scandal involving halfway houses -- a story The Times broke on Sunday.

Compare The Times' 10-month investigation to The Record's nearly 3-year investigation of a single man, Michael Mordaga, the former chief of detectives in Hackensack and at the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes squandered an estimated $500,000 in staff salaries, and didn't even come up with a story strong enough to put on Page 1.

Other media lead way

Today's lead front-page story on the Port Authority's car-pool discount is based on "recent media reports" (A-8).

Notice The Record's spin on drivers picking up other commuters at the Fort Lee end of the George Washington Bridge so they can ask for a car-pool discount -- $3.50 instead of the usual E-ZPass rush-hour toll of $9.50.

The story claims Port Authority police have a "safety concern," and that's why the bi-state agency has been ticketing drivers.

Of course. Drivers could pick up a rapist, murderer or worse -- a Tea Party member.

Discount disclaimer

But the truth is the Port Authority will do anything to prevent commuters from saving money after the agency hiked tolls on the Hudson River crossings last year, including raising the $2.50 car-pool discount.

Why does The Record refer to it as the "little-known" discount?

It's because the paper's so-called transportation reporters and its commuting columnist, Road Warrior John Cichowski, have rarely publicized any of the discounts available to car-poolers, hybrid-car owners and seniors.

Even today's A-1 story fails to mention the car-pool discount is available at any time of the day as long as you have three people in the car and you register beforehand by calling E-ZPass.

Mass hysteria

A brief on A-9 advises readers of another NJ Transit We Are Listening forum to hear complaints, comments or compliments from commuters.

A long-line of transportation reporters, starting with Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, have told commuters, We Are Not Listening. 

Instead of covering mass transit, The Record covers the meetings of mass-transit agencies.

Old data

The lead story in Sykes' Local section is about the mortality rate from open-heart surgeries at North Jersey hospitals, but the data is from 2009.

Sykes and Sforza managed to find two stories from sleepy Hillsdale.

Yet, there is no municipal news from Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood or other large towns.