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| Governor Christie announces his decision to forgo candidacy in the Republican primary race for president in front of a portrait of former Governor Tom Kean at a news conference at the Statehouse on October 4, 2011. |
The Record's editors continue to interpret and exaggerate the prosecutor's report in the police shooting of a Garfield man, seemingly trying to justify the killing.
On Page 1 today, Editor Marty Gottlieb presents Prosecutor John Molinelli's "most extensive comments to date" on the death of African-American Malik Williams, 19, who was shot five times last Dec. 10.
Of course, Molinelli never explains why his office and a grand jury took more than 6 months to issue their findings, which cleared the two police officers involved.
Nor do head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, explain why the Woodland Park daily failed to do any independent reporting in the days and weeks after the police shooting, despite numerous community protests.
Today's story amounts to an endorsement of long-delayed probe. The headline:
Shooting case was balancing act for prosecutor
Don't you feel for the guy? Hey, he had "to protect the integrity of the judicial process," according to the first paragraph.
That's the prosecutor's way of saying he was protecting the asses of the police officers and his foot-dragging investigators.
Unanswered questions
In more than 6 months of reporting, The Record has never questioned the police version of the confrontation or asked whether the suspect's fingerprints were found on the tools he allegedly held in his hands.
On June 28, in reporting the grand jury's action, Sykes and Sforza published a major error on Page 1, claiming in a sub-headline and in the first paragraph that Williams was "charging" the police officers with a hammer and a saw before they shot him.
If Williams was indeed "charging" the officers, that suggests he was "running" towards them, making his actions more threatening.
But the word "charging" never appeared in the prosecutor's report. Instead, he said, the suspect "advanced towards" the officers, who shot him when he was 7 feet to 8 feet away from them.
On June 29, a follow-up on Sykes' Local front dropped the word "charging," but no correction appeared on A-2 or anywhere else.
Today, the editors resuscitate the word "charging" to describe Williams' actions before he was shot to death (A-6).
The real Christie
On Friday, four letters to the editor criticize Governor Christie's big mouth, as well as his policies (A-18).
Contrast them to the glowing terms The Record has used in numerous columns, editorials and Opinion pieces published since he took office in January 2010.
"I can't understand why anyone from the state of New Jersey wants to be represented by a boor and a bully," wrote Jane Muhlstock of Hackensack.
"Perhaps they are casting for a 'Jersey Shore' sequel," said James Pepe, also from Hackesnack, suggesting what Christie can do, if he loses the 2013 election.
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