Clogging our minds with politics, our arteries with dessert

Seen on Essex Street in Hackensack, near Summit Avenue.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Staff Writers Melissa Hayes and Charles Stile of The Record have shamelessly repeated Governor Christie's many attacks on President Obama without ever challenging the GOP bully.

Stile is at it again today in a Page 1 column reporting Christie will be chasing his White House dreams in New Hampshire during the president's visit to Camden next week (A-1).

And the political columnist repeats the fiction that Christie "tipped the balance of victory to Obama" in the 2012 presidential election (A-9).

Obama's margin of victory over the pathetic Mitt Romney was wide in both the popular vote and Electoral College, despite polls claiming the election was too close to call.

Given Christie's fading chances of winning the GOP nomination in 2016, reporters like Stile and Hayes should be asking whether the governor's attacks are racially motivated.

Here is New Jersey's worst governor launching political attacks against one of the best presidents we've ever had.

Hackensack news

How did The Record miss an appeals court decision against a developer who wanted to build a controversial 19-story Long Term Acute Care Hospital on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack (L-1)?

The developer's appeal was a central issue in the City Council campaign of 2013, and candidates appeared before Prospect Avenue residents to state their positions on the proposal.

The court's decision was issued on May 7, according to today's story.

William D. Smith

The otherwise detailed obituary on former Tenafly resident William D. Smith, 79, fails to explore how the globe-trotting former New York Times reporter developed Alzheimer's disease and dementia (L-6).

Nor does The Record explain whether a much bigger paycheck compelled the intrepid journalist to become a lobbyist and then public relations representative for Exxon Corp.

Sugar high

Staff Writer Elisa Ung can't get off the sugar high that informs most of her reporting on food and restaurants.

She was a walking contradiction when she first came to The Record -- an overweight Asian woman. Now, after years of gorging on artery clogging desserts made with heavy cream and butter, she must be as big as a house.

Today, she pans Finca in Ridgewood, saying "so many cooking errors" forces her to recommend the new small-plates restaurant only for dessert "after dinner at one of the dozens of other restaurants within walking distance" (BL-16).

Gee. What do the owners of other Ridgewood restaurants think of Ung telling their customers to go elsewhere for dessert?

What did she expect from Finca's owner, who called his previous failed effort The Stable, prompting some to think he served grilled horse meat and candied, deep-fried hay?