People of New Jersey deserve an apology, not Christie

Rush-hour traffic on Route 4 east crawling through Paramus a little after 8 a.m. today at the start of the Memorial Day weekend.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie is complaining about "media bias"? 

What a joke.

The story on A-4 of The Record today reports the GOP bully is demanding an apology from news outlets that branded him as "guilty," claiming he was cleared by three investigations into the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal.

But U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman never cleared Christie, himself a former U.S. attorney.

Fishman obtained indictments against two of Christie's closest aides and accepted a guilty plea from a third, who has pledged to cooperate with the government.

And he has refused to identify unindicted co-conspirators or give defense attorneys 1.5 million pages of documents and other evidence, which may eventually show Christie had a pivotal role in the 2013 political retribution scandal.

Shameless

Christie should apologize to the people of New Jersey for being the worst governor in the state's history, one focused on helping his wealthy supporters at the expense of the middle and working classes.

For many years, the media's "bias" was in his favor as The Record and other news outlets swallowed whole the governor's elaborate public relations campaigns:

"Reform Agenda," "Jersey Comeback" and "Stronger Than the Storm" are only three of the elaborate dog-and-pony shows the media dutifully attended and regurgitated as Christie destroyed the state's economy. 


Correction?

The correction on A-2 today appears to be in error.

"An article on Page A-1 Tuesday about an FBI presentation on terrorist propaganda misidentified the location of Bergen Arts and Science Charter [High] School. It is in Hackensack."

But the front page of Tuesday's paper makes no mention of the FBI or the school. 

Wednesday's Page L-1 did, the story carried a Hackensack dateline and reported the school is, in fact, in Hackensack.

Cops kill man

Hackensack police officers opened fire on a city man who allegedly threatened them with a cleaver, and he died of his wounds (L-1).

This police shooting is different than so many others that have sparked riots and media feeding frenzies: The suspect was Hispanic, not black.

On today's Local front, the compelling photo of an officer comforting a woman at the home where Elvin Diaz, 24, was shot is by Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi.

Sadly, Assignment Editors Dierdre Sykes and Dan Sforza have demoted Zehawi to ambulance chaser in the past few years, and he has turned in scores of non-fatal accident photos, especially gee-whiz rollovers and other filler material (see L-6 today).

Don't you wonder why the woman in the photo isn't identified in the caption?

Or why Hackensack's Fairmount section is described incorrectly as a "working class neighborhood," when it is far more varied than that, including both modest homes and multi-million dollar mansions.

In fact, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg grew up in such a mansion at Summit and Fairmount avenues, and frolicked in a 14.2-acre forested backyard that has been preserved as Borg's Woods.

Road kill

Why did it take Road Warrior John Cichowski four days to throw water on Monday's wildly exaggerated front-page story on the probable end of self-serve gas in New Jersey (L-1)?

As in her March 11 story on a pedestrian fatality in Hackensack, Staff Writer Stefanie Dazio doesn't say whether an elderly Fort Lee woman killed by a car was in or near a crosswalk when she was struck (L-2).

Today, police reporter Dazio's byline or credit line appears on eight stories or briefs, making her the most overworked staffer in the newsroom.

But something has got to give when she handles all or most of those assignments by telephone, and it usually results in holes big enough to drive a cop car through.

Elisa and Emma

Readers can't tell whether Elisa Ung withheld a third full star from Emma in Englewood because she hated most of the desserts or because of what she calls "unpolished and occasionally confused" servers (BL-1 and BL-14).

And the paper's chief restaurant critic devotes so much space to the resumes of the consulting chef and two partners readers never learn whether the skirt steak shown in a big photo was naturally raised.

After so many years in the gig, Ung remains tongue tied, and the editor who read the story before publication must have been out to lunch:

"A much bolder sauce stampeded an already overcooked salmon dish ($22)." 

Some readers would like to stampede Ung out of the Woodland Park newsroom.