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| State Street in front of Hackensack City Hall, police headquarters and the city's main firehouse, above and below, is closed this week for replacement of the rough railroad crossing. Next week, Main Street will be closed to repair the section of tracks through the business district. |
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| Banta Place is open for left turns onto Main Street and Central Avenue is open for right turns onto Union Street. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
Despite the region's commuting crisis, Editor Martin Gottlieb came up with a colossal waste of time for readers on The Record's front page today.
A gee-whiz story about "oversize trucks" crossing the George Washington Bridge is an insult to bus and rail riders who can't find rush-hour seats, and drivers who pay exorbitant tolls at congested Hudson River crossings.
Which witless editor assigned Christopher Maag, the paper's main transportation reporter, to this monstrosity?
Meanwhile, there is a reference to the real "behemoth at the bridge," Governor Christie, who has been at the center of the state Legislature's investigation of the lane-closure scandal "that has lingered over ... his presidential campaign" (A-1).
Now, Democratic legislators plan to launch two more probes -- into a lottery privatization "that has yet to pay off for the state," and "allegations of cronyism and racism in New Jersey's National Guard."
Carbon in air
The media could be partially to blame for New Jersey's carbon emissions shooting up 14 percent in 2014 -- reversing three straight years of declines (A-1).
Every time the price of gasoline goes down, The Record and other media are filled with stories describing what a boon that is for drivers of gas-guzzling SUVs and other vehicles.
At the same time, reporting on hybrid, electric and other low- or zero-emission vehicles usually emphasizes their higher cost and ignores their tremendous environmental benefit.
Local news?
Today's Local section is once again dominated by Law & Order news (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).
The Local front carries a story about Saddle River's small school district, but there is no school news about Hackensack, Bergen's biggest district (L-1).
Why is a story on former Gov. Christie Whitman blasting "hyper-partisan politics and the influx of super PAC-money" that alienates voters buried on L-3 today?
That might have something to do with Editor Gottlieb running so many Page 1 stories on fundraising by Christie, Rep. Scott Garrett and other candidates, completely ignoring the issues that affect voters' lives.
Monday's paper
Today's paper is an improvement over Monday, when The Record's front page was filled with baseball, political fundraising and a long piece on new evidence in the murder of a Passaic woman in Chile more than 39 years ago.
On Monday's Local front, two photos of a car that struck a concrete island, exploded, burned and killed the driver on Sunday morning shows the editors have learned nothing in the decades they have been covering such crashes.
No one asked state police whether excessive speed was involved, a natural question given how the car overturned after striking the island.
A follow-up today reports the driver, John Muller V, 26, of Glen Ridge, was a graduate student and teaching assistant in the creative writing program at Rutgers University-Newark.
A reader sent in this comment about The Record's coverage of the Canadian election:
ReplyDelete"Victor -- The Record did it again today with regard to the National Elections in Canada. They had a small wire service box or article somewhere inside in there middle of the front section. It is a big story. The Times had it on page one on the left side above the fold at the top. AOL had it as its first post. This was a significant election in a country with strong ties to the United States. I cannot believe that it got such small coverage in the Record."
I say: That just goes to show you ex-Times editor Martin Gottlieb, who fills Page 1 of The Record with international news on a regular basis, doesn't know his ass from his elbow.