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| The easiest way to ruin a beautiful day is to try to drive through downtown Englewood, where construction and a blocked lane slowed traffic today at Palisade Avenue and Dean Street, above and below. |
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| This afternon around 1, as the temperature reached a comfortable 75, one Englewood police officer directed traffic as two others leaned against a traffic-light repair truck that blocked a through lane, bullshitting. Now, residents know one reason why the city's property tax bills are so high. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
After the nation's first black president took office in 2009, the racially inspired gridlock in Congress was evident to everyone.
And the news media couldn't have been more delighted, replacing any reporting about issues and what's good for the country with story after story about our political divisions.
A year later, Republican Chris Christie was sworn in as New Jersey's governor and faced a state Legislature controlled by Democrats.
Would he compromise? Fuggedaboutit!
The GOP bully unilaterally cancelled expansion of rail service under the Hudson River, and began vetoing every bill in sight -- from a tax surcharge on millionaires to hikes in the minimum wage to using tax money to purchase open space.
Again, the news media were delighted to report all of the conflict, and The Record's Charles Stile wrote column after column explaining Christie's every word, belch and fart in political terms -- even as the vetoes topped 500 and set a record.
Clinton v. Trump
Today, Columnist Mike Kelly repeats a frequent theme of his column -- that allegedly we are no longer united, as we supposedly were after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on America (A-1).
And once again he points to "an increasingly polarized presidential campaign."
But that's nothing new, just as the media's relentless focus on politics in the nation and New Jersey isn't new, and likely won't end in the foreseeable future.
9/11 ceremonies
Today's front page, Local front and Better Living cover are dominated by stories related to the 15th anniversary of 9/11.
That's eight straight days of coverage, but I didn't seen anything on the hijackers who lived in Paterson, and obtained phony I.D.'s and licenses in the weeks leading up to the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Victor, you are right on every point. But what can anyone do about it? Very depressing.
ReplyDeleteYou can only hope that before the election, some paper or TV station will try to get voters' attention with a discussion of the issues.
DeleteAll of the politics leads to incredible apathy -- only about 6 out of 10 voters went to the polls in the last two presidential elections -- and in local elections it is even worse.
Clinton noted many of Trump's supporters are racists and women haters, so what is the media's response?
I just heard some moron from USA Today saying that if Clinton is elected, she will have to represent those people.
Of course not. Represent racists and women haters? They don't deserve to be represented or have their voices heard. That's media nonsense.
You can't trust the media -- people are so bored with two years of coverage of a presidential election, so the media has to make it a horse race or no one would pay attention to their babble.