AARP appeals to political editors, columnists and reporters

AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins, who in 1980 was a voter outreach worker for the Ronald Reagan campaign (photo by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins has a message for columnist Charles Stile and every other Record staffer obsessed with keeping political scorecards in Trenton and Washington.

"When policy is debated only in terms of political gains and defeats, the American people lose," Jenkins wrote in the AARP Bulletin.

Although her column didn't mention the media, her message could be aimed at The Record and other news outlets.

"Instead of solutions, we get stalemates," she noted, describing what has happened so many times on important issues since Governor Christie took office in early 2010. 

"Let's unite behind our shared goals," was one of the headlines on Jenkins' column in the December issue of the monthly publication from the former America Association of Retired Persons.

Practical solutions

"Regardless of whom you supported in November, we share many of the same concerns," she wrote.

"How can we get our leaders [and newspaper editors and reporters] to put political partisanship behind them and come together?

"How can we as a country bring civility and public discourse back to our democracy? How can we disagree and still find common ground around the big issues that matter so much in our country?"

"Bipartisanship does not mean that Republicans and Democrats must agree on every issue," Jenkins noted. "But it does mean that they must be able to work together to find [practical] solutions."

Political Stile Columnist Charles Stile of The Record.

"But partisanship has reached such an uncivil extreme [in Trenton and Washington] that it is dividing our nation and prohibiting leaders from both political parties from coming together to do the people's work," Jenkins said.

"Far too often the politician's goal is not practical solutions, but political advantage."

Politics and news

Think of all the columns Stile has written about who gained the upper hand politically in the recent debates over Christie's book deal and removing the requirement for legal notices to be printed in newspapers.

The latter bill was designed to "punish state newspapers," The Record claims once again in an editorial today (7A).

In fact, this is another attempt by Gannett and other wealthy publishers to distract readers from an unwarranted government subsidy of millions of dollars for public notices no one reads.

See the politically slanted headline on 3A today:

"Congress sees mandate
to undo Obama's agenda"

Of course, for years, headline writers for The Record and other newspapers politicized universal health care as "Obamacare."

And why did an AP reporter who covered the opening of the long-delayed Second Avenue subway (8A) report a speech was given by "Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo?"