Years too late, The Record keeps up the assault on Christie

After the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane closures, Governor Christie became the butt of jokes for cartoonists across the country, including Clay Bennett of the Chattanooga Times Free Press in Tennessee.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

An editorial in The Record today urges the state Senate on Monday to override a Governor Christie veto of "a bill that would ensure women receive the same pay as men for the same work."

Apparently, the veto occurred seven months ago, but this is the first time The Record has reported on an override attempt or what the editorial board is calling "legislative action on a bill of great importance to women across the state" (2O).

Can you imagine how many other issues of importance to taxpayers, low-wage workers, environmentalists and others the Woodland Park daily has consistently ignored?

Christie has vetoed more than 500 bills since he took office -- surely a record for any New Jersey governor -- but The Record's Trenton reporters long ago gave up counting them.

Focus on politics

The Record's editors and columnists rarely come to bat for those hurt by Christie's vetoes, because their work has been tightly focused on politics, not issues.

In the past week, only the GOP bully's last-minute proposed book deal; pay raises for legislative aides, judges and other state employees; and pulling public notices from newspapers have whipped them into a frenzy of coverage.

The headline over today's editorial:

"Fighting for a free press"

"Fighting for a profitable press" might be closer to the truth.

Today's editorial says that removing public notices from newspapers "would have a radical impact on our bottom line and the bottom lines of other newspapers across New Jersey.

"Some publications may fold and hundreds of Jersey-based jobs will be lost."

Sadly, Gannett Co. and the Borg family, the previous owner of The Record, have used publication of budgets and other public notices as an excuse to reduce the coverage of local news, even though the type they are printed in is so small hardly anyone reads them.

Christie coverage

For all of Christie's first term and the first half of his second term, The Record treated him uncritically, and portrayed the Republican governor as a compromiser who could reach across the aisle and make deals with Democrats who hold the majority in the state Legislature.

Of course, every veto and every unilateral action, such as killing the Hudson River rail tunnels and grabbing leftover funds to fix roads and bridges, gave a lie to that portrayal, but they were ignored.

Even after the paper broke the story of the politically motivated Bridgegate scandal, the editors kept on insisting there was no proof the governor knew about the plot.

All that came undone in September and October, when witness after witness testified in federal court Christie knew about the conspiracy as it was being executed, causing five mornings of gridlock in Fort Lee.

That unleashed many critical columns and editorials, and no love was lost when President-elect Donald J. Trump passed Christie over for an important post in his administration.

Trump coverage

During the presidential campaign, The Record and other news media reported every one of Trump's racially motivated attacks on President Obama without any reference to his accomplishments on the economy, health care, the environment and so much more.

That's because, as with Christie, the relentless focus was on partisanship, not policy; and insults and lies, not issues. 

In a column for the Daily News on Saturday, Linda Stasi wrote about the coming "neo-nasty era" of a Trump presidency:

"The Obamas represented not just the best of black people, but the BEST of all people -- white, black, brown and everything in between.

"The Obamas are a credit to the race all right -- the human race.

"Yet, President Obama, the most honest, decent President of my lifetime, who leaves with a 56% approval rating, is, if you listen to the right wing's very mainstream media, a man loathed and hated."

After reviewing the president's many accomplishments, Stasi concludes, "Maybe, just maybe, the most decent president of modern times ... is hated simply because he's black, a black President in a white country. Likely.

"Hidden racism in America is as rampant as blatant racism."

Excusing Christie's many sins finally catches up to editors

Bridgegate trial defendants Bridget Anne Kelly, Governor Christie's former deputy chief of staff, above right in a photo from the New York Daily News; and Bill Baroni, former deputy executive director of the Port Authority, below, will testify in their own defense, and are expected to finger the governor. The federal criminal trial opens on Monday in Newark.

Photo credit: NJ.com

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today, not one but two of The Record's long-winded columnists choke readers with thousands of words of background on Governor Christie's mean-spirited politics and how they relate to Monday's Bridgegate trial (A-1 and O-1).

Just 10 days ago, the Woodland Park daily ran the last of three long, front-page stories on the defendants, the government's star witness, the jury and Christie's continued claims of innocence in the George Washington Bridge lane closures in September 2013.

Prosecutors and witnesses are expected to explore how the Christie administration used dirty tricks to retaliate against the Fort Lee mayor and other Democrats who refused to endorse the GOP thug for reelection.

All of this piling on comes years after Christie took office -- declaring war on teachers, the rest of New Jersey's middle class and the Democrats who control the state Legislature.

Until now, all The Record's editors and columnists did was shrug.

'Political bully'

In his Page 1 column today, Staff Writer Charles Stile reports the lane closures "permanently saddled him [Christie] with the image of a political bully" (A-7).

That's hardly breaking news, especially in view of the hundreds of vetoes Christie has used to enforce his conservative agenda since he took office in early 2010.

On the Opinion front today, Columnist Mike Kelly sounds like an echo of Stile when he declares "the essential lesson of the Bridgegate trial may turn out to be a reminder of how petty politics can be ..."

Local news?

Readers again question the news judgment of the local editors, who found more value in an idiotic quiz by the Road Warrior columnist (L-1) than the well-written obituary of Raymond X. McCoy, 80, a funeral director-turned-candy apple maker (L-2).

The lazy, incompetent editors also were desperate to plug a hole on L-3 with a gee-whiz picture of a car that flipped onto its side on a highway off-ramp.

Editorial

Today's editorial begins by noting Christie "has refused for nearly seven years to do anything about truly reforming New Jersey's education system" (O-2).

Now, he wants to overturn the landmark state Supreme Court ruling that sought to end the inadequate and unequal funding of poor districts.

But instead of condemning Christie, the editorial calls on him to work "across the aisle with Democrats for real and lasting changes ...."

Isn't that naive in view of the more than 500 vetoes Christie has used to get his way?

With Christie budget, we get arguments, not leadership

The single lane open on the Anderson Street Bridge from Hackensack to Teaneck was closed on Tuesday for long-term repairs to the span, which has carried restricted traffic since September 2012.  Despite Tuesday's torrential rain, not a single photo of flooding appears today in The Record of Woodland Park, where presumably the sun was shining. See photos below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Even though Governor Christie was humiliated on the presidential campaign trail, he was back to contentious business as usual in Trenton on Tuesday.

Reading between the lines of his argumentative budget speech, as reported in The Record, Democratic lawmakers likely were reminded the GOP bully standing before them has already executed more than 500 vetoes since early 2010.

Today, we're no closer to resolving some of the biggest issues facing the state, including the underfunded public employee pension fund and the debt-ridden transportation fund that pays for bridge and road repairs, and mass transit improvements.

Flattering editorial

"The good news is that Christie sounded like a governor committed to doing his job," claims an editorial on A-10 today.

Gee. To me and many others, he sounds like the combative governor who turned his back on the middle class in New Jersey to pursue a doomed bid for the White House, and now he's back to make our lives even more miserable than before.

Or you can read more crap from Charles Stile, the political columnist who is one of Christie's biggest boosters at a paper that has far too many (A-1).

Flooding on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack.

Flooding on Hudson Street in Hackensack.

Flooding in the H Mart parking lot in Little Ferry.

Local news?

The hysterical reaction to a proposal for 142 apartments in Dumont -- and the threat of a suit by the school board -- speaks volumes about what is wrong with North Jersey's home-rule system of government (A-1).

Another front-page story today shows local news is literally going to the dogs.

What is a story about the Westminster Kennel Club and dogs from Bogota (New Jersey, not Colombia) doing on A-1 today?

The local editors needed several photos of power outages and fires, as well as crime and court news, to fill their thin section today (L-1 and L-3).

News from Hackensack went missing again today.

Bill Ervolino

Readers scanning Bill Ervolino's Better Living cover story on "kitchen gadgets" sigh with relief that at least he isn't writing about his father again (BL-1).

Then, they turned the page to see yet another Ervolino column about his parents on BL-3.

Ervolino and The Record's other veteran columnists, including Stile, John Cichowski and Mike Kelly, long ago ran out of ideas.

They remind readers of the kitchen gadgets Ervolino writes about today:

They're nice for the paper to have, but does anyone really read them anymore?