News media gawk at Trump as a new Hitler rises among us

The Aug. 10 front page of the Daily News called on the New York businessman to quit the race for the White House.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record and other news media are giving a wall on our southern border as much legitimacy as any other public-works project, including new Hudson River rail tunnels and a new Manhattan bus terminal.

You won't find any fact checking in today's front page report on wacko racist Donald J. Trump's visit to Mexico or yet another speech on immigration filled with hysteria, half-truths and outright lies (A-1).

Even though the Mexican president "made clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall," the GOP presidential nominee insisted they never discussed payment (A-6).

Hitleresque

Trump's vow to deport 11 million illegal aliens and bar any Muslim from entering the country isn't that far from Hitler's purification of the Aryan race and the extermination of 6 million Jews.

At least in Israel, the government justified spending billions on a "security fence" to keep terrorists from killing citizens, but thousands of Palestinian workers enter the county each day to do work Israelis refuse to do. 

Mexicans are definitely not the criminals and rapists Trump insists they are, and illegal immigration from that country is at historic lows, though you won't see that reported in The Record or other media.

Many generations of Mexican-Americans live in California, Arizona and other states, and thousands of them came to the U.S. long before Trump's grandfather emigrated from Germany.

Deportations

Nor will the media report President Obama is driving civil libertarians crazy by deporting more illegal aliens than any other president.

The Woodland Park daily also refuses to cover the dysfunctional legal immigration system's high fees and endless delays, which prompt many immigrants to enter the country illegally.

Instead, The Record reports Trump's rants with a straight face.

It's likely Trump would shaft U.S. citizens by forcing them to pay for an unnecessary wall while cutting taxes on the wealthy.

Local news?

Crime dominates the Local front today in the form of a large courtroom photo of sucker-punch defendant Kristian Gonzales, 18, and flamboyant defense attorney Harley Briete (L-1).

Gonzales pleaded guilty and faces three years in prison, but readers must decide whether the violent teen or the high-priced lawyer has the more outrageous hair style.

Despicable Trump grabbed the front page today, but immigrant protesters who blocked the entrance of Trump Tower in Manhattan weren't given equal time (L-1).

They said Trump is a hypocrite because undocumented laborers worked to build the Fifth Avenue tower, and are also involved the construction of his hotel in the nation's capital.

The Oradell firehouse is shown in this image from Google Maps and NJ.com.

Road kill

Editor Deirdre Sykes, who has only four more days in the job, treats a woman killed by a car as so much road kill.

A brief on L-3 today reports Judith James, 64, of Paramus was struck and killed by a car around 10:35 Monday night in front of the Oradell firehouse.

The story adds nothing to Wednesday's L-3 caption under a photo that showed pavement marking left by investigators, and gave the woman's name and age.

But Sykes and overworked police reporter Stefanie Dazio say nothing else about the victim, including whether she was married, had children or grandchildren.

Also missing is how well the street is lit or whether she was in the crosswalk.

The driver was identified, but Oradell's Keystone Kops are quoted as saying the investigation is continuing and no charges have been filed.

This brief is like so many others The Record has published, but it never dawns on Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin to call for stiffer penalties when cars kill people, especially if the driver gets off by claiming he or she "never saw" the pedestrian.

Hackensack construction closes day care center building

Rainbow Castle Preschool at 142-48 Main St. in Hackensack was evacuated after pile driving and other construction work at a site next to the building damaged the foundation and other parts of the building, a city official said.

One of three "UNSAFE STRUCTURE" notices on the two-story building, which has offices on the second floor and remains empty about a month after it was declared unsafe for "human occupancy." This notice is dated "7-27-16."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Teachers, children and other occupants of a Hackensack day care center were ordered out of the building after work on a 14-story project next door damaged the foundation, walls and other structures.

City officials also ordered a work stoppage on the project, a 382-unit apartment building and 7,500 square feet of new retail space at Main and Mercer streets -- the biggest and most visible sign of a sweeping downtown rehabilitation plan.

In early February, Eye on The Record reported that everyone from children attending the preschool next to the enormous pit to the lawyers down the block were going bananas over the constant hammering of steel support beams into the ground.

"I can hardly concentrate," one lawyer said.

An employee of Rainbow Castle Preschool at 142-48 Main St. said the noise was driving everyone crazy, but that the children had grown accustomed to the repetitive thud that can be felt inside the building.

In addition to preschool, Rainbow Castle offered infant and kindergarten classes, and most of the children came from working class families.

Complaint to state

Then, in July, a complaint was made to the state agency that licenses day care centers, and that led to an inspection of the building, a city Building Department official said today.

Based on a report from the project's engineer, the two-story day care center building was declared unsafe and evacuated on July 27, the official said, and construction work next door was halted.

The day care center can't reopen until city officials review a second report from the same engineer that it is safe.

The 14-story project is an undertaking of the Alkova Cos. of Alpine, and the day care center building owner is Fairway Terrace Corp. of Norwood.

Calls to the day care center are referred to a "Mr. Song," but his number is no longer in service.

The pile driver is silent now, and no work is going on at Main and Mercer streets in Hackensack, below.

Today's paper

Governor Christie's elaborate public relations machine scored another splashy front page in The Record today (A-1).

A news story and political column at the top of Page 1 regurgitate every single word and claim from Christie about the successful expansion of Medicaid in New Jersey.

But there's bad news in yet another adoring column from Staff Writer Charles Stile, who reports the GOP bully "hasn't given up the dream of running for president" in 2020 (A-8).

That likely means Stile hasn't given up his dream of being chosen as Christie's communications director, in the unlikely event the worst governor in New Jersey history wins the White House.

Sanitizes record

Sadly, the A-1 Medicaid pieces and an upbeat editorial on A-6 completely omit any mention of Christie being among more than 30 conservative Republican governors who refused to set up a state marketplace under the Affordable Care Act.

That attempted sabotage meant people seeking health-care insurance were thrown onto the overburdened federal marketplace, and had far fewer plans to choose from.

Oscar Insurance is the latest to announce it will no longer cover New Jersey residents on Jan. 1.

Slanted editorial

Similarly, an editorial on rising gun violence in Paterson slams city officials from wanting to raise more revenue with a traffic-ticket blitz (A-6).

Hire more cops, thunders Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin, while conveniently forgetting to mention Christie's deep state aid cuts to Paterson and other poor cities forced the initial Police Department layoffs or that his vetoes loosened controls on concealed weapons.

This deliberate slanting of stories, columns and editorial about Christie continues even after the wealthy Borg family sold North Jersey Media Group to Gannett Co. on July 6.

Gannett P.R.

Also on Page 1 today is the inspirational photo and profile of Gianfranco Iannotta, 22, a Garfield resident who will complete in the Rio Paralympics next week.

But the shameful public relations for Christie at the top of the page is echoed below the fold with Gannett Co. P.R about The Record's new president and editor (A-1).

Here's a perfect example of what editors call "burying the lead." 

The replacement of Editor Deirdre Sykes after only seven months in the job -- as reported on NorthJersey.com on Monday -- isn't mentioned until deep into the continuation page (A-4).

Meyer and Green

Most of the announcement is devoted to the resumes and accomplishments of Nancy A. Meyer and Richard A. Green, who will take over as president and editor, respectively, on Sept. 6.

The story is filled with corporate jargon, but doesn't address the drastic decline in local-news coverage since the Borgs moved their flagship paper out of Hackensack in 2009.

Meyer is described as an "exceptional team builder who develops innovative, customer-centric solutions to drive sustainable growth" (A-4).

Green is "returning to his favorite place -- the newsroom," according to the corporate press release.

"He will be a strong news leader for ... North Jersey Media Group," another executive enthuses.

Green says he looks forward to working with the "team" at NJMG "to develop plans to continue expanding our audience, diversifying our revenue base, and building out our digital voice."

Gannett describes NJMG as The Record, "which serves Bergen County and neighboring areas ...; the Herald News, a daily newspaper for Paterson and surrounding towns; more than 50 community weekly newspapers; a high-end monthly magazine; and several digital properties, including North Jersey.com."

Media regurgitate nominee Trump's empty promises, lies

This photo from Getty Images shows Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump delivering his acceptance speech to close the party's national convention on Thursday night in Cleveland. Pretty scary, don't you think?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A big, black headline dominates Page 1 of The Record today, reporting wacko racist Donald J. Trump "promises [a] safer, more prosperous nation."

The Republican presidential nominee's speech was little more than a pack of empty promises and lies from a member of the 1% who is at the root of all of our problems (A-1).

The Daily News fact checked Trump's Republican National Convention speech: Six major things Trump got wrong.

Editor Deirdre Sykes of The Record, on the other hand, was too busy editing a daily update polishing Governor Christie's image from Columnist Charles Stile, the paper's chief apologist for the GOP bully (A-1).

What else would you expect from Woodland Park, home of the only major New Jersey daily that didn't demand Christie's resignation after he endorsed Trump?

Nor does Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin's opinion column on A-17 suggest Christie should be "locked up" for those missing emails and texts related to the Bridgegate scandal.

And shame on Doblin for today's editorial listing Lincoln in the long line of Republican presidential nominees leading up to the disgraceful Trump.

"These are troubling times" is all Doblin can say about today's mean-spirited Republican Party (A-16).

Why four days?

Covering the four-day Republican National Convention seems to have sucked all of the energy out of The Record newsroom, judging from another local-news section dominated by police, fire and court news (L-1, L-2, L-3, L-5 and L-6).

Why all of this blanket coverage of what amounts to little more than a political pep rally, and why are the Republican and upcoming Democratic conventions four days long when only one day is devoted to the actual presidential election?

Seafood pasta 'disaster'

A pricey seafood pasta was "a total disaster" ($22), with watery sauce and "could-have-been-fresher calamari rings," and the spaghetti and meatballs came with "mushy" pasta and a "bland" tomato sauce ($16). 

Yet Della Cucina in Hillsdale gets 2.5 out of 4 stars from Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung, who swoons over the "great desserts" (BL-12).

Does the restaurant serve "great" salads or fresh fish besides all of the mystery chicken, veal and pork dishes she liked? 

Readers don't have a clue.

The first two paragraphs of the review are devoted to a history of the year-old restaurant, and a discussion of two Italian-American families that own the place.

If you want to know whether the meat and poultry were raised naturally, you're out of luck.