Columnist taps into racist, anti-Obama rhetoric on economy

Heavy winds on Saturday night brought down a tree, damaging at least three cars parked on American Legion Drive, near Prospect Avenue, in Hackensack, a neighborhood of high-rises and garden apartments.

This afternoon, a police officer told a young couple the tree won't be removed and they won't have access to their damaged car (the silver-colored one in the middle) until PSE&G removes live wires. American Legion Drive was closed for the same reason.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Republican Party appears to be pulling the strings of Staff Writer Mike Kelly, whose Page 1 column in The Record today demonizes President Obama and knocks his record on the economy.

Kelly focuses on "more than 100 people who had recently lost middle-management jobs at New Jersey corporations" who attended "a lecture on how to use social media" (A-1).

Kelly doesn't even mention Obama, the nation's first black president, whose every action has been opposed by the Republican majority in Congress in the greatest display of racial animosity since the end of slavery.

Trump's racism

But the columnist claims deep "social, political and financial tremors" are responsible for "the anti-immigration and protectionist rhetoric of Donald Trump," the Republican front-runner in this year's presidential campaign.

Of course, Trump, Governor Christie and the other GOP clowns clearly have been campaigning against Obama, and distorting the remarkable job he did in bringing the nation back from the recession.

War on middle class

Kelly also doesn't mention Christie or the GOP bully's war on the middle class in New Jersey.

He talks about "wage stagnation," but not Christie's veto of a hike in the minimum wage, or corporations like North Jersey Media Group, owner of The Record, eliminating raises for even the most productive workers.

He talks about "careers upended through downsizing," though not what happened to his newsroom colleagues -- including the food editor and director of photography -- who were shown the door after decades of employment at The Record.

Bad headlines

Today's headline on the Kelly column -- "Is this the end of the American Dream?" -- is especially bad because "American Dream" also is the name of the huge retail-entertainment complex under construction in the Meadowlands.

The words "American Dream" appear in large, bold type above the fold, certain to confuse readers who don't immediately start reading the photo caption or column.

On Friday's front page, a sub-headline struggled to describe the car of a Hackensack man who died the day before in the hospital after a collision with a police cruiser speeding to an emergency:

"Hackensack cruiser
hits unrelated car,
killing the driver"

I didn't know cars could be "related" to each other like humans.

See: Police cruiser pushed victim's car 40 feet

Local news?

North Jersey has so many commuting problems it's a wonder Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to find so many ways to avoid writing about them.

Today, he fills an entire column with horror stories on "roadside trash," employing his trademark exaggeration and hype in an attempt to engage readers or at least prevent them from falling asleep (L-1).

Today's Local front also carries a story on Henry and Mary Shoiket, 97 and 100, respectively -- a rare instance of reporting on seniors who aren't institutionalized or have just died (L-1).

The couple are described as longtime activists, "who have been fixtures at the weekly protests outside the Teaneck Armory for years."

Major error

On the Opinion front today, a caption incorrectly describes the large photo above the fold, and gives a wrong date for the official opening of the new World Trade Center.

The photo shows the interior of the World Trade Center Transportation Hub -- not the "main level of the new World Trade Center."

The date given, March 3, is the official opening date of the transit hub, not the office building.

Also on the O-1 today is a second Kelly column, this one on Atlantic City, that begins, "Once upon another time ...."

Like a fairy tale, this one puts readers to sleep almost immediately.

Bridgegate delays won't help Christie's doomed campaign

Are high rents keeping storefronts empty on the 300 block of Main Street in Hackensack, above and below?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie is in 10th or 11th place in the polls on who will win the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

But The Record tries to stir reader interest in his doomed campaign with an A-1 teaser suggesting a delay in two Bridgegate scandal trials could make a difference (A-1 and A-3).

After three of Christie's associates testify next March, the GOP bully will not only be knocked out of the race for the White House he might have to defend himself against impeachment proceedings.

9/11 photos

Readers can't help but be moved by staff photos on Page 1 and elsewhere in today's paper showing the enduring grief over the loss of loved ones in the 9/11 attacks (A-8, L-1, L-3 and L-5).

The A-1 photo by Chris Pedota is especially powerful.

Contrast today's coverage to the sorry Mike Kelly column on the 14th anniversary ceremony that led the paper on Friday.

For a dramatic opening sentence, Kelly chose only three words: "Time moves on." So should he.

No editing

Kelly's long, meandering columns demonstrate how little editing is going on at the Woodland Park daily, but other writers get away with awkward writing, too.

On the front page today, sports Columnist Tara Sullivan has this gem:

"Vinci's best moment -- a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over world No. 1 Serena Williams -- authored a most shocking moment in the sports world .... [italics added]."

In the photo caption with her column, an editor insisted that "Serena Williams had her run for a calendar-year Grand Slam ended Friday .... [italics added]."

That's like saying Williams "had" her arm broken.

Money talks

Why are leases with two department stores at the long-stalled American Dream Meadowlands complex front page news today?

Because The Record, the flagship of North Jersey Media Group, is being kept afloat by advertising revenue from Macy's, Saks, Lord & Taylor and other big chains (A-1).

And those ads are why the editors order reporters to cover the malls in North Jersey almost exclusively and ignore struggling downtown merchants in Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood.

Christie, editors oppose direct sales of electric car

On Friday around 4 p.m., this is what rush hour looks like on River Street in Hackensack, where the lack of turn lanes causes even more congestion, frays drivers' nerves, wastes gasoline and aggravates air pollution. Despite a relentless focus on driving, The Record continues to ignore Bergen County's antiquated road system.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie is no fan of Tesla, the maker of revolutionary all-electric sedans whose direct sales in New Jersey are being blocked by car dealers and state bureaucrats.

And that's OK with The Record's editors, whose mistake-filled coverage of the controversy has been pretty routine.

They haven't bothered to take an editorial position on the controversy or get comment from the GOP bully.

Ad revenue is king

That's no surprise, given all the advertising revenue the Woodland Park daily receives from members of the New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers, a powerful lobbying group.

The editors -- and the wealthy Borg publishing family -- are not about to bite the hand that feeds them. That's why it's called the "journalism business." 

Really, car dealers are hated by just about everyone. Their reputation is even lower than some of the reporters and editors at The Record.

Why pad price?

The Tesla Model S is expensive enough. Why make them pricier by allowing dealers to mark them up and sell them as deceptively as they do ordinary cars?

Today, no editorial on Tesla appears in the paper, but two letters to the editor support the electric-car maker.

One, from the New Jersey Sierra Club, accuses the Christie administration of siding "with 'Big Oil' and the Koch Brothers over innovation and clean technology," and hurting the New Jersey economy and environment (O-3).

A letter from David Brown of Wyckoff says "New Jersey's regulations on car sales seem archaic, especially in today's direct sales environment" (O-3).

"This is one more example why New Jersey ranked 32nd in Forbes Magazine's 2013 Best States for Business survey," Brown writes.

The photo caption with today's letters says the Model S shown costs $91,000, but a story on Saturday reported "Tesla cars sell for about $60,000 each," and a previous story ran two photos of a discontinued Tesla roadster.

Today's paper

What a front page.

Columnist Mike Kelly rehashes the criminal career of murderer Charles Williams, who hid his past until he was arrested a couple of weeks ago in a drug sweep in Hackensack (A-1). 

An "ANALYSIS" breathlessly reports the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey "works under its own set of rules," according to the ho-hum headline (A-1).

A third story -- on belated oversight of the state's dysfunctional electric utilities -- is notable for a rare byline, Staff Writer Jean Rimbach, likely the least productive reporter on the entire staff (A-1).

Cheering speeders

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski again goes to bat for drivers who run red lights, carefully omitting that most of those caught by cameras are speeders who think nothing of killing or maiming law-abiding motorists (L-1).

Cichowski regurgitates the hysterical argument of critics that red-light cameras are an "invasion of privacy."

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza needed another non-fatal accident photo to fill out the thin local-news report today.

But the caption doesn't say whether Chinese restaurant syndrome caused by the kitchen's use of MSG triggered the crash into Ridgewood China King (L-2).

Saturday's L-2 also carried a non-fatal accident photo with a caption that provides little information about what caused a Fair Lawn collision.


N.J. nightmare

On Saturday's front page, The Record ran another long story about the American Dream retail-entertainment complex in the Meadowlands without telling readers what they want to know most.

When will that behemoth off the turnpike get a new paint job?

The story reported the site has been idle since 2009, but that Christie has championed the complex as "an engine for economic development."

No wonder New Jersey is in such sad economic shape.

Wake up the editors to our daily 'traffic turmoil'

Another Friday evening commute, another traffic jam in the northbound lanes of the Garden State Parkway. It's bad enough the parkway north narrows from 5 lanes to 3 (just past Route 280), but commuters were further slowed by two fender benders on the shoulders and mesmerized by the flashing lights of the investigating trooper's SUV at one of the minor accidents.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor


North Jersey and the rest of the metropolitan area are experiencing a transportation crisis of unparalleled proportions.

Little relief is in sight -- given Governor Christie's anti-mass transit policies and the media's well-known indifference to the plight of drivers caught in nightmarish traffic jams and other commuters packed into buses and trains.

Today's Page 1 headline in The Record -- "Another forecast of traffic turmoil" -- could run every day in one form or another.

Lazy reporting

Meanwhile, the Woodland Park daily wastes a salary on addled Staff Writer John Cichowski -- aka the Road Warrior -- whose error-filled column has only nibbled around the edges of the crisis.

Cichowski and the paper's other transportation writers could be of most service to readers by driving in rush-hour traffic or riding SRO buses and trains, and then asking officials the hard questions:
 

• Why does Christie rubber-stamp higher and higher tolls, but fails to encourage transit agencies to add more capacity, especially into Manhattan?
• When is the Port Authority going to add a second reverse lane into the Lincoln Tunnel, doubling bus capacity?
• Why aren't the new Amtrak rail tunnels into Manhattan being fast-tracked?

Get out and see
 
A drive around the metropolitan area on Friday  clearly demonstrated how heavy traffic is, and how easily it can be slowed to a crawl by lane closures, minor accidents and even the distraction of a state trooper's flashing lights on the side of the road.

New Jersey drivers were everywhere -- in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Staten Island Expressway and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge; picking up their relatives at John F. Kennedy International Airport and clogging Manhattan streets with their enormous SUVs.

Undoubtedly, hundreds of those New Jersey drivers were among those who insist on driving everywhere and reserve the right to complain about astronomical tolls, high gas prices and congestion.

Jammed terminals

Meanwhile, waiting areas at Penn Station and the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan were overflowing with thousands of commuters competing for seats on crowded trains and buses.

It's typical of The Record that today's front page focuses on delays experienced by a minority of drivers between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. on the George Washington Bridge -- and ignores what the majority experience daily during the rush-hour breakdown of the transportation system.

Let them eat cake

Today's Better Living section carries a breathless report from Elisa Ung, the recently returned restaurant reviewer, on a greasy fried pastry just the thought of which gives many readers heart palpitations (BL-1).

Friday's paper

If you missed Friday's newspaper, you didn't miss anything.

A Page 1 story on American Dream, the stalled retail-entertainment project in the Meadowlands, quotes big wig Jon F. Hanson, best friend of Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg (A-1).

Repainting of the ugly exterior (like Christie, it's another Jersey joke) is described in the story as "remodeling of the multicolored exterior," but clueless Staff Writer John Brennan fails to tell readers what they most want to know -- when?

Hackensack news

On Friday's L-3, a story reports former Hackensack City Council candidate Kenneth Martin was fined $150 and ordered to pay $158 in court costs.

Martin was found guilty of stealing his opponents' signs outside Hackensack Market on Passaic Street, where the store's surveillance camera caught the retired detective in the act.

The story reports incorrectly that Martin's slate, Coalition for Open Government, lost all 5 seats in the May 14 election. It held only 4 seats.

Local dining

Better Living's reviews of local restaurants are crammed into less space than before, but the editors found room for a story from The Washington Post on amateur and professional food critics that runs on and on and on (BL-20 to BL-24).

'Disabled' reporter

There was so much missing or wrong information in Wednesday's Road Warrior column on handicapped parking tags and plates.

A concerned reader notes:

"The Road Warrior indicated the new law is only for qualified disabled drivers. But the new law covers any qualified disabled person, including those who do not drive, that needs handicap parking.

"He failed to address differences in requirements for those with temporary v. permanent disabilities.

"He was negligent to not provide the MVC Web site page with all requirements of the new law that went into effect on Thursday, and other disabled parking provisions."

Lazy editors are Road Warrior's crutches 

Piling on dead black man's memory

In today's paper, Staff Writer John Brennan weighs the significance of a licensing deal at American Dream Meadlowlands, a project he is trying mightily to bury.

New look at teen's shooting

The lead, big, black headline on the front page of The Record today promises a "new look" at the police shooting of Malik Williams, 19, of Garfield.

But the story delivers nothing of the kind, and focuses instead on an internal affairs probe of three Garfield police officers, including Sgt. Jose Brito, one of the cops who shot and killed Williams last Dec. 10.

This is third major story focusing on the point of view of the authorities since a grand jury in June cleared the two cops who killed Williams, who was 7 feet to 8 feet away and holding a hammer and saw.

Unpublished correction

Today's story says Williams "came at" the officers with a hammer and a saw, dropping the inaccurate use of the word "charging" to describe the suspect's behavior. 

The Record still hasn't questioned the version of the confrontation provided by Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli or even why deadly force was needed to stop a man standing 7 feet to 8 feet from two officers.

What was the threat to their lives? Williams had only one hammer to throw. Did the officers seriously think he would walk up to either of them and start sawing the arm holding a gun?

Shocking  journalism

The mistreatment of Williams by Editor Marty Gottlieb, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza shocks the conscience, especially in allowing stories to misquote Molinelli at least twice on what Williams was doing before he was shot, and never running a correction.

Sykes and the other editors likely are piling on the dead man's memory because Williams, 19, was African-American and an unmarried father. 

Ambulance chasing

The huge front-page photo of a train derailment and explosion in far-off Ohio makes you wonder why Sykes has talented staff photographers chasing ambulances and not producing enterprise shots for Page 1.

Japanese people who deny accounts of soldiers kidnapping and forcing women to be their sex slaves in Korea, China and Japan sound just like the Turks' annual denial of the Armenian genocide (A-1).

Can anyone make sense of the A-1 story on a licensing deal to bring Shrek and other cartoon characters to American Dream Meadowlands (A-1)?

The story was written by John Brennan, a former sports reporter who everyone in the newsroom refers to as Goofy.

Cartoon madness

Readers will find another bewildering cartoon from the overheated mind of Margulies, who links President Obama's attempt to preserve middle-class tax cuts to the unemployment rate (A-18). 

Fare hike?

On the front of Sykes' Local section, a story on NJ Transit approving a $1.9 billion operating budget for fiscal 2013 fails to report the agency won't be hiking fares on trains and buses (L-1).

The section is filled with municipal and police news from many communities, but nothing from Hackensack, Englewood or Teaneck.

An L-2 photo reports a kitchen fire in Allendale.

Shopping story trumps black man's death

Image via Wikipedia
Is there really any connection between a mega-mall in Minnesota and the American Dream Meadowlands in North Jersey except in the minds of The Record's editors?

The Record's lazy assignment desk hasn't bothered to answer several questions surrounding the death of African-American Malik Williams, 19, including why a man "armed with tools" was shot five times by two police officers on Dec. 10.


So, it's no surprise 30 demonstrators joined his mother in a protest march Friday evening, on the same day coverage of Williams' funeral was the main element on the front page of the Woodland Park daily.


But do readers find the protest on Page 1 today? No. Shopping is more important.


Thanks to interim Editor Douglas Clancy and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, they get an ill-conceived story that tries to gauge the potential success of an enormous shopping and entertainment complex in the Meadowlands -- just across the river from New York  City, one of the world's biggest markets -- by sending a reporter and photographer to the middle of nowhere.


Night and day


I worked in the same newsroom with Staff Writer John Brennan and Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin, and can't imagine what they talked about on this silly assignment to the Mall of America in Minnesota.


Like me, I'm sure many readers didn't get past the front page of Brennan's long-winded story, but the news copy desk appears to have screwed up the time element in the A-1 caption. 


The reporter said he visited the mall "last week" and "last weekend," but the caption says the photos are "scenes from the Mall of America ... on the next-to-last weekend before Christmas."  Shouldn't that be the "last weekend" before Christmas, which is tomorrow?


What a waste of time, money and space -- as the editors force the news staff to scrape and bow before a potentially huge advertiser.


Gunning for drunks


Why is a Port Authority police officer shown in a front-page photo today armed with a shotgun while looking for "drunks and dangerous drivers" on the approach to the Lincoln Tunnel?


Along with the protest over the police shooting of Williams, the front of Local today reports the parents of a 9-year-old boy fatally injured by a car will donate his organs "as living memorials to him."


But the editors continue to ignore the challenges facing older drivers, and why their vision and driving skills aren't re-tested periodically. 


The boy was killed by a 79-year-old man who apparently didn't see him, but was charged only with failing to yield to a pedestrian in a crosswalk.


Another fatal accident involving an elderly driver is reported matter of factly by the assignment desk, with no attempt to explore possible changes in the law that would hold such a driver criminally responsible for the death.

Stephen Borg finally comes clean

Image via Wikipedia

The indoor ski slope at American Dream Meadowlands.

A day after Publisher Stephen A. Borg was accused of blocking stories about his wealthy friends, one of those stories appeared in The Record. Is that merely a coincidence?


Now, readers surely are wondering why the story ended up at the bottom of Local, while an issue few people care about -- sports betting -- is on Page 1. Is that Borg's doing, too?


The story traces the relationship among public relations wizard Alan C. Marcus, Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan; Triple Five LLC, developer of the retail-entertainment mega project once called Xanadu; and the Borg family, owners of The Record and North Jersey Media Group.


Three paragraphs at the end of the story, on L-6, discuss the Marcus-Borg ties:

"He [Marcus] said he remains an informal adviser to many prominent people and companies, including The Record and its owners, the Borg family. 

"I may converse with the Borgs some weeks more than I do Kathe [the county executive]," he said.

"Alan and I talk often," said Borg, who didn't say what they discuss. "Usually, he's not telling me what a great job I am doing."

Actually, few people are telling Borg what a great job he's doing with the exception of his bitch of a big sister, Jennifer A. Borg, vice president and general counsel.


When Marcus says he talks with the "Borgs," is Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg included?

Related post

• Younger Borg makes a pitch to the rich (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

See previous post, Is PSE&G responsible for two deaths?

Was Bin Laden behind Xanadu debacle?

Image via Wikipedia

Jennifer A. Borg and The Borg Queen may have been separated at birth.

According to The Record's front page today, the U.S. military had a better chance of finding and killing Osama bin Laden a week ago (55-45) than developer Triple Five has to succeed with American Dream Meadowlands (50-50), the revived Xanadu retail-entertainment complex.

But clueless Staff Writer John Brennan makes readers wait until the eighth paragraph -- on A-6, the jump page -- before delivering on the headline and quoting a single "expert." All the text on the front is tedious background. 

Brennan even quotes one of Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg's closest friends, Jon F. Hanson, an adviser to Governor Christie, who is trying to destroy the middle-class way of life in New Jersey.

Hanson shares ownership of a private jet with Borg.

Money in the bank

The greatly expanded American Dream project will be a huge hit -- an instant tourist attraction -- and the owners will be laughing all the way to the bank with their profits and hundreds of millions in tax breaks from Christie, who didn't even ask them to pay for road and mass-transit improvements to handle the expected crush of visitors. 

Before Xanadu went south, Bin Laden had planned to retire to North Jersey and open a travel agency for al-Qaida members in the huge shopping center.

Attacking Paterson

Two months after protesters took to the streets in Syria, it finally dawned on Editor Francis Scandale that Paterson -- which he's portrayed as a center of drugs and prostitution -- has a large, prosperous Syrian-American community. 

The result is a long overdue, local reaction story as the off-lead on A-1 today.

At the bottom of A-1, Staff Writer Giovanna Fabiano finally gets around to writing about the segregated public schools in Englewood, a community she has supposedly covered for about three years. 

We love cars

The fourth element on Page 1 today shows the Woodland Park daily writes about mass transit only when a train or bus breaks down or crashes (A-1 and A-3).

Two major stories on the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section are glorified construction updates, and there's a third infrastructure story on L-6.

Taking care of business

Publisher Stephen A. Borg and his big sister, Vice President Jennifer A. Borg, likely ordered the story on the Court Street Bridge project in Hackensack (L-1), because completion of the span will greatly increase the value of the old headquarters at 150 River St. and all that Borg-owned land near it. 

Hackensack and Teaneck municipal news ? Check back tomorrow, next week or next month.

Christie backing could be kiss of death

Image via Wikipedia

At night, American Dream Meadowlands will be visible from the moon.

Let's hope Governor Christie's wholehearted support for the greatly expanded Xanadu project doesn't come back to haunt taxpayers -- who already are paying for failed education, transportation and other initiatives.

Who can forget how the Republican bully blew $400 million in education aid last year or turned his back on billions for a new Hudson River rail tunnel -- leaving taxpayers holding the Fed's $271 million bill?

Who can forget how he's made a deal with Democrats to remove the last minority  justice on the state Supreme Court or how he refuses to tax millionaires to get us out of a huge financial hole?

Big tax breaks

Now, The Record reports on Page 1 today, he is willing to give at least $200 million in tax breaks to get the renamed Xanadu entertainment and  retail project finished -- even though the developer apparently hasn't been asked to make major infrastructure, road and mass-transit improvements.

The upbeat story by public relations man John Brennan, who masquerades as a reporter, makes no mention of the $900 million in state subsidies already spent on American Dream Meadowlands.

I had to listen to WBGO-FM radio news to learn that. Nor is there anything about the use of solar power on a project that is ideally suited for it.

Turd-filled editorials

An editorial on A-10 notes the developer expects 55 million visitors a year -- adding that's "a lot of toilets flushing." 

Probably not as many as have been flushing in a  newsroom run by Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes.

A second editorial today hints at Christie's plan for an all-white Supreme Court, noting in the penultimate paragraph, "We hope ... Christie's judicial choices will reflect ... the diversity of New Jersey. We will see." 

How nice. I guess cowardly Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is treading lightly to avoid the wrath of the Republican bully.

Winners and losers

The sprawling retail and entertainment complex likely will be a huge hit, but is Christie giving away the store at the expense of middle- and working-class taxpayers, who have already suffered greatly at his hands?

Road Warrior John Cichowski hasn't commented on the possible loss of turnpike discounts for some E-ZPass drivers, but his L-1 column continues to answer such moronic questions as "how do I file a claim for a blown tire from a pothole."

Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais calls the proposal unfair (L-9). 

Local yokels

Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado was busy covering a fire in Ridgefield on Tuesday (L-3) -- not attending the Hackensack City Council meeting for the first reading of the proposed budget.