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?"

With cowardly reporters like Mike Kelly, Christie can't lose

A photo of Record Columnist Mike Kelly from his own Web site. The veteran reporter's introspection doesn't include why he is unable to state clearly and forcefully his opinion on the terrible job Governor Christie is doing in New Jersey while the GOP bully chases his White House dreams.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Page 1 of The Record and the important Opinion section carry columns from Mike Kelly on public officials who are or plan to divide their time between their New Jersey duties and other states.

But if you plow through several thousand words, you will come no closer to whether the veteran opinion columnist thinks Governor Christie and Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale really stink (O-1 and A-1).

Kelly has been writing a column for The Record for more than 20 years, but he is no Jimmy Breslin or Pete Hamill.

As the headline on the O-1 Christie column shows -- "Is Christie relevant to us anymore?" -- the reporter hides his opinions behind rhetorical questions, a device he has been using for decades.

And look at the lame headline on the front page:

"Top cop's new beat covers two states"

That's inaccurate -- it should be "two cities" -- but still is what copy editors try to avoid at all costs, a dull headline that is little more than a label.

Impeachable

Kelly just can't bring himself to state clearly and forcefully that all of the time Christie is spending campaigning for the GOP presidential nomination in New Hampshire, Iowa and other states is an impeachable offense.

Nor is he able to slam Speziale for wanting to take a part-time job in Hazleton, Pa., given all the gun violence, deaths of young people and drug dealing under his watch in Paterson, New Jersey's third-largest city.

Pure and simple, Speziale running a police department 115 miles away from Silk City is criminal and a dereliction of duty.

As a so-called journalist, Kelly has been guilty of dereliction for decades.

Governor Cuomo

Talking about officials who divide their time between two states, tens of thousands of readers are hoping New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo would do just that in New Jersey.

Cuomo's budget proposals include road, mass-transit and airport projects; a phased-in $15 minimum wage; and addressing corruption and homelessness (A-3).

Contrast those initiatives to Christie's war on the middle class, and his 430 vetoes (and counting) of any progressive legislation.

Hit-run death

In today's Local, I can't seem to find any word about the surrender on Saturday of Stalin Kappil of Teaneck in the Christmas Day hit-run death of a homeless man at Cedar Lane and Garrison Avenue in downtown Teaneck.

Hackensack.Daily.Voice.com says Kappil lives a dozen blocks away from where he allegedly ran down Steven J. Leitgeb, 59, who died later at a hospital. 

Jerry DeMarco reports Kappil, 62, is of Asian Indian ancestry, as is acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal, who announced the arrest.

Oxymoron

On L-1 today, Road Warrior John Cichowski's first paragraph oxymoron has readers shaking their heads again.

Even at normal speeds, driving on unlit or poorly lit highways is challenging, and drivers regularly curse officials.

But Cichowski is desperate to get readers interested in a subject he's written about too many times before, so he exaggerates the danger by writing:

"Here's something to consider while you're hurtling home from work at night [italics added] ...." 

Which drivers are "hurtling" during the rush hour, when traffic congestion is at its worse?

An even bigger problem are poorly lit intersections in Hackensack and other towns where drivers have a hard time seeing pedestrians at night, such as the one at Passaic and First streets. 

Big portions

For some comic relief today, see Elisa Ung's Sunday column bemoaning large restaurant portions and penalties for sharing (BL-1).

The paper's chief restaurant critic is so obsessed with dessert and enormous steaks she could be a member of Overeaters Anonymous.

Christie's racism toward Obama is hurting medical reform

At the Great Falls, now part of a national park, the historic industrial city of Paterson says, Hear me roar.

The hydroelectric plant at the base of the falls still provides power to the city.

Mary Ellen Kramer Park is a new section with picnic tables and benches. Although it hasn't opened officially, visitors who find a break in the cyclone fence are leaving their mark, above.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie did his best to sabotage the roll-out of President Obama's Affordable Care Act by blocking a health-care exchange in New Jersey.

Now, in a series of stories on surprise medical bills, The Record still hasn't told readers where the GOP bully stands on reform efforts, which have succeeded in other states but not here (A-1).

Deep on the continuation page today, Staff Writer Lindy Washburn reports:

"New York has the most comprehensive law, an accomplishment made possible in part because Gov. Andrew Cuomo and state insurance regulators pushed for action...." (A-6).

Any reader who got that far might be asking themselves, What about Christie? But his name doesn't appear in the overly long story.

And even though most experts are dismissing Christie's chances in the scramble for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, political Columnist Charles Stile continues to polish the governor's image of being all-powerful in the Garden State (A-1).

As an antidote, see Margulies' Sunday cartoon on our part-time governor (O-2).

Another correction

On A-2, The Record corrects a Saturday story on the Cresskill family mourning Youngrok Lee, a 13-year-old killed by a tractor-trailer while he was riding his bike to school on Wednesday mother.

A photo showed his grieving mother and a banner hanging on the boy's door.

"In bold, black Korean letters, it says, 'Look forward and go higher,'" Staff Writer Mary Diduch reported.

Except the characters are Chinese, today's correction says.

The boy's name previously was given as Young Rok Lee, even on Saturday's front page, and there was no explanation why Saturday's L-1 story and today's correction calls him "Youngrok Lee."

Deadly week?

Saturday's front page was dominated by a story, graphic and photos appearing under this over line:

"DEADLY WEEK AROUND NORTH JERSEY"

The headline was clunky:

"Spate of tragic endings"

The story reported a number of accidental and violent deaths in 10 days, including two teens killed in traffic accidents, two bodies found on the Palisades, a Hackensack man shot by police and an off-duty state trooper killed in a one-car accident.

But the round-up appeared designed to justify Editor Martin Gottlieb's frequent reliance on sensational crime and court news on Page 1 to sell newspapers.

And it served to obscure the laziness and incompetence of local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, who seem unable to fill their section with legitimate municipal news (see Saturday's and today's Local sections).

Of course, every week is "deadly" in North Jersey, if you count heart disease, dementia, obesity and other causes the editors largely ignore year-round.

In the kitchen

Staff Writer Elisa Ung, who can't resist sampling artery clogging desserts for her weekly restaurant reviews, today brings us a long column on a celebrity pastry chef (BL-1).

That shuts out readers who would like to see The Corner Table column tackle the broken tipping system, restaurant owners who charge high prices for low-quality food and other consumer issues.