Christie: I'd beat Hillary Clinton just like I defeated Buono

Our weird weather hasn't ended. I encountered fog on Woodland Street in Tenafly on Monday morning.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie isn't even the GOP candidate, yet The Record today devotes a long front-page story to the wannabe president's saber rattling and talk of taking on China, Iran, Russia and Syria.

And buried deep in the story by Salvador Rizzo is the biggest laugh line of all:

The GOP bully said "he would be able to beat Hillary Clinton, if he decided to run for president, because it would be similar to the race he ran against another Democratic female senator, Barbara Buono" (A-6).

Who is this State House Bureau reporter, Rizzo? "Another Democratic female senator"?

Clinton was President Obama's first secretary of state, not "another Democratic female senator," and Buono was a state senator, not in the U.S. Senate, which is where the onetime first lady served.

By the way, the byline on the story says "Salvador," but a credit at the end of another Page 1 story says, "Salvatore."

Big defeat ahead

Christie is just setting himself up for the biggest humiliation of his political life, if he thinks beating Clinton would be as easy as his 2013 defeat of Buono, who was put up as a sacrificial lamb by the sheepish state Democratic Party.

For one thing, Christie was so desperate for a second term he exacted political retribution against Democrats who didn't endorse him for reelection.

And all the reporting on politics by Charles Stile of The Record and other media turned off registered voters to the point that fewer than four in 10 cast ballots in the gubernatorial race -- the lowest turnout in history for such an election.

Obama in Camden

The president visited Camden, showing the kind of leadership in addressing police violence against blacks that Christie could never display (A-1).

In fact, Christie, from his second home in New Hampshire, belatedly referred to all of the gun violence in Paterson, where three young blacks were gunned down in drive-by shootings in about 15 months.

Christie said he is ready to work with Paterson to create the same kind of community policing credited with cutting crime in Camden.

But the last of the three blacks slain in Paterson, basketball star Armoni Sexton, 15, died about a month ago, so why is Christie just now making the offer?

Teaneck horse

Multimillionaire Ahmed Zayat was born in Egypt and owns race horses, including American Pharoah.

But Zayat, a Sephardic Jew, has lived among other Orthodox Jews in Teaneck for 30 years.

Now, the editors are making a half-hearted effort to show township residents are behind him and his horse, and are rooting for American Pharoah to win the Triple Crown (L-1).

That's likely because twice on the front page recently, victories by the horse have been called "wins" for Teaneck. That's preposterous.

The story by Mary Diduch reports Zayat Stables are in Hackensack. Boy, does that make me feel good.

And I got a good laugh out of her first line: "Bergen County isn't exactly horse country."

Of course it is. 

The Bergen Equestrian Center at Overpeck Park, Leonia, has a long history, and many Bergen residents actually stable their horses there and ride them frequently.

A second county horseback riding facility is in Franklin Lakes.

Here's a line that is irrefutable: 

Local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza -- who assigned this stupid story to a clueless reporter and then embarrassed themselves no end by missing her ridiculous first sentence -- are horse's asses.

Better Living

Today's story on the popularity and health benefits of olive oil omits one important fact:

Unlike the vast majority of corn, soy and rapeseed (canola) used in cooking oils, olives aren't genetically modified and olive oil doesn't contain GMOs (BL-2).

There is no explanation why this piece runs under the heading of 15 MINUTE CHEF.

Christie ignores Silk City slaughter, editors fail old drivers

On a day like today -- when The Record doesn't call for the impeachment of Governor Christie for sending state troopers to Baltimore, while continuing to ignore the gun violence in Paterson -- the only good that can come of the newspaper is to recycle it.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Riots in Baltimore and the slaughter of innocent teens in Paterson are front-page news in The Record again today, with the stories played side by side.

But clueless Editor Martin Gottlieb fails to connect the dots and put Governor Christie on the spot for sending New Jersey troopers to the Maryland city and once again screwing Paterson.

On A-6, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes' story on state troopers helping to restore order in Baltimore notes they have been sent to Camden in the past.

But Hayes and an editorial on A-10 today don't put Christie on the spot for failing to send state police to help Paterson's dysfunctional Police Department.

Under the direction of Police Director Jerry Speziale, they seem unable or unwilling to stop the drive-by shootings of innocent young people, three of whom have died in the past 10 months.

The text of Hayes' story is partially covered by an advertisement, in another production screw-up courtesy of six-figure Editor Liz Houlton, who is laughing all the way to the bank (A-6).

No taxes

In the name of "no new taxes," the GOP bully cut state aid to Paterson, Newark and other poor cities in late 2011, resulting in the layoffs of many hundreds of police officers.

Silk City's force still hasn't recovered, despite new hires, and basketball star Armoni Sexton, 15, is the latest victim of Christie's mean-spirited policies. 

It's time to impeach Christie for this and all of his other transgressions.

Raise gas tax

We should also get rid of Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, and other members of the state Legislature who refuse to enact a gas-tax hike to fix our roads and bridges, and then override Christie's veto (A-1).

This is just more of the editors exploiting politics and ignoring what is good for state residents.

No one has been able to shake the irrefutable logic that drivers are the ones who should pay -- through higher taxes on fuel -- for fixing the roads and bridges they use.

Dissing elderly

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza -- and Road Warrior John Cichowski -- continue to treat older drivers who crash their cars as so much chopped liver.

In desperation, Sykes and Sforza again ordered layout editors to blow up as big as possible two gee-whiz photos of mishaps blamed on older drivers to fill huge holes in their local-news report today (L-1 and L-3).

As usual, the 85-year-old driver who probably got sick and crashed into a truck on South Summit Avenue in Hackensack, killing himself, isn't identified (L-1).

Was he a grandfather or father? No one in the Woodland Park newsroom cares, because his only value to the laziest of lazy editors is as a space filler.

Pedal error

Nor do they care why a confused driver ignored barriers and drove his Mercedes-Benz into a large hole in Westwood, becoming the laughing stock of first responders visible in the photo (L-3).

Cliffview Pilot.com reported the Mahwah man, 67, was issued summonses for careless driving and driving on a closed road.

Even more egregious, the Road Warrior column has ignored the challenges faced by older drivers in the decade or more The Record has published photo after photo of the mayhem caused when they mistake the gas pedal for the brake pedal. 

Readers are desperate for anything that would cut down on the endless stream of court, police, fire and accident news the incompetent local editors so desperately need to fill their pages today and every day.

Black lives aren't worth much to Paterson police, editors

In the past two years, Main Street in Fort Lee has been closed for utility work and other projects more than any other two-lane road in Bergen County it seems, as it was Monday afternoon, when traffic was funneled into one lane at Anderson Avenue, above, and at Center Street.

Meanwhile, work continues on Hudson Lights, the huge retail and residential project near the George Washington Bridge. And across the street, an expanded Plaza Diner has reopened after renovations, offering free valet parking.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

"I've had enough of these killings. Enough is enough."

"Everyone says it has to get worse before it gets better. But we don't see any progression. It's only getting worse."

"I'm scared."

How many ways can Paterson residents and friends of slain basketball phenom Armoni Sexton say it (A-1 and A-7 in The Record today)? 

They are wondering when Police Director Jerry Speziale and his force are going to do something to prevent more killings of young people like Sexton, 15, who was slain by gunfire attributed to a gang rivalry city officials have known about for decades.

Today's Page 1 coverage of Armoni's funeral on Monday doesn't even raise the responsibility of police to prevent gun violence in Silk City's impoverished neighborhoods, even though the force has been depleted by Governor Christie's mean-spirited aid cuts.

The A-1 headline is predictable:

"Mourners seek meaning"

The line over the front-page photo of young mourners reads:

"HEARTBREAK OVER SLAIN TEENAGER"

Burying anger

Quotes from fed-up residents are buried deep on the continuation page, and reporters didn't even bother asking Speziale and Mayor Joey Torres for their reactions. 

If black lives are cheap in Paterson, they are even cheaper in the Woodland Park newsroom, which doesn't have a great record on minority employment or an editorial policy that holds cops' feet to the fire.

Armoni was the third innocent young person killed by gunfire in the past 10 months.

Typically, The Record's Monday edition carries a story on the latest weekend shooting in Paterson, the same kind of body count journalism the media practice in wartime.

'Best towns'?

Have you ever heard of New Jersey Family magazine? Neither have I.

But all over the Local front today is a story about four Bergen County towns the magazine calls "Best Towns for Families" in 2015.

What follows is more reporting about Oradell, Closter, Harrington Park and Demarest than readers have seen in the last five or 10 years (L-1 and L-3).

You know the assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, are lazy and incompetent when Palisades Park changing seven streets to one way makes the front of the Local news section.

Better to warn readers Pal Park is one of the few towns that keeps meters in effect until 9 p.m., as well as on Sundays, hoping to fleece customers of dozens of Korean restaurants.

Second look

In his column on the Local front a week ago, Road Warrior John Cichowski played dumb on the reasons pedestrian deaths are rising in New Jersey.

He only had to report a major development across the Hudson River, where New York City is now charging drivers with a crime if they injure or kill a pedestrian or bicyclist who has the right of way.

Cichowski knows most New Jersey drivers are treated far more leniently -- a major factor in the rising death toll.

And he has even quoted one of those morons saying he wanted to run down a pedestrian who didn't use the crosswalk.

Sloppy reporting

A week ago, Cichowski also listed some of the pedestrians who were killed in Bergen County, but didn't bother reporting the lenient treatment some of the drivers received.

He listed Hue Dang as one of the 17 "walking deaths" in March.

The veteran reporter noted the Hackensack woman, 64, was fatally injured crossing Jackson Avenue at Kennedy Street.

But the confused Cichowski forgot to say no charges of any kind were filed against a Bergen County Prosecutor's Office detective, John Straniero, who was driving the unmarked car that ran her down.

That accident is being reviewed by the Union County Prosecutor's Office.

Why don't the editors just say it? Mass transit truly sucks

Traffic on Route 4 in Paramus this afternoon.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Seats on NJ Transit trains into the city are at a premium during the morning rush.

Homebound commuters continue to face gridlock-related delays at the antiquated midtown Manhattan bus terminal.

The PATH commuter rail system hasn't been expanded for decades, and NJ Transit's light-rail system still hasn't reached Bergen County, even though it was inaugurated about 15 years ago.

Yet The Record refuses to recognize that public transit is struggling and traffic congestion has worsened, especially since Governor Christie took office more than five years ago. 

He said/she said

Today's Page 1 story on NJ Transit's proposed 9% fare hike is treated like just another he said/she said account where everything is attributed (A-1).

That's because Staff Writer Christopher Maag likely hasn't taken any buses or trains since he was given the transportation beat, and doesn't know how the service can suck at times.

So, he quotes "commuters, legislators and transportation advocates, who say service has declined and who blame the Christie administration for not doing enough to support mass transit in New Jersey" (lead paragraph on A-1).

Christie himself is not to blame, according to the Woodland Park daily, which more and more resembles the GOP bully's elaborate P.R. machine rather than a newspaper.

It's the amorphous "Christie administration."

The Road Warrior column has largely ignored commuting issues for more than a decade.

And when you add this kind of uninformed reporting on mass transit, the editors give readers the impression of being in the pockets of the car dealers whose advertising revenue helps make the Borg publishing family rich.

Spring showers moistened flowers.

Torres, Speziale

In following up on the shooting death of basketball star Armoni Sexton, 15, The Record continues to give a pass to two political hacks, Paterson Mayor Joey Torres and Police Director Jerry Speziale (A-1).

The arrest of a suspect is little solace to a community that has seen three innocent young people die on the streets from random gunshots in less than a year.

At least an editorial today criticizes Torres for failing once again to be "the first and loudest voice of outrage" (A-8).

Why not call for his impeachment? The editorial is kinder to Speziale, who should be pilloried.

There may be no "simple solutions," as the editorial states, but at least Speziale should have police work harder to get rival gang members and illegal guns off the streets.

In the dark

On A-2 today, the editors admit they didn't know which county U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance was from when he was in the state assembly.

Lance, a Republican, was from Hunterdon, but the story said Burlington.

Christie polls

Editor Martin Gottlieb today also buried two polls on Christie's eroding approval rating and the poor job he is doing in New Jersey (A-7).

Neither are news to readers and residents.

Local news?

An animal story dominates the Local news section for the second day in a row (L-1).

Expect that little of the data in John Cichowski's Road Warrior column on pedestrian deaths is accurate (L-1).

But the clueless columnist ignores the reason for the rising toll -- mean-spirited drivers who have little regard for other human beings, even if they are in a crosswalk.

And did you see this gem of a paragraph?

"Like cheap toothpaste that prevents decay but rots gums, really bad news can come wrapped in good news" (L-6).

Hackensack news

The Record reports today that Jason Some, 25, sales director of family owned Some's Uniforms on Main Street, has been appointed to fill the City Council seat of Rose Greenman, who resigned (L-6).

I guess it's a coincidence the story is played next to the continuation of the Road Warrior column on pedestrian deaths.

In October 2013, Jason's father, Jerome S. Some, 87, was killed by a car after he left his building and started to cross Prospect Avenue on the way to a meeting at Bel Posto Restaurant.

The meeting room in his high-rise was being renovated at the time, forcing the building's co-op board to meet across the street.

The driver said she didn't see Some.

Paterson police czar has more young blood on his hands

An art gallery on Palisade Avenue in Englewood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

At least Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale has learned to talk the talk when another innocent young life is taken on the city's violent streets.

"We are not going to give up," Speziale told The Record, "we are going to do what we have to do to make a safe city."

You'll have to search for the interview, buried as it is on the continuation page of the A-1 story on the shooting death of Armoni Sexton, 15 (A-7).

The editors have been treating the police director gently -- Heaven forbid he is put on the spot -- even though the 6-foot-7 aspiring basketball star is the third young person killed by random gunshots in less than a year (A-1).

What exactly is Speziale waiting for before he asks for help from the state police or the Passaic County Sheriff's Office, which he once headed?

It's pretty obvious Paterson police are unable to control gun violence on city streets. How many more kids have to die?

Forget about appealing directly to Governor Christie, even if he can be found.

He's already screwed Paterson royally with state aid cuts that forced the layoff of 125 officers in 2011. Now, even with new hires, the force is 20% smaller than before the cut.

Rough editing

They've been at it for decades, but Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sfroza still can't handle breaking news.

The reporting and editing of the stories on Sexton's death are poor.

The main front-page headlines stink:

Death Avenue claims another

Paterson teen

is third fatally shot

in past 10 months

Why not use the word "gunman" or "gunmen" to indicate that it is uncontrolled gun ownership that claimed the boy's life, not a street called "Death Avenue"?

The photo caption on Page 1 shows Gloria Sexton, who is identified as "a family member of Armoni Sexton," apparently because the photographer didn't ask her relationship to the dead teen. 

Why didn't the editor who wrote that just say she is the teen's "relative"?

This same caption mentions "the street near Godwin Avenue and Rosa Parks Boulevard, where the 15-year-old was shot Saturday."

But the first paragraph of the lead news story reports Sexton was with a group of teenagers "on Rosa Parks Boulevard" when he was shot, not "near" the intersection of Godwin and Rosa Parks (A-1).

Finally, also in the lead paragraph, Sexton is called inappropriately one of the "children" who "have lost their lives in the violence that strangles every day life in city neighborhoods."

Later, Sexton and the two girls who were killed by gunshots in the past year, Nazerah Bugg, 14; and Genesis Rincon, 12, are referred to as "young people" (A-7).

Wasted space

Why is Editor Martin Gottlieb wasting precious Page 1 space on Matt Mowers and Matthew Moroney, two Christie aides in New Hampshire no one has ever heard of?

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes reports the margin of Christie's second-term victory was "impressive," but doesn't note voter turnout was the lowest for any New Jersey gubernatorial election in history (A-1).

Fewer than four out of 10 voters went to the polls for the November 2013 contest, signalling incredible apathy.

A real turkey

Today's Local section literally is a turkey.

The biggest local news is a wild turkey that is being fed in an A&P parking lot in Closter (L-1).

A caption for the photo on L-1 -- showing the 29th annual Lincoln Tunnel Challenge 5K -- doesn't note the race left hundreds of New Jersey motorists frozen in traffic jams at the tunnel's Manhattan entrances late Sunday afternoon.