More really bad news for commuters, state environment

Removing winter's grime at a hand car wash on Route 4 in Englewood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's story today on former reporter Michael Drewniak, who just left his damage-control job with Governor Christie, surely will have you hurling at the breakfast table.

In his inimitable style, Drewniak (rhymes with "maniac") managed the news by confirming on Tuesday he was leaving as Christie's chief spokesman, but not saying he was taking a six-figure job at NJ Transit, the state mass-transit agency (A-3).

Staff Writer Christopher Maag, the paper's chief transportation writer, doesn't even attempt to explain why Drewniak is qualified for "a newly created position ..., overseeing policy, strategic planning, technology, safety and capacity for all bus and train services," according to an NJ Transit press release on Friday.

As Christie's mouthpiece since 2002, what does Drewniak know about mass transit after spending all his time riding in enormous SUVs driven by federal marshals or state troopers?

Stonewalling

Nor does Maag say how Drewniak's annual salary of $147,400 as NJ Transit's "chief of policy and strategic planning" compares to what he made working in the Governor's Office.

Christie got his money's worth when Drewniak helped stonewall the media and officials investigating the politically inspired George Washington Bridge lane closures.

Drewniak also defended the GOP bully's decision to kill the Hudson River tunnels in October 2010, denying NJ Transit rail commuters more rush-hour seats into the city.

And he stood by the governor when Christie snatched hundreds of millions in leftover tunnel money to fix New Jersey roads and bridges, rather than raise the gasoline tax. 

Funding crisis

The governor's refusal to raise that tax then and now means the state's Transportation Trust Fund for repairing roads and bridges, and improving mass transit, may run our of money in a few months.

Finally, Drewniak bears an uncanny resemblance to the former editor of The Record, Francis "Frank" Scandale, who presided over a drastic reduction in local-news coverage in more than a decade of running the Hackensack newsroom.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg showed Scandale the door on Halloween 2011, two days after a snowstorm paralyzed North Jersey. 

Scandale was blamed for The Record's pathetically weak coverage of the storm by a skeleton weekend crew.

Christie sellout

The Christie administration reportedly is putting the fossil fuel industry and the governor's White House ambitions ahead of the environment by settling an $8.9 billion lawsuit against Exxon Mobil for only $250 million (A-1).

The Record reports Christie, while he was chairman, raised nearly $18 million for the Republican Governors Association from the oil, gas and utilities industries in the first nine months of 2014 (A-8).

An in-house Exxon attorney also donated a total of $3,200 to the RGA.

The Woodland Park daily doesn't explain how it was scooped by The New York Times on settlement of the suit over pollution at the Bayway Refinery in Linden and another site in Bayonne.

Tennis, anyone?

Today's feature on the 30th anniversary of the law mandating wearing of seat belts in New Jersey seems an odd choice for the Better Living cover (BL-1).

Odder still is the byline, freelancer Neil Amdur, a former New York Times sports reporter who may know Martin Gottlieb, The Record's editor and himself a former Timesman. 

Bloomberg.com lists Amdur as editor-in-chief of Tennis Week magazine.

Bob Simon

Amdur reports Bob Simon, the veteran CBS newsman, was unbuckled and became "a back-seat bullet" when his limo crashed in Manhattan on Feb. 12. Simon died of his injuries.

Contrast that with reporting by Staff Writer John Cichowski, who used his Road Warrior column to contrive an elaborate scenario in which Simon would have survived, if only the Lincoln Town Car he was riding in had rear side curtain airbags.

What nonsense, but typical of Cichowski's hype, exaggeration, distortion and clearly inaccurate reporting in more than a decade of writing the column.

Christie has no solutions for problems of his own making

Cedar Lane and River Road in Teaneck, near the Fairleigh Dickinson University campus, would seem to be an ideal place for a Starbucks with a parking lot. Actually, anything would be welcome to replace the eyesore of a shuttered gas station and diner.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A defiant Governor Christie reiterated his inflexible no-tax policy, but "offered no clues about how he would address challenges like transportation funding and growing pension obligation," The Record reports today on Page 1.

"We have to grow this economy, not the government," Christie told New Jersey business leaders gathered in Washington after a drunken train ride from Trenton on Thursday (A-1).

The reporters don't point out the GOP bully still is talking about growing the economy more than five years after he took office.

And, of course, Christie wants to shrink the public sector, but not the shadow government known as the Port Authority, the bistate agency he has used as a patronage mill to retaliate against Democrats who didn't support his reelection.

The Record does quote Patrick Murray, Monmouth University's poll director, who said he was "struck by" all the "angst" he heard in discussions with people on the chartered train:

"I heard about how Trenton isn't going to tackle any of the big problems we have in this state because of the governor's presidential ambitions" (A-8).

Diet and health

Also on the front page today, The Associated Press graphic on a government panel's proposed new dietary recommendations is a model of clarity compared to the lengthy, jargon-filled Better Living cover story that ran on Wednesday (A-1).

And an editorial urges the state Legislature to override the GOP bully's veto of the Port Authority reform bill (A-18).

Crime, court news

One glance at today's Local section makes it clear head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, have frozen out municipal news in favor of Law & Order stories (L-1 to L-6).

Sykes and Sforza are two of the laziest newspaper editors in the Western Hemisphere, and on too many days, seem unable to inspire their staff to gather little more than police, fire, court and accident news.

One story on the Local front -- the ambiguous gender of a bank robber who got away with more than $100,000 -- raises a question that many Woodland Park newsroom staffers have asked repeatedly about a few of their colleagues (L-1).

Black bird?

Staff Writer Elisa Ung doesn't explain how the owners picked the name of the Mexican restaurant in Edgewater she reviews today (BL-14).

Paloma Negra -- black dove or pigeon -- seems an odd choice, and her lukewarm, 2-star review is sure to discourage readers, and perhaps turn their thoughts to bird droppings.

She found "shriveled, dry slices of steak and pork loin" in one of the most expensive dishes, and "dry and shriveled" chicken in both flautas and enchiladas.

Even after a big meal, Ung leaves room for a sugary dessert, but she criticizes a "rigid" flan and a "cloying" cake. 

Poor woman.

Second look

Last Sunday's Road Warrior column on the death of CBS newsman Bob Simon was one of Staff Writer John Cichowski's most misleading efforts.

Simon, who wasn't wearing a seat belt, was thrown forward and suffered fatal injuries when his speeding Lincoln Town Car limo crashed on 12th Avenue in Manhattan.

Cichowski asserted side curtain air bags might have saved Simon, but they are intended to protect the head and chest of an occupant "in the event of a serious crash" involving the side of the vehicle, according to safecar.gov, not in the case of a major frontal impact.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior windbag is wrong on air bags

Christie columnist perpetuates bully's middle-class myth

Black cars and limousines bringing top athletes, celebrities and other guests to the launch party for The Players' Tribune, an online site published by Derek Jeter, late Saturday night on West 26th Street, near 12th Avenue, not far from where CBS newsman Bob Simon was killed after his speeding Lincoln Town Car limo crashed last Wednesday. Today, The Record's so-called commuting columnist tackles auto safety and Simon's death, posing a speculative, "What if"?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The real danger of Staff Writer Charles Stile's flattering columns on Governor Christie is that nine times out of 10 they are played on Page 1 amid "objective" news stories, but never labeled "Opinion," a sure way to mislead readers.

Today, many familiar with Christie's multiple vetoes of a tax surcharge on millionaires and raising the minimum wage surely threw up their breakfasts when they came to this sentence on the questionable ethics of his corporate-sponsored travel:

"The travel flap undercuts his image as an ordinary Jersey guy with middle-class tastes and ambitions" (A-1).

To avoid being a laughing stock, Stile needs to say in his first sentence what he has never said: 

Christie's "brand" and his elaborate public relations campaigns are a complete sham as he pursues his White house dreams and leaves New Jersey in shambles.

Demonizing Paterson

The front page today is dominated by the first of a three-part series, "IN HEROIN'S GRIP," a second installment of Staff Writer Rebecca D. O'Brien's untiring coverage of the role of Silk City in a suburban epidemic (A-1, A-8 and A-9).

The demonizing of Paterson began under the last editor, Francis "Frank" Scandale, who actually published a map showing readers where they could buy drugs in the city.

I just wonder how many readers are going to get through all three parts, which appear to be another attempt by Editor Marty Gottlieb to win a Pulitzer Prize.

The Record supplements this one-dimensional portrayal of the city almost daily with stories about official corruption, failing schools and unbridled gun violence.

Today, the introductory paragraphs invoke "the fatal shootings of 12-year-old Genesis Rincon in July and 14-year-old Nazareh Bugg in late September."

Yet, I have never seen The Record go after the Police Department, led for many years by a white police chief, for its apparent inability or unwillingness to stop crime perpetrated mostly against minority residents.

Slum landlords and banks that red line are other subjects the Woodland Park daily won't touch.

Air bags, windbags 

Despite Road Warrior John Cichowski's hand-wringing over the lack of rear curtain air bags in Bob Simon's limo, the CBS newsman's failure to buckle up is probably what led to his fatal injuries last Wednesday on 12th Avenue and 30th Street in Manhattan (L-1).

Cichowski assigns blame for unsafe limos on just about everyone but Ford Motor Co. and other manufacturers, who fight government-mandated safety improvements tooth and nail to avoid reducing their profits.

Unbelted in the back seat, Simon was hurled forward when his speeding limo struck unmovable steel stanchions, suffering "blunt-force injuries to his head, torso and extremities," according to the medical examiner.

Side curtain air bags likely wouldn't have stopped Simon from being thrown forward into the front seat, dashboard and windshield at the same high speed the limo was traveling before its sudden deceleration.

'Where am I?'

In his Feb. 8 column, Cichowski repeated the same mistake he published on Aug. 10, 2014, claiming a Bergen Avenue house next to Route 17 in Waldwick is five blocks south of another house, when it is really five blocks north.

The error was corrected last year by the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his Feb. 8 column, the forgetful Road Warrior repeated the same clueless nonsense that I previously corrected with his Aug. 10, 2014, column.

"Road Warrior indicated that a Bergen Avenue crash accident in Waldwick was five blocks south of another resident’s house on Dora Avenue.

"Bergen Avenue is five blocks north of Dora Avenue.

"He indicated the Waldwick resident was worried her corner house was in “exactly the same position” as the Bergen Avenue corner property that sustained damage from the Route 17 accident.

"The Dora Avenue home is set back at least 50 feet further from the main traffic lanes of Route 17 than the Bergen Avenue home.

"It does not border the southbound side of Route 17, like the Bergen Ave. home, since there is an entire exit ramp road to Sheridan Avenue between the Dora Avenue home and Route 17."

See: Clueless Road Warrior forgets past errors


Is that kosher?

It's just like Staff Writer Elisa Ung to focus on the 65 bottles and 12 tap beers available at Teaneck Doghouse, a kosher sports bar and restaurant (The Corner Table column, BL-1).

Ung is unwilling the uncover what I call the kosher-food scam, charging much higher prices for -- in this case --  beef hot dogs, burgers and sausage egg rolls, but not delivering meat that has been raised naturally. 

Editors keep focus on TV and off newspaper's decline

The sun is setting -- at least for now -- on falling gasoline prices, and that pleases climatologists and environmentally conscious drivers of hybrid and all-electric cars, and saddens all the people trapped into making payments on their gas-guzzlers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In today's front-page coverage of Brian Williams and Jon Stewart, The Record focus on the flaws of TV news and satire, and avoids any examination of the many problems at the Woodland Park daily.

One of those is the shoddy job The Record does in covering accidents, such as the one that took the life of longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Bob Simon (A-1 and A-6).

Simon, 73, survived wars, an earthquake and captivity, but died in one of the most meaningless ways possible -- in a car crash on 12th Avenue in Manhattan, a notorious speedway.

The Associated Press story The Record uses today was just slapped into the page.

And the editors did nothing to address unanswered questions, especially whether Simon was wearing his seat belt and just how fast the limo was going when the driver hit another car and lost control.

"The Town Car was so badly mangled rescuers had to pry open the roof to extract him [Simon] from the rear of the car," the New York Post reported.

Here is an AP video of the wreck.

Brian Williams

Marty Gottlieb, editor of The Record, continues to cover the inaccurate reporting of suspended "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams, knowing full well that one of his own reporters has committed far more errors, including deliberate falsifications (A-1).

On Jan. 25, Staff Writer John Cichowski, also known as the Road Warrior, capped all of the inaccuracies he's committed in more than a decade of columns.

That's when he ran a photo of a Route 4 bridge in Teaneck supplied by a reader, and claimed a major supporting column had a "gash" in it -- even though no such safety flaw was evident in the photo.

Of course, none of the bridges closed before and after that column included any on Route 4.

Jon Stewart 

In Staff Writer Virginia Rohan's assessment of Jon Stewart, the satirist from New Jersey who announced his departure from "The Daily Show," The Record doesn't come close to discussing his major shortcoming (A-1).

Stewart and his team focused on politicians and TV, especially Fox News Channel's racist coverage of President Obama, and rarely referred to the decline of such newspapers as The Record.

Rohan refers to Stewart's "faux news program," but the events he riffed on weren't fake at all.

I recall Stewart's coverage of a Tea Party rally in Washington that used a large photo of corpses to compare Obama's Affordable Care Act to World War II concentration camps.

What was remarkable was The Record's front-page coverage of the same demonstration didn't even show the photo or mention the outrageously inaccurate comparison.

Ridgewood thefts

Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli is rejecting an audit that showed nearly $850,000 in Ridgewood parking-meter revenue disappeared -- far more than former village employee Thomas Rica admitted stealing (L-1).

The prosecutor does put his finger on Ridgewood lacking "security controls and systems" for "many, many years."

Congratulations to the unnamed copy editor who wrote a bright headline on the jump page (L-6):

COINS: Prosecutor gives no quarter