Editors somehow miss plan to fell 100 trees in parking lot

In 2009, North Jersey Media Group and The Record newsroom moved to 1 Garret Mountain Plaza in Woodland Park, above, from 150 River Street in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Gannett Co. executives were so busy redesigning The Record's print edition and website, as well as laying off staff, they missed a controversial story unfolding in the parking lot.

According to Page 1 of The Record today, editors failed to report that Mountain Development Co. applied for a permit to cut down more than 100 trees in the parking lots of their building, 1 Garret Mountain Plaza, and two other office towers in Woodland Park. 

That means the public and environmental groups didn't have a chance to comment on a plan to remove the trees to make way for solar panels to power two of the three buildings.

A photo caption on 1A today shows a tree service worker removing a tree "last week."

The story also reports the building operators paid $3o,000 so Woodland Park can plant 100 trees elsewhere in the borough.

Bruce Springsteen

Jersey rocker Bruce Springsteen's comments on President-elect Donald J. Trump should have been on Page 1 today (3A).

"I mean, they're lies, they can't occur," Springsteen said of building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and other "Trump exaggerations," as the USA Today story puts it.

The story doesn't mention Springsteen refused to perform at the 2010 inauguration of one of his biggest fans, Governor Christie.

Food reporting

The Record appears to have given up all pretense of critical reporting on restaurants, food and nutrition.

The weekly restaurant review ended with the departure of Elisa Ung in November, more than nine years after she was hired.

Since then, editors have published "food crawl" stories that read like advertising.

Today's Better Living front focuses on "the best fireplace restaurants in North Jersey" or what the article calls "cozy local spots" (1BL).

"Baby, it's cold outside," writes Joanna Prisco, a freelancer who also owns a culinary business. "But inside these restaurants, the fire is blazing and fine food is cookin'."

Cheesy promotion

Most of Monday's Better Living front was devoted to Lisa Dosch, who has won "Best Cheesecake" at the New Jersey State Fair five years in a row.

Her cheesecakes, which happen to be served at her family's restaurant in Nyack, N.Y., cost $35 to $1,200 (with gold flake).

The enormous headline declared her, "Queen of Cheesecake."  

From a nutrition standpoint, that should have been, "Queen of Cholesterol."

Tens of thousands of readers watching their weight, cholesterol and sugar intake likely stared dumbfound at this promotion.

Springsteen & Fallon: "Gov. Christie Traffic Jam"

These are the traffic cones Governor Christie once joked about after George Washington Bridge lane closures engineered by the GOP bully's inner circle caused gridlock in Democratic Fort Lee. The governor said he personally set up the cones to close two of the three lanes in early September.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

In a "Born to Run" parody that aired Jan. 14 and has gotten more than 4 million hits on YouTube, Bruce Springsteen and comedian Jimmy Fallon lampoon the George Washington Bridge lane closures.

Of course, Governor Christie idolizes Springsteen, even though the rocker turned down an invitation to sing at the conservative Republican's first inauguration in 2010.

To see the video, click on the following link:

Gov. Christie Traffic Jam

Play video Bruce Springsteen & Bruce Springsteen rework "Born To Run" to address the Fort Lee, NJ bridge scandal. Bruce's new album "High Hopes" is available on iTunes now:… 00:03:47 Added on 1/15/14 4,022,426 views

Business editors blow Christie -- again

Bruce Springsteen with Barack Obama. Springsteen's old songs describe a weak New Jersey economy that isn't far different from what residents are living with today.

The Record's editors appear to have appointed themselves defenders of Governor Christie and the weak New Jersey economy.

Just take a look at the elaborate defense of the state economy -- under the guise of a news story -- on the first Business page today (L-7).

The story claims the "left-leaning" treasurer of Australia criticized Christie's economic policies based on outdated Bruce Springsteen songs.

Treasurer Wayne Swan "painted a picture of vacant storefronts,  jobless dead-enders and closing textile mills."

Office potatoes

I guess the business editors haven't left the office lately and seen all of the vacant storefronts in Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and other downtowns.

Nor have they driven past all of the abandoned mills in Paterson and Passaic.

The Record continues to report with a straight face that there's been a "Jersey Comeback" -- instead of labeling it as another big Christie lie.

This spirited defense comes only a day after New Jersey placed last among 30 states in replacing jobs lost to the recession. 

And the state's unemployment rate is higher than the nation's, despite millions in business tax breaks from Christie.  

Of course, let's not forget how Springsteen snubbed Christie's invitation to play at his inaugural festivities in January 2010.

Ho-hum front page 

Editor Marty Gottlieb packs Page 1 today with three ho-hum stories.

The glowing profile of state Sen. Joe Vitale doesn't mention how ineffective he and other Democrats have been in the face of Christie's conservative no-tax policies and his lukewarm support of mass transit (A-1).

Did any reader plow all the way through the takeout on two Bergen County police officers who allegedly tampered with evidence in a burglary case (A-1)? 

Blinded by the sun

An editorial praising Christie as a champion of solar energy mentions PSE&G's four-year-old solar loan effort, but fails to say the program ended last Dec. 31 and wasn't renewed (A-10).

On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, the big news is that more than 90,000 Orthodox Jews gathered in the Meadowlands to pray for lower property taxes and more Hebrew immersion charter schools (L-1).

Not so fast

At Chick-fil-A in Paramus, hundreds of conservatives lined up for their daily dose of harmful animal antibiotics (L-1).

As if chicken raised on antibiotics isn't bad enough, the breast meat is fried and some sandwiches include artery clogging bacon.

Instead of campaigning against same-sex marriage,  conservatives should boycott Chick-fil-A and other fast-food places that serve unhealthy poultry and burgers.

 

Are the editors defending Chief Zisa?

Superior Court Judge Joseph Conte in Hackensack is weighing a request from the Ken Zisa trial jurors to substitute White Manna hamburgers for their usual lunch of Persian kabobs.

The Record continues to publish story after story on the defense strategy of suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa, whose family has ruled the city for decades.

Editors lead the paper today with an "ANALYSIS" -- untroubled that Zisa's defense attorney apparently has conceded he is guilty as charged.

Although Publisher Stephen A. Borg abandoned the city decades ago -- moving the daily paper and North Jersey Media Group to Woodland Park and Rockaway -- Editors Marty Gottlieb and Deirdre Sykes seem to be sticking by Zisa's side.

The facts aren't disputed: 

Zisa is charged with coercing his subordinates to file false police reports at least twice -- in 2004, when his girlfriend's teenage sons were involved in a planned ambush, and in 2008, when she was driving dunk and wrecked the chief's SUV.

Insurance fraud

Zisa also is charged with filing a fraudulent insurance claim for $11,000, claiming girlfriend Kathleen Tiernan swerved to avoid hitting an animal.

Tiernan is on trial with Zisa, but now she is called his former, live-in girlfriend. Of course, Zisa (at least in 2004 and 2008) acted as if his brain is in his penis.

Those Secret Service agents in Colombia also acted as if their brains are in their penises (A-1 and A-4 today).

Will the predominately female jury at the Zisa trial identify with his defense lawyer, Patricia Prezioso, who is coming to the chief's rescue, just as he came to Tiernan's rescue?

I spent an hour in the courtroom on Thursday -- before I was driven out by sheer boredom. 

Poker faces

But the jurors were poker-faced as they listened to the cross-examination of Police Officer Laura Campos, so there is no way to know what they think of the defense case.  

With Stephanie Akin, the so-called Hackensack reporter, covering the Zisa trial full time, Sykes had to assign two other reporters to Hackensack news today (Local front, L-2).

On L-1, a story on the rezoning of 39 city blocks in and around the struggling downtown makes no attempt to identify who owns all of that property and who will profit from a new urban center.

Friday's paper

The Record has never been friendly to mass transit, and continues to ignore the thousands of NJ Transit bus riders who have to stand in the aisles on their morning commute to the city (A-3)

Governor Christie's eyes closed during an April 9 Bruce Springsteen concert. But the GOP bully claims he wasn't just sleeping off another big meal (A-4).

Road Warrior John Cichowski still hasn't admitted his own addiction -- to rewriting surveys and studies in a desperate bid to avoid leaving the office and reporting on commuting problems (L-1).

Boring kabobs

In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung tells readers nothing about the quality of the beef, lamb and poultry served at the forgettable Ravagh Persian Grill in Edgewater (Pages 16 and 17).

She is either endorsing the owners' focus on profits over serving quality food to customers or cares more about sampling the restaurant's desserts.

With so many Turkish, Syrian and Lebanese restaurants around, kabobs are among the least exciting dining choices in North Jersey.

Editor pairs bums with princes

Revealed: What Governor Christie scrawled on a piece of paper crammed into the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem, where he supposedly prayed.

Readers of today's front page in The Record get to choose from the lesser of two evils -- suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa and globetrotting Governor Christie, who continues to eat his Israeli hosts out of house and home.

Zisa -- part of the family that has controlled Hackensack for decades -- is being tried on charges of official misconduct. In addressing the jury, the prosecutor lumped in Zisa with "rulers and despots" (A-1).

But the story, by Hackensack reporter Stephanie Akin, says the "trial threatens to put a black mark on the legacy of a family that has been influential for deacdes."

What 'legacy'?

Where have Akin and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes been?

Hackensack residents long ago put a black mark on the Zisa family, which, in addition to the errant police chief, has supplied two mayors, two city attorneys and a deputy police chief.

In fact, Zisa's cousin, Joseph Zisa, is the current city attorney.

Late last year, the weekly Hackensack Chronicle badly beat the Woodland Park daily when it reported the city paid Joseph Zisa's law firm more than $500,000 in legal fees to defend the chief from police officers' lawsuits.

Bowing to Christie

For the second day in a row, Staff Writer Mike Kelly reports Christie's visit to Israel as if the GOP bully is a head of state --  not a governor who is doing his best to destroy the middle-class way of life in the Garden State (A-1).

Christie's visit is billed as a trade mission, but Israeli officials who have invited him to dinner complain the governor, first lady Mary Pat and three of their children hog all the falafel, schnitzel, hummus, pita bread and whatever else is on the table.

The governor keeps on asking when the beer and pizza will be served.

Poor Ireland


Why the Irish Catholic family didn't go to Ireland for Easter eludes many readers. If he is on a trade mission, he has so far struck out in attracting more Israeli businesses to New Jersey.


The editors and many staffers, including Kelly and Charles Stile, climbed into bed with Christie after he was elected, and their positive stories about the governor amount to so many journalistic orgasms.


In a related development, reporters have learned what Christie wrote on a piece of paper he crammed into a crevice in the Wailing Wall, where the rotund governor prayed the other day, prompting a New York Post headline: "The Whale at the Wall."


Christie asked for divine guidance on the sexual positions he could use to avoid suffocating all the journalists who are cozying up to him.


Weird front page


It's weird enough that Editor Marty Gottlieb juxtaposes Page 1 stories about two bums, Zisa and Christie, with two princes, a fallen Marine from Waldwick and Jersey rocker Bruce Spirngsteen.


But would you get a load of the thumbnail photo showing Kelly's phony, shit-eating grin less than 2 inches away from the thumbnail photo of a smiling Marine Staff Sgt. Joseph D'Augustine, who was killed in Afghanistan last week.


Of the four stories on Page 1, the reporting and writing by Allison Pries on D'Augustine coming home "a hero" was the most effective. And the photos were really moving.


'Coming home' echo

But the editors really dropped the ball on the Springsteen story, failing to remove a first-paragraph reference to the singer coming home to New Jersey -- right next to the story and reference to the dead Marine coming home.

Also, the reporter must be too young to know that Springsteen used an unknown Courteney Cox in the 1984 music video, "Dancing in the Dark," which showed him pulling her onto the stage to  dance with  him -- her first step to stardom.

In the lead paragraph of today's Springsteen story, the reporter makes reference to a "young girl on stage to sing with the band," but when she brings it up later, the girl is not named and there is no reference to Cox (A-6).

More screw-ups


On A-2, there are three corrections, including the mislabeling of photos showing two African-American men on trial in Paterson on attempted murder charges. 


It's clear that to the editors, all black men look alike.


On Monday, a front-page story on tougher license renewals was a waste of space, because drivers face that only every four years.


But a Road Warrior column today merely rubs sand in readers' wounds (L-1). 


Now, Staff Writer John Cichowski is, in effect, saying "never mind" to anyone over the age of 47, because they will be able to renew their license by mail starting in July -- without documentation.


F.U. to Hackensack


With Akin off covering the Zisa trial in Hackensack, Sykes and her assignment-desk minions have been unable to come up with any other news about the city.


But stories from Bogota, Englewood and other towns in recent days have explored their school budgets in greater detail than the short piece on the budget for Hackensack schools that ran a couple of weeks ago.


Sykes still needed a big photo of a minor accident on Route 4 to fill her Local news section (L-6).  

What the hell is wrong with 'mandatory'?

Take a photo almost anywhere in the borough of Fort Lee and you'll see what it's known for: Many high-rises. (Wikipedia)

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Health insurance for nearly everyone is long overdue, so why are the moneyed elite so upset that Congress is mandating that everyone buy health coverage or pay a penalty?

The Record and other media are using this controversy to sell papers, carefully avoiding any mention of all the government mandates we live under already (A-1).

The government forces us to buy auto insurance and, if we work, to contribute to Social Security, unemployment compensation and other funds. We must have a license to drive, and on and on.

Are the Supreme Court justices, who must have incredible health insurance, really the right people to decide the constitutionality of the national health care law?

Who is the Boss?

Don't you love that story on A-3 today about Governor Christie asking Bruce Springsteen to perform at the new Revel Resort and Casino in Atlantic City?

Too bad Staff Writers John Brennan and Jim Beckerman forgot to tell readers Springsteen refused to perform at the GOP bully's inauguration in 2010.

Or that Christie is taking credit for all of the "working men and women" employed by Revel who won't be able to afford to stay in one of the $400-a-night rooms.

Hanson and Borg

The other story on A-3 quotes Christie as praising the role of adviser Jon Hanson in Revel and American Dreams Meadowlands (formerly Xanadu).

But Brennan again to fails to mention the real estate mogul is best friends with Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg or that they co-own a business jet.

High-rise borough

What is all the hand-wringing and editorial angst over Planning Board approval of two 47-story residential towers in Fort Lee (A-1 on Tuesday and A-22 editorial today)?

The borough has long been known for high-rises, traffic congestion and a prime terrorist target, the George Washington Bridge.

Readers write column

On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, Road Warrior John Cichowski is back doing what he does best -- basing his silly column on reader e-mails and avoiding any exploration of commuting problems.

On Monday's front page, The Record previewed the start of suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa's criminal trial, but the testimony still is not under way.

Sykes loves Zisa

How embarrassing for Sykes. Stories Tuesday (L-1) and today (L-3) have tried to explain the delay, but Monday's story was premature and should have run the day testimony starts.

The Local section today and Tuesday had no Hackensack municipal news, but readers on Tuesday found non-fatal fire and accident photos on L-1 and L-2.

Desperate editors hype the news

Image via Wikipedia
A young Bruce Springsteen performing in Norway. A ticket-selling "disaster" for his New Jersey concerts is front-page news today.

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!


Would you get a load of today's Page 1 comparison between "horrific incidents seared in American memory" and two attacks, plus a third planned attack, on Bergen County synagogues.


"A loner from Lodi" has a certain alliteration, but does suspect Anthony Graziano, 19, really deserve mention in the same paragraph as "the Unabomber, the Virginia Tech shooter and the Anthrax attacker"? 


I stopped reading there, but the story goes on and on.


The hard sell


Half the front page in The Record is devoted to bias crimes that killed no one, clearly showing that head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes is out of control, desperate to fill space and sell papers. 


Three reporters worked on the story about new charges in the firebombing case, including Staff Writer Stephanie Akin, who has neglected her Hackensack beat for the last 10 days.


And if that isn't enough, part of the front page is devoted to a story by three more reporters on fans who had trouble buying tickets to Bruce Springsteen concerts. Now we know the world is ending.


Page A-2 carries another embarrassing correction -- for the second day in a row.


Flawed reporting


An editorial on A-13 today incorrectly blames a proposed $515,000 budget cut for the Englewood Public Library on the city manager, as did earlier news stories.


But the idea to cut the library budget -- which would hit minority families hardest -- was floated first in November 2010 by a group of wealthy residents from the East Hill, where Chairman Malcolm A. Borg lives. 


They were members of a budget-review panel that called itself  "Englewood F.A.S.T or Fiscal Accountability Starts Today Coalition." 


Here is a link to an Eye on The Record post: In Englewood, whites know best


Muni tunes


I searched for municipal stories in Sykes' Local news section, but had a hard time finding any among even more Law and Order reports on L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6.


Maybe most of the assignment minions took Friday off to make it a three-day weekend.


Mixed message


Contrast today's Better Living cover story on "stocking a healthy pantry" to the unhealthy food described in Friday's Eating Out on $50 restaurant review (Better Living, Page 20).


Why did free-lancer Jeffrey Page chose Stacks Pancake House and Cafe in Paramus for dinner and why did he spend only $27.42 on two meals, including tax and tip?


Page is The Record's original Road Warrior columnist. With his strong point of view and command of the language, he wrote circles around most of the reporting staff, including John Cichowski and Mike Kelly, two of the paper's weakest staffers.


Page also was obese for most of his working life. What kind of example does he set by ordering an artery clogging dessert to split with a friend that was composed of "two large scoops of ice cream and four large dollops of whipped cream with a brownie"?

Peddling a warped view of the shore

Image via Wikipedia

The media were dazzled by Governor Christie, but Bruce Springsteen seemed to anticipate the mayhem the Republican bully would cause. Springsteen refused to appear at the Big Guy's inauguration.

Staff Writer Mike Kerwick has an impressive four bylines in The Record today. He may be prolific, but I was never impressed with him as a reporter or writer.

He's one of several young people Better Living Editor Barbara Jaeger hand-picked to replace older workers who left her department under suspicious circumstances, and his shallowness shows in writing gimmicks he relies on.

Kerwick's obituary of E Street Band stalwart Clarence Clemons dominates the front page today, yet he tries and fails miserably to reinvent the form.

What's this nonsense in the first paragraph about sax man Clemons' arm being visible on an album cover, shore rocker Bruce Springsteen leaning on it and the ridiculous question posed by the reporter, "Who will Springsteen lean on now?"
 
Is the obit about Clemons or Springsteen?

Nothing in Springsteen's statement on A-12 even suggests The Boss is concerned about the reporter's fabricated conflict.

Sand in our faces

Kerwick also has the cover story in Travel today -- his second piece recently on that inane TV show, "Jersey Shore." 

In his first story, he hatched the ridiculous notion this so-called reality show "re-branded" the shore -- a treasure that needs no validation from MTV staffers or anyone else.

The reporter should take a look at readers who send in their travel photos each week (T-3), and ask himself how many have even the slightest bit of interest in following in the footsteps of these bimbos, including the grotesque Snooki.

School is out

Staff Writer Leslie Brody turns out a compelling account of failing School 10 in Paterson, including a rare discussion of the role of parents in student success (A-1). 

But why is this appearing at the end of the school year, and why is Brody comparing the Silk City school with Alpine Elementary? Bewildering.

Columnist Charles Stile exposes Governor Christie's rotten deal to make Steve Adubato, the son of a political power broker, the face of public television in New Jersey (A-1).

Adubato is little more than a straight man to Christie's rants about unions, public schools, taxes and the environment.

But Stile does have something in common with Adubato and other members of the media who continue to give Christie a pass on his weight problem and the poor example he sets during the obesity epidemic.

'Gov. Fat Fattie' 

And taking them to task is political satirist Bill Maher, who lampoons Chris Christie regularly on the HBO show, "Real Time with Bill Maher."

On Friday night, Maher noted the media have been harping on Rep. Anthony Weiner not being able to control his "appetite." Maher then showed a photo of  Christie and asked why the governor's appetite isn't an issue:

"He should be Governor Fat Fattie .... This man is a sumo wrestler."

Comedian Kevin Nealon chimed in, noting Christie "tried to tweet his penis, but got his belly."

Road rage

On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski lists every New Jersey "nuisance" but himself. 

The section contains stories from Englewood (L-1) and Teaneck (L-2), but nothing from Hackensack.

Pro and con

Three cheers for Staff Writer Sachi Fujimori's first-person account of karaoke in Paterson on the Better Living front. As usual, her copy sings.

I searched in vain for The Corner Table, the Sunday column by Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung. Did this tired excuse for a restaurant column get the heave-ho?

Chris Christie -- warts and all

Image via Wikipedia

Jerry DeMarco calls Governor Christie "Chrispie" and "Bully from the 'Burbs."

Jerry DeMarco has seen Chris Christie as an unabashed Bruce Springsteen fan, as a corruption-busting U.S. attorney and in the Editorial Board room. 

He's been especially keen in noticing how the editors of The Record have reacted to our Republican bully of a governor.

The Woodland Park daily's editors and reporters appeared to speak with one voice in unified praise of  Christie in the first year of his administration, even when he balanced the state budget on the backs of the middle and working classes, and gave a break to millionaires, many of whom support him.

But lately, there has been some push back -- even from Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin -- as the effects of his deep budget cuts on education and other areas become clearer. 

Now, DeMarco, the former Breaking News Editor of northjersey.com, is watching Governor Christie from his perch at Cliffview Pilot.com.

Here are DeMarco's latest comments:

I suspect this is just the beginning of “Chrispie” bashing from the middle floors of the Sixties-era high-rise fast by Route 80 [1 Garret Mountain Plaza in Woodland Park, headquarters of North Jersey Media Group]. And I can’t help but wonder if it’s personal, not business.

One thing I noticed about management at NJMF [stet], and that includes Alfred Dandy, is the belief that touting a horse in a race will secure insider access later on. Hey, it worked with Loretta Weinberg. If not for her, they wouldn’t have been on Joe Ferriero’s tail, or braved a three-year witch hunt of a former lawman more accomplished than they could ever hope to be.

Christie’s a different barrel o’ fish, though [stet 2].

Methinks His Primness Mr. Doblin isn’t taking kindly to standing behind the velvet rope. He folds his arms, taps his wing-tipped foot, purses his lips -- miffed that others are waltzing in while, day after day, he seeks merely a wee bit o’ coffee tawk with the Bully from the ‘Burbs.

No surprise to those who know me that I find most newspaper editors sycophants who care little about the “real people” they promise to serve and more about trying to stroke their own fragile egos.

(Just look at Scandale: Every other week, he “comes up with” another story idea after yet another dinner party chatting up the lawyerly friends of his barrister wife. More than once he responded to my push-back with: “Just find out for me, will ya?”)

Then there are true journalists, with integrity, intelligence -- and stones. If you haven’t heard, Greta Van Susteren blogged this week about promises Christie made -- to her face -- to do an “ON THE RECORD” cable show. Instead, she said, she was given run-around, twice.

“I have gotten that before from politicians and I sure don't take it personally,” Van Susteren wrote.

But she said Christie went out of his way one night to hand her a card with what he said was his personal cellphone number after he stiffed her the first time. Turned out to be his office number.

“It is a bit weird that he tracked me down to give me his number to book him and then avoids me,” she wrote. “Whatever.…”

Read more: http://gretawire.blogs.foxnews..com/whats-up-with-governor-chris-christie-and-behind-the-scenes/#ixzz1AJrbo1Cc

My point: If Christie is going to treat GVS that way, what chance does the man with Dick Cavett’s voice stand?

I used to call Chris my friend. I remember a night he walked into a huge room full of people waiting just for him and made a beeline for me. People were probably looking at me wondering, "Who the hell is THIS guy?" Chris wanted to tell me he thought a review I wrote in The Record about a Springsteen concert was “awesome.”

Besides his flair for flesh-pressing, Chris has a particular genius: He can look at a case file 5 minutes before court opens and get a jury to convict before lunch -- not through expert analysis of the evidence but by chatting up you, and me, like we’re all knockin‘ back Heinees at a barbecue.

I watched the ENTIRE Record editorial board eat from his hand while Chris was still U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. They asked so many times whether he was running for governor -- like rookie reporters thinking they could worm out the big scoop -- it eventually became embarrassing..

By the time we were through, he all but took their wallets, keys and watches. Yet, as he walked from the Hackensack corporate wing with Michele Brown (you remember her: she of the personal loan), the frigs and Frank were thrilled -- almost giggly -- from the experience.

Flash forward to now, as a bully out of his depth shouts down the good people of our state, then posts it on YouTube for God-knows-what-just-reason. Earlier this week, he yelled at photogs as he walked to his car, saying they were only waiting for him to slip and fall. And he wasn‘t kidding around.

Not for anything, but he's looking less the statesman and more the Kingpin every day.

After seeing a 3D-like photo of Chris standing tall, looking straight into the camera from behind what looked like a bay window in a suit jacket, the lone clasped button straining to stay tethered, I wrote a piece about the man‘s size.

I‘m reluctant to pull the trigger: I don't want to offend people with weight trouble. But there’s this: To lecture that we need to better discipline ourselves is difficult to take from someone who can't control his weight -- or ego. Seems the next time he actually listens to someone since he became governor will be the first.

“His ‘inner circle’ is getting larger, and folks are being pushed further and further to arm's length, including staunch supporters,” one of my best inside sources told me this week.  “There's a serious lack of communication, and I'm still not sure if it's due to the man himself shutting everyone out or his Trenton minions being so convinced of their own importance that they're closing ranks and insulating their guy to the point of absurdity.

“Either way, the result is that things are happening, decisions are being made, and folks who should be given a heads' up are actually the last to know.  There have been grumblings about this from others, so I know it's not just an isolated incident here and there.”

If he’s doing this to his own people, where does that leave Francis “Laughing Boy” Scandale, not to mention the sly Charles Stile and the diminutive Skull Cap in Suspenders?

I suspect these initial critical forays will, in the end, prove just the preliminaries. As the swelling tide of public opinion turns on Christie, and The Record finds itself more adrift from its garrulous friend, I’ll bet all kinds of arrows start flying from the building hard by the interstate.
 

See previous post, Money, money, money

To many, he's just another rich white guy

Image via Wikipedia

 
It was no surprise to see the obituary of Yankees owner George Steinbrenner on Page 1 of  The Record of Woodland Park today, coming a couple of days after  the top of A-1 was devoted to the passing of the public address announcer. But what explains this incredible excess?


The jock-itching, high-fiving, ass-slapping, male-bonding editors have simply run amuck, giving more space to Steinbrenner than to any other dead person in my memory -- presidents, included -- and I joined The Record in 1979 as a reporter. But if you are not a Yankees fan -- and we are legion -- he's just another rich white guy lionized by the media. The rest of today's paper sucks.


Truth is, Steinbrenner and Malcolm A. Borg, former publisher and chairman of North Jersey Media Group, have a lot in common. Both were born into wealth and privilege, both got much richer during their careers and both passed their businesses to a couple of spoiled brats.

Still, compare what the Steinbrenner sibs have done with the Yankees and what Publisher Stephen A. Borg and big sister Jennifer A. Borg, NJMG vice president and general counsel, have done with The Record, especially Stephen's emphasis on personal gain and Jennifer's expensive defense of what many see as long-established age-discrimination policies.

It's well-known the elder Borg is a reformed alcoholic, and many observers agree he lost control of The Record when he started hiring a series of out-of-towners for newsroom and executive jobs, the latest being Editor Frank "Castrato" Scandale, who probably orchestrated today's shamefully excessive coverage, while continuing to neglect local news.


The Steinbrenner eulogy covers almost all of the front page, continues through two and half pages of the main news section under a special banner, an editorial and an editorial cartoon, then picks up in Sports, with more than four pages of added drivel. I could just manage to scan the stories and photos, but read few words. Isn't Bruce Springsteen the real "Boss"?

Steinbrenner's life and death mean nothing to me and tens of thousands of other readers, likely the majority. And what is important to me, as a resident of Hackensack, continues to be ignored by Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes, who supervise a stubbornly unproductive news staff.


Look at today's Local section. Look at all the space devoted on the front to a cop who shoots a dog after he was bitten. Neither died. Page L-3 is all police or court news, except for a story on the postponement of a meeting in Englewood; it runs more than 10 inches. There's no Hackensack news today.

Local reporters like Giovanna Fabiano and Monsy Alvarado have become adept at writing long previews of meetings or hearings or court proceedings, then long stories when they are postponed. That is what passes for productivity under Scandale and Sykes. 


But is Fabiano working on a profile of Michel Bittan, the Englewood businessman linked to one of those alleged Russian spies, to finally tell readers just how influential he is in that city? Is she planning to write about the segregated schools there? 

And is Alvarado ever going to tell readers about the Hackensack budget and tax rate, or write about the new mayor? Karen Sasso's swearing in appeared in The Hackensack Chronicle on July 9, more than a week after it occurred.

Employee news


The name of Managing Editor Frank Burgos did not appear on today's editorial page for the first time, and presumably, he has returned to Pennsylvania. He won't be missed.

Monday, July 5, 2010


Last Monday's paper is nothing to speak of, nor was there any Hackensack news.