Second look: 9/11 photo, IRS scam, Fidel, climate change

Richard L. Cerbo speaking at a Hackensack City Council meeting on Sept. 1. Cerbo, son of a former mayor, is running in a special Nov. 3 election for an open council seat under the banner of "We can do better." His name appears first on the ballot, which lists three other candidates.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With another front page dominated by Pope Francis' first visit to the United States, I'm taking a second look today at recent photos and stories that made their own big splash in The Record.

The photo on the front page the day after the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America was simple and moving:

A father flanked by his two sons, all wearing first-responder uniforms, bowing their heads as they looked at the name of a relative at the memorial in lower Manhattan (A-1 on Sept. 12).

Tall and short

But another photo from the same staff photographer, Chris Pedota, showed a rare gathering of officials at the ceremony, including Governors Christie and Cuomo and the former and current mayors of New York City (A-8 on Sept. 12).

Cuomo is only a few inches taller than Christie, who stood next to him, but I'm sure I wasn't the only reader who was reminded of how much more he has done for the people and economy of New York than the GOP bully has done for the Garden State.

Christie's regressive policies and unbending conservatism are the principal reasons New Jersey remains in the shadow of New York and so many other states.

Yet Editor Martin Gottlieb continues to assign several reporters and editors to Christie's so-called presidential campaign while largely neglecting the state's downward spiral.

Cars v. buses

At the other end of the photo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio towers over his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg.

Bloomberg may be short, but more than any other previous mayor, he tried and succeeded in taking back the city's streets from cars, and failed only in getting drivers to pay a special toll for entering Midtown.

That story was ignored by The Record, even though tens of thousands of North Jersey residents were affected by the relentless spread of parking meters, red-light cameras, bike lanes, bike-sharing stations and other restrictions.

In New Jersey and at The Record, the car is king, as can be seen from more than a decade of Road Warrior columns examining driving and drivers from every possible angle while ignoring mass transit and related commuting issues.

Mounting traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings, despite higher tolls, increases pollution and speeds climate change, but the Port Authority hasn't been criticized for refusing to expand rail and bus service into Manhattan.

It's not clear whether that coverage has anything to do with all of the advertising from car dealers and manufacturers in the Woodland Park daily, revenue that is helping to keep the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group afloat.

IRS scams

Kudos to Staff Writer Chris Harris for his riveting expose on IRS scams in New Jersey, including a sidebar recounting his phone call "with a group of IRS scammers," that led the paper on Sept. 18.

I may have missed it, but Harris could have made the point the Internal Revenue Service always sends notices about back taxes or tax underpayments by good, old-fashioned snail mail.

So just hang up if you get a call from someone claiming to be from the IRS.

Cuba coverage

The coverage of Cuba and Pope Francis' visit to the largest island in the Caribbean was especially weak (last Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday), principally because most of it was handled by long-winded Columnist Mike Kelly, who was sent to Havana.

Much of his reporting sounded like an echo of what The Record published the last time a pope visited Cuba.

However, the photos with his columns were supplied by a freelancer, not a staff photographer, in another sign the Woodland Park daily is cutting corners.

One story Kelly didn't cover was the meeting of Francis and Fidel Castro.

Castro, 89, has often been demonized by the media, especially in the years when The Record assigned two Cuban exiles, Miguel Perez and Liz Llorente, to cover the onetime Cuban leader.

Climate change

I chuckled when I read a Washington Post story on The Record's A-6 on Monday reporting "the two [Francis and Fidel] ... discussed their mutual concerns about climate change."

That same day, the editors gave front-page coverage to owners of gasoline-engine cars who spend many thousands of dollars to lower them.

Yet, I have yet to see equal time on A-1 for owners of purely electric vehicles and others drivers who are trying to help the environment.

Every time the price of gasoline drops, The Record trots out a celebratory story on how much drivers are saving, but ignores the impact of more driving on pollution and climate change.

More clueless reporting and editing on local bias, buses

Paramus police have asked drivers on Route 4 east to try and avoid having a medical emergency until CITYMD opens a walk-in urgent care center next to a Popeyes fried-chicken restaurant, above and below. The sign went up weeks ago, before the building with Dos Cubanos, a shuttered Cuban restaurant, was renovated and repainted.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record finally is giving Calvin Spann, an African-American veteran who lived in Rutherford and Englewood, the recognition he deserves with a front-page story on his memorial service today.

You might remember the editors literally buried Spann's obituary deep in the Local section last Tuesday.

That's the same day Page 1 was dominated by the photo and story of a hospitalized white pilot who crashed his crippled small plane in a Cresskill field, and had been the subject of two previous stories.

Spann, 90, was one of "the famed Tuskegee Airmen, the black World War II pilots who broke through racism to fight combat missions and escort American bombers across Europe," Staff Writer Todd South reports in a stirring salute to a fellow veteran.

Bias against blacks

Spann and other Turkegee Airmen "helped inspire the effort to racially integrate the U.S. military and, early on, set in motion the pent-up forces that would lead to the civil rights movement," South continues.

But the reporter and his editors are silent on the discrimination Spann may have faced after the war when he began "a career in pharmaceutical sales" and settled in Englewood, where he lived until 2006 (A-1).

That's no surprise 

Assignment Editors Deirdre Dykes and Dan Sforza, familiar with Englewood from the years they worked as reporters there, have taken a vow of silence on discrimination in the small city -- in the heart of The Record's circulation area -- where Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg has lived for decades.

At one time, the only jobs blacks could aspire to were as chauffeurs and maids to the wealthy mansion dwellers on Englewood's East Hill.

In recent years, county and local officials have been working to integrate Dwight Morrow High School, but the lower grades remain 99% black and Hispanic.

The Record spends far more time reporting about the premier private school in Englewood, Dwight-Englewood, attended by three generations of the Borg family, which owns North Jersey Media Group and The Record.

Bias in layout?

Is it merely a coincidence that a large photo of Spann at a Tuskegee Airmen convention appears on the continuation page next to the photo of a black Rutgers football player who was suspended "after a Saturday night incident" (A-6)?

That reminds readers that for decades the only way blacks could get on the front page of The Record was to break the law or be mentioned in a column on Black History Week.

Forced busing

In an editorial called "Buses over PATH," Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin tries mightily to stop the $1.5 billion commuter rail extension to Newark Liberty International Airport (A-9).

But Doblin seems unaware that until the antiquated midtown Manhattan bus terminal is replaced, officials could easily solve massive rush-hour delays by adding another dedicated bus lane into the Lincoln Tunnel.

Now, a single, reverse lane operates in the morning, funneling buses against traffic on Route 495, but no such lane is set up in the afternoon, when hundreds of buses parked in New Jersey during the day have to return to pick up riders at the midtown terminal.

No to drivers

Operating two dedicated lanes into the tunnel both morning and afternoon would ease bus delays, but the Port Authority fears angering motorists, many of whom drive alone into the city on commutes subsidized by their employers.

What other choice would these morons have but to sit in even worse congestion than now, finally giving long-suffering bus riders some relief?

Are the drivers going to try using the Holland Tunnel or the George Washington Bridge to reach their free midtown parking garages?

Who cares? Let them take the ferry or swim.

Local news?

You know there isn't much local news today when Sykes and Sforza lead their section with yet another story on a proposed public parking garage in downtown Ridgewood (L-1).

Staff Writer Chris Harris has probably written more stories about this single project than The Record has about a new bus terminal in midtown Manhattan.

Long legal battle facing Menendez is no popularity contest

The 1:10 p.m. NY Waterway Ferry from Manhattan approaching the Weehawken terminal on Wednesday. Even if you take mass transit to the ferry, it is one of the most expensive ways to commute. The round-trip senior fare is $16.50 compared to $3.80 round-trip for an NJ Transit express bus to the city. Garage parking in Weehawken costs an additional $14.

In Manhattan, the NY Waterway Ferry Terminal on 12th Avenue was built next to the towering Lincoln Tunnel vent. Red, white and blue shuttle buses are free.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

What's the point of comparing the legal battle facing Sen. Bob Menendez to a sports contest or looking for his supporters on the streets of Union City, the onetime Cuban-American stronghold?

Today, on the front page, the editors of The Record continue to minimize the federal bribery indictment handed up against New Jersey's senior senator and a wealthy eye doctor, Salomon Melgen (A-1).

The Page 1 headline -- "Hometown advantage" -- is even sillier than Friday's "Friendship under fire."

The long federal trial facing the defendants will be no popularity contest, and you can be sure none of the people interviewed by The Record will be serving on the jury that will decide Menendez's and Melgen's guilt or innocence.

Deep doo-doo

The truth is Menendez, a Democrat who now lives in Paramus, finds himself in deep doo-doo for accepting free travel, expensive hotel rooms and campaign contributions from Melgen, then pushing the doctor's business and personal interests with other government officials.

Like Menendez, most of the Cuban-Americans who lived in Union City moved out long ago, so calling it "Havana on the Hudson" in the first paragraph of today's story is inaccurate.

The editors had to send Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado to Union City with reporter Melissa Hayes because the former is one of the few newsroom staffers fluent in Spanish. LOL.

Christie record

More than five long years into the Christie administration, The Record finally discovers what everyone already knew:

Governor Christie is no friend of the environment, having filed only two new environmental damage suits, compared to the hundreds filed in the six years before he took office (A-1).

Local news?

The Record's Local section, including today's, often resembles a print version of Jerry DeMarco's Cliffview Pilot.com, but missing all the detail that Law & Order news site is known for.

Today, crime or court news appears on all but one of the six pages edited so poorly by The Record's head assignment editor, Deirdre Sykes, and her incompetent minions, including her deputy, Dan Sforza (L-1 to L-6).

On Friday, Sykes and Sforza used a filler photo of two cars and a motorcycle that had crashed in Paramus, but typically, the caption was devoid of any information.

Today, both Cliffview Pilot.com and The Record report one of the drivers, John Pavloski, 82, of Fair Lawn was issued a summons for cutting off the motorcycle and crashing into an SUV (L-3).

The role of an elderly driver in that accident highlights how The Record and Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski have routinely ignored the challenges facing older drivers and older journalists.

Just as Cichowski hasn't bothered to find out whether retraining is available for older drivers, the editors haven't bothered reigning in the confused reporter's propensity to commit error after error in column after column.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers for a discussion of how Cichowski screwed up his column on "The Car Book" last Sunday:

Reporter is unsafe at any speed 

Small minds

No one seems to have edited a story on L-3 today.

It reports a tapas restaurant that opened "along" East Ridgewood Avenue in Ridgewood was closed for fire-code violations.

The reporter, Chris Harris, says a notice is "adorning" the front door of Finca.

Later, Harris reports "the eatery resides in the former shell of the Stable [italics added]."

Second look

If you think that's embarrassing, on Friday, Elisa Ung rated Tom Yum Koong, a small Thai restaurant in Hasbrouck Heights, Good to Excellent despite:

"Leathery slices of beef" in a green curry, overly crusty spring rolls and crispy shrimp,  overcooked whole red snapper, unripe fruit in a dessert with banana, bland red-bean flavor in red-bean ice cream and no sticky rice with mango, which the overfed restaurant reviewer calls "the most famous Thai dessert."

The week before, she gave the same Good to Excellent rating to Grissini, the "wildly expensive" Italian-American restaurant in Englewood Cliffs.

Is Ung's judgment reliable or is it time to replace the dessert- and meat-obsessed reporter, who has been beating this dead horse since 2006?

New poll on Christie suggests he may very well be history

On a brisk morning in Paramus, the outside temperature of 10 degrees was tolerable, but the biting wind chill wasn't.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A new poll on Governor Christie's record low "favorability" rating could be just the excuse Editor Marty Gottlieb, Columnist Charles Stile and Staff Writer Melissa Hayes need to take their swelled heads out of their oversized anuses.

Typical of how The Record plays anti-Christie stories, the poll on the GOP bully being viewed "unfavorably" by a majority of New Jersey voters -- for the first time since early 2010 -- is on A-3 today.

Precious space on Page 1 is reserved for yet another in a endless series of speculative stories on how one of Christie's policies will affect his White House dreams (A-1).

Meanwhile, the Woodland Park daily has taken little notice of how the Garden State has become choked with weeds since Christie's ascendancy.

Port Atrocity

Thanks to the governors of New Jersey and New York, patronage, cronyism, conflicts of interest and favorable treatment have been hallmarks of the Port Authority for decades (A-1 today and Thursday).

But The Record's editors have spent little time reporting the bi-state agency's only response to increasing traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings has been to raise tolls, not to expand mass transit.

$541 v. $460,000

Two 20-year-old Paterson women facing robbery and related charges for allegedly shoplifting $541 from Lord & Taylor in Paramus could face jail time (L-2).

So, it's strange that former Ridgewood employee Thomas Rica was given probation for his systematic theft of $460,000 in parking-meter revenue.

Today's L-1 story on Rica's non-custodial sentence and how his thievery went undetected for so long is likely the first time since the crime came to light last year The Record has bothered to ask village residents for their reaction.

Reporters and their assignment editors are much more comfortable calling up so-called experts, consultants, prosecutors, lawyers, poll directors and just about anybody else except readers and other North Jersey residents.

That certainly has been the case since Christie took office and started waging war against the middle and working classes.

No editing

Staff Writer Chris Harris, who has been covering the Rica case from the outset, apparently gets no editing.

How else to explain Harris calling Rica's methodical theft of quarters a "crime wave" (L-1).

Also, Harris reports Rica stole "more than a million quarters," but an editorial puts the loot at "almost 1.9 million quarters" (A-8).

The story and editorial also can't agree on whether the original theft was $460,000 (story) or almost $472,000 (editorial).

Hackensack news

A story on Aldi seeking to build a supermarket at 480 Main St. in Hackensack, on the site of a vacant Sears appliance store, is good news to nearby apartment residents who now rely on the grocery section of Target, which doesn't offer meat or fresh fish (L-1).

Another story on the Local front today, about residents opposing a four-story apartment building near downtown Leonia, includes a map (L-1).

But what's the point of running a map, beyond filling space, if Broad Avenue, Leonia's main drag, isn't labeled?

Indoor picnic

I wonder whether freelance Restaurant Reviewer Julia Sexton will ever realize the artery clogging lobster poached in butter, foie gras pate and creme brulee she sampled at Picnic on the Square have long been out of fashion with the older readers who make up the bulk of her audience (BL-14)?

Instead, she says the 34-seat Ridgewood restaurant, the second from Executive Chef Christine Nunn, is inappropriate for "thrifty diners."

I read the review before glancing at the byline and realizing Sexton seems to be channeling The Record's chief restaurant critic, Elisa Ung.

There is no discussion of salads or low-mercury fish or whether the kitchen is willing to prepare food without butter and heavy cream.

And I'm puzzled by Sexton finding " a large pile of arugula, avocado and mango" under a carpaccio of bluefin tuna "superfluous." 

That sounds delicious, and I wonder if Picnic serves another raw fish, such as fluke, which isn't overly exploited and has far lower levels of harmful mercury.

Sexton, who is the restaurant critic for Westchester magazine, visited Picnic three times for the 2.5-star review, and took at least one guest.

That's a ton of money for North Jersey Media Group to spend for such an uninformative report to readers.

Christie to reporter: 'Are you stupid?'

The Record's editors have egg on their face for not pointing out a man who annoys neighbors by keeping chickens can buy free-range eggs in any supermarket.

It's hard work, but you''ll find amazing stuff buried deep in at least one of the front-page stories in The Record today.

Governor Christie appeared at a news conference in Monmouth County to address a water-service disruption, but refused to answer questions about his demand for a legislative session on Monday (A-10).

The story, "Christie orders special session," goes on:

"When Record reporter Chris Harris asked whether Christie would address the Legislature ... , he said, 'Did I say on topic? Are you stupid? On topic, on topic. Next question.'"

This explains why The Record's editors have never asked Christie about his weight or what the state is doing about childhood obesity. 

They don't want to be called stupid.

Tax-cut mirage

Another nugget you'll find deep in the story:

Under Christie's income-tax cut, "the benefit would not be seen until April 2013, and amount to about $50 for most filers in the first year (A-10)."

$50? That figure is different than what has appeared before. 

In February, The Record reported Christie's plan to cut income taxes will benefit the wealthy far more than the middle class, yielding only an $80 savings for someone earning $50,000 a year. 

No yolk

Also on A-1 today, Editor Marty Gottlieb devotes a lot of room to neighbors' complaints about a Fair Lawn man who keeps roosters and chickens in his backyard.

On A-10, the offending homeowner is quoted as saying the crowers and cluckers ensure his family eats eggs from free-range chickens that are treated humanely.

But the story fails to note he can find those eggs in any supermarket. And an editorial on O-2 about a Wayne man who keeps chickens makes no reference to the Page 1 story.

Fake estate

The main element on the front page today, "Bergen home prices come down to earth," doesn't discuss  the greed of bankers and real estate agents (A-1).

A Tenafly couple crow about locking in an interest rate just below 4%, but the story doesn't reveal the astounding amount of interest they will pay over 30 years: It will approach the price of the house.

Locals are yokels

Another Sunday Local section from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza contains no Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news nor anything from other large communities.

But a big part of L-1 is devoted to planned road work for Super Bowl fans in 2014 -- that's right, 2014 ; and L-3 has a story on college baseball. 

I guess there was no other local news, judging from the filler photo of a no-injury, car-engine fire on L-7.

Christie's fibs

On the front of Business today, BIZBLOG reports Christie's job-growth claim for New Jersey, made earlier this month, was wildly exaggerated, but that his deputy governor continues to use it. 

Maybe Gottlieb should be ordering an A-1 take-out on all of Christie's big and small lies since January 2010, and not laying an egg with Page 1 news on backyard chickens.

Editors discover new homeless species

Image by Arslan via Flickr

The homeless in Paris live in stylish mini-tents on the banks of a river.

I guess the homeless in Bergen and Passaic counties should be grateful a Wyckoff lawyer has gone to court to defend their "right to shelter" on public land. 

But they might be asking why Barnert Temple in Franklin Lakes and one of its members, Jeffrey J. Wild, are fighting for "dozens" of homeless people living in a "tent city" in far off Lakewood, and not for them (A-1).

This is quite a story in The Record today, complete with a spotlight bio box and a total of four photos, including one of a tent with the proverbial white-picket fence. 

Wild certainly can't be the only North Jersey lawyer doing pro bono work. Is the coverage payback for work he or his Roseland law firm might have done for North Jersey Media Group or the Borg family?

Maybe he helps only the rare, tented homeless, not the garden-variety homeless in North Jersey. Or, perhaps, Wild owns one of those multimillion-dollar shore homes, and finds the Ocean County-based court case especially convenient.

Again, Editor Francis Scandale and one of his Page 1 stories raise a lot of unanswered questions. 

More horse manure

In response to zero phone calls from readers, Scandale again gives A-1 play to a story by Staff Writer John Brennan on deals to privatize horse-racing tracks.

On A-8, an editorial calls for more state funding of legal services for the poor with nary a word of criticism for Governor Christie, a lawyer who seems to believe only wealthy people deserve legal representation.

Proud reporters

On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, Staff Writers Chris Harris and Matthew McGrath pull out all the stops on coverage of Memorial Day parades:

 "Practically every inch along the 1-mile parade route [in Bergenfield] was taken up by chairs occupied by proud Americans wearing patriotic tees. You could hear the oohing and aahing among the spectators as classic cars like the Mustangs and Challengers motored past."

Where are the news copy editors when you need them?

Mac Borg's hometown

I saw Englewood's poorly organized parade, and noticed big changes in that city's business district that have never been reported in The Record.

Ann Taylor, a national retailer, has closed its Palisade Avenue store, and the Blue Moon Mexican restaurant next door plans to take over the space. Will the Starbucks next to Blue Moon also expand?

The Mercedes-Benz dealer on Grand Avenue, where Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg once bought his tank-like sedans, has started an enormous expansion project stretching to South Dean Street.

But there still are plenty of empty storefronts on Palisade Avenue, including Green Line, a market that was paying a $25,000 monthly rental on the ground floor of a luxury apartment building, and an upscale bakery shop called La Dolce Divas.

A sign on the back door of Green Line says it is "closed for renovations."

Neglecting Hackensack

Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado, who was hand-picked for the job by Sykes, also has ignored hard times for Main Street, especially after The Record and NJMG moved to Woodland Park from 150 River Street.

Today, Alvarado has as story on a walking tour of Main Street that will focus on its past glory -- not its forlorn present (L-6).

Lots of hot air

Were you one of the 1,577 "lucky" New Jersey residents "to get" one of those portable air conditioners offered by a full-page ad on L-10 today? 

The call is free, but I don't see anything in the ad saying the unit is free.

The ad, like the editors, made you a sucker.