Gannett front pages are cheapening our local daily paper

On Nov. 6, 2013, The Record published this photo of two Paramus police officers who were hired to patrol Westfield Garden State Plaza, but only after a disturbed man with a rifle invaded the state's biggest mall two days earlier, fired shots that panicked hundreds of shoppers and employees, and then committed suicide. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If I didn't know better, I'd think veteran retailing reporter Joan Verdon has been assigned to write promotional Page 1 pieces about one of The Record's biggest advertisers.

On Saturday, below the fold, she reported "a video-gaming theater" with room for 30 people to compete simultaneously had replaced "a Venetian-style double-decker carousel" at Garden State Plaza in Paramus.

On Thursday, her front-page story on how shoppers could reserve $10 parking spaces appeared above the fold.

Neither story could be considered "news." 

But they expose how profit-hungry publishers like the Borg family and Gannett, which bought The Record in July, don't hesitate to cheapen the front page of what once was a respected local daily newspaper. 

Since last month's redesign of the print edition, readers don't know what to expect from day to day. 

Gannett editors seem to have lost sight of their mission as journalists to report on issues that affect state residents.

Instead, they continue to sensationalize the politics that divide the state and nation.  

Sunday edition

Today's front page has only three main elements -- stories about President-elect Donald J. Trump's arrogant son-in-law; Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno's belated bid to come out from behind Governor Christie; and Karen Koehler of Park Ridge, who is in complete remission after trying an experimental cancer treatment (1A).

The last is the kind of gee-whiz medical story The Record seems to specialize in -- instead of tackling the obesity epidemic or heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the United States.

A story on the alarming condition of the state's drinking water system is buried on 11A.

Saturday's paper

Saturday's front page also was narrowly focused: Stories about New Jersey Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen being picked to head the House Appropriations Committee, and a Passaic County imam again facing deportation charges.

Friday's edition, on the other hand, reported on issues that affect almost everyone:

How Christie has diverted hundreds of millions of dollars from environmental settlements to balance the state budget; a state appeals court ruling that stopped the governor from scrapping civil service exam requirements; and the uncertainty since the presidential election about bringing Syrian refugees to New Jersey.

Also, starting on Jan. 1, the right of adopted children to obtain their birth certificates and if not redacted, the names of their birth parents.

Local news?

Today's Local section carries a story on the Hackensack Board of Education's search for a new superintendent, but doesn't explain why Karen Lewis was fired unexpectedly in June (3L).

On the Local front, a column reports on a student movement to improve pedestrian safety on River Road in Teaneck, where a Chinese woman who held a master's degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University was struck in a crosswalk and killed on Nov. 21.

Staff Writer John Cichowski reports "the petition doesn't cover driving laws or conduct." 

But the so-called Road Warrior again treats graduate Weiqi Wang as so much road kill when he fails to advocate stronger laws to punish drivers with long jail sentences after they strike and fatally injure pedestrians in a crosswalk.

After Castro

The Record's coverage of the death of Fidel Castro has been lopsided, and today's Opinion front piece by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez is no exception (1O).

"We can only hope the death of Fidel Castro will be the first crack in the Cuban regime's stranglehold on power and that the people of Cuba will finally move one step closer to freedom," says Menendez, whose parents were born on the Caribbean's biggest island.

The senator downplays all of Cuba's achievements, and doesn't even mention how the 1959 revolution brought racial equality to an island that had long been strictly segregated.

Travel section

Today, Travel Editor Jill Schensul reports on how terrorism is influencing where we vacation (1T).

But why hasn't she ever discussed crime in Jamaica, Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands?

Next to her column today is a rave from the Detroit Free Press about "the first overwater bungalows in the Caribbean" in Montego Bay, Jamaica.

In one of many editing lapses in today's paper, the first paragraph says the bungalows "open Dec. 2" -- that was Friday.

In Better Living, a photo caption on 3BL starts out this way: 

"Christopher Bates of FLX Table in Geneva ...," so you might wonder why The Record is devoting nearly a whole page to a chef in Switzerland.

When you read the first two paragraphs of the story, you learn the restaurant is in Geneva, N.Y., in the Finger Lakes region.

Still, why is a New Jersey paper devoting almost an entire page to Chef Bates and the food he serves? 

Cubans live longer, don't worry about guns, crime or drugs

Pope Francis and Fidel Castro meeting on Sept. 20, 2015, during the pontiff's trip to Cuba (Credit: Alex Castro-AP).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's news, feature and travel editors and columnists are trying to keep readers from learning a dirty little secret about Cuba.

The island has long been the safest major tourist destination in the Caribbean.

Cuba doesn't have crime, gun or drug problems, making it a paradise on earth for its 11 million residents, and a great place to vacation.

In fact, the life expectancy on the biggest island in the Caribbean is 80, CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported on Saturday.

That's quite a feat for a country that is often portrayed in the news media as one of the poorest in the world, especially when you realize the life expectancy in the United States is 79.

In reporting the death of Fidel Castro, the Sunday edition of The Record is filled with negatives about the Cuban revolutionary, communism and life on the island -- a former U.S. colony (1A, 9A, 10A, 11A).

The headline over the huge black-and-white photo of Castro in 1970 reads:

"DEFIANT LEADER DIES"

Castro handed over the presidency to his younger brother, Raul, in 2008 and was in declining health for several years, so he really wasn't the "leader" of Cuba on his death.

Much of today's coverage reflects The Record's relentless focus on politics -- the same filter used to report on Governor Christie, the racially inspired congressional gridlock during the Obama presidency and the nasty White House campaign that ended with the election of wacko racist Donald J. Trump.

In 2000, on one of my visits to Havana, Cuba, I took a photo of three teenagers. They reflected the diversity of an island that until the 1959 revolution had been strictly divided between whites and blacks.

I made seven trips to Cuba between 1997 and 2004, and stayed with a family in Havana on most of my vacations. I rented cars to explore such eco-tourism as bird watching and scuba diving. Here, I saw a group of friends gathering at the Bay of Pigs on a hot January afternoon.

Redesign

Gannett editors launched a major redesign of The Record with the edition of Nov. 16, a Wednesday.

When you compare today's Sunday edition to the Sunday paper of Nov. 13 -- before the redesign -- the differences become clearer.

The redesign appears to use more white space and smaller type, especially in photo captions, but the type used for text is not as dark as before.

So, pages with big blocks of type make the paper appear grayer.

Headlines and captions were far from perfect before Gannett bought the Woodland Park daily in July, but now even more errors appear:

In the Page 1 caption on the death of Castro, his full name is used twice -- usually a no-no.

Last week, in a front-page promotion of a column on rehabilitation of Route 495 to the Lincoln Tunnel, the headline, caption and sub-headline all repeated the subject of the story.

From the website Mike Kelly Writer.

Columnists

The redesign also uses updated thumbnail photos for most columnists, such as the one that appears with two Mike Kelly columns today (1A and 1O).

The old photo, in use for nearly a decade, showed an annoying shit-eating grin.

Although Kelly's own website shows he has a lot of gray hair, the new photo makes him appear to have colored his hair, and he looks like he is holding up his head with his right hand.

Local news?

Although readers today won't find any news from the vast majority of the 90 or so towns in the circulation area, the Local front carries a long story about a single parking spot in Ridgewood (1L).

The Record has devoted move coverage to the village's downtown parking woes and solutions than to the entire school system in Hackensack. 

Restaurants

Many readers rejoiced at the departure of Elisa Ung, who was the paper's beef-and-dessert obsessed restaurant reviewer for more than nine years.

Ung consumed obscene quantities of mystery beef and other artery clogging food, all on an expense account, and showed extreme deference to celebrity chefs.

Still, Gannett hasn't replaced her.

On Friday, in place of the usual weekly restaurant appraisal, readers found a list of Theater District restaurants taste tested by Food Editor Esther Davidowitz and Robert Feldberg, the theater critic.

The week before, Better Living editors listed expensive North Jersey restaurants that were serving Thanksgiving dinner.

Editors see U.S.-Cuba 'division' despite their shared history

In the 100-block of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack's Fairmount section, this homeowner has defied attempts by city officials to have him repair his front steps and clean up his eyesore property since at least August 2007, when I moved into the neighborhood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Over today's Page 1 photo of President Obama listening to the U.S. national anthem in Havana, an unnamed editor wrote:

"DIPLOMACY AND DIVISION IN CUBA"

Even after reading the caption, The Record's readers will continue to guess at why the word "division" was used over the photo until they see the full story on A-7.

That's where an Associated Press report leads with the divide over "human rights" and the U.S. economic embargo.

The U.S. and Cuba have more in common than the media usually report, including a history of slavery, violent revolutions and the execution of people who were loyal to the losing side.

Until the 1959 revolution, Cuba was virtually a colony of the United States, and racial discrimination was strictly enforced in both countries.

It's appropriate that Barack Obama, our first black president, broke with the past, visited the island and met with Cuban leader Raul Castro.

The media also play up "political prisoners" while ignoring the many positives on the Caribbean's biggest island:

Free education and medical care, and an absence of school shootings and other gun violence.

Local news?

What are the editors of Local saying when they lead their section with another sensational crime story, the same one that ran on Page 1 both Sunday and Monday (L-1)?

And if the story of a Bergenfield couple whose 11-year-old son found the bodies after a murder-suicide is not sensational enough, turn the page.

Why is the story of a Wayne man who killed his girlfriend's dog in their house trailer given so much space (L-2)?

Those stories are a sure sign the local-news report is as weak as it was before Deirdre Sykes was made editor in January.

Cutting remarks

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz really disappointed readers on Monday when she didn't call out millionaire celebrity Chef Marc Forgione.

Still, it's not surprising that the chef at an expensive steakhouse is a male chauvinist pig who treats women as if they are just another cut of meat.

Davidowitz notes his new Englewood Cliffs restaurant has more fish and more salads on the menu than at his Manhattan location -- "'for the ladies,' Forgione said, who he believes are more health conscious" (Monday's BL-2).

What an antiquated notion (not to mention awful editing).

As in The Record's earlier promotions of Forgione's American Cut Bar & Grill, Davidowitz doesn't say whether the steaks served there for up to $126 are naturally raised.

Second look

Sykes, the editor, led Saturday's paper with a deal on the expansion of The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood.

"It marks the third time the issue, which has dominated village politics for a decade and consumed countless hours of public meetings, will come before the Planning Board," Staff Writer Mary Jo Layton reported.

Still, there is no explanation why Layton doesn't tell readers the hospital would expand within its own campus, and wouldn't be clearing homes and other property, as in the expansion of Hackensack University Medical Center.

Now a front page of no interest to beleaguered taxpayers

Hackensack is getting its own Wawa convenience store with a big gas station on East Moonachie Road and South River Street, above. The Wawa on Essex Street in Lodi, near the Hackensack border, opened about two years ago. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today roams far and wide -- from Cuba to Afghanistan to Washington and finally back to Little Ferry.

But none of the stories are of any interest to long-suffering home and business owners less than a month before their property tax payments are due.

Most, if not all, are paying higher taxes in their inefficient North Jersey home-rule communities, including Hackensack, where residents get slammed with many hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-exempt hospital, county and college property.

Local news?

Two developments at The Record seem to have taken the focus off of Bergen County, where the vast majority of readers live, and especially off of local-news reporting.

In 2009, The Record moved its newsroom to Passaic County and closed its Hackensack headquarters.

In 2012, the Borg family, owners of North Jersey Media Group, hired a high-flying New York Times editor and Manhattanite, Martin Gottlieb, to run their flagship paper, despite his limited local-reporting experience.

Irrelevant news

As a result, readers are seeing more and more front pages with a strong national and international focus, like today's.

And more and more space is devoted to Passaic County news, such as the five stories scattered throughout today's local-news section (Local).

For example, Road Warrior John Cichowski today has a second column in a row about Passaic County infrastructure that is of no interest to mass-transit users and most Bergen drivers (L-1).

Street fair

The name of the headliners who appeared at Hackensack's street festival on Saturday is given as "The Village People," "the Village People" and "Village People" on L-1 today. 

LOL typo

Does Grunge restaurant in Westwood serve food rescued from dumpsters?

There is no such place, except in a photo caption with a hilarious typo on the Better Living front today (The Corner Table on BL-1).

The sloppy work was corrected this morning in the North Jersey.com caption.

The photo, taken in Grange restaurant, runs with Elisa Ung's column on restaurants that use mobile devices or terminals to swipe customers' credit cards at the table.

Tipping?

But, as you would expect from a critic whose restaurant checks are paid by NJMG, the clueless Ung doesn't warn readers about how some terminals can get you to tip more than you should.

You shouldn't tip on the 7% sales tax added to your bill, but if the terminal gives you a choice of a 15% or 20% gratuity, that might have been figured on the total check, including the sales tax.

And if you go to a place with a liquor license, you probably don't want to tip on a bottle of wine, especially given the outrageous markups many restaurant owners take.

Bottom line: It's better to add the tip you want, not just hit the 15% or 20% button.

Anthony Cappola

An editorial on former Republican state Assembly candidate Anthony Cappola and his self-published, hate-filled book, uses a sub-headline:

"Former candidate has no place on council"

And the last sentence says, "...He should not be the same person he was last week, either: a councilman in River Edge" (O-2).

But he isn't.

A Page 1 story in The Record on Saturday reported Cappola "resigned as a River Edge councilman on Friday."

Cuba reporting

Don't waste your time with Mike Kelly's overlong, overwrought column on fugitives living in Cuba (A-1).

The article the vast majority of readers are interested in is the cover story on leisure travel to the biggest island in the Caribbean (T-1).

Unfortunately, Travel Editor Jill Schensul is winging it, because she has never visited Cuba, even though journalists and numerous U.S.-based groups have been allowed to go there for decades.

Nor does she report Americans have been traveling to Cuba for years from a third country, including Mexico, Canada and Jamaica.

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.

Editors are calling all Catholics and ignoring the rest of us

Teaneck Road and Forest Avenue, where two lanes merge into one, is one of the many traffic bottlenecks in Teaneck that frustrate motorists.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front-page coverage of Pope Francis' visit to Cuba and the United States drones on today for the fifth day in a row.

From Havana, Columnist Mike Kelly managed to push around tens of thousands of words about Cuba on Saturday, Sunday and Monday without discussing the impact of the decades-long U.S. trade embargo on the island's economy.

GOP bully

In other news, political Columnist Charles Stile is back with another effort to keep Governor Christie's struggling presidential campaign alive (A-1).

"Christie isn't showing any signs of leaving this race anytime soon," Stile reports, basing his conclusion on interviews with "political analysts" (A-4).

Readers say...

Of course, readers became disgusted with Christie months ago, but The Record's lazy assignment editors aren't about to interview any of them.

Their only forum is Your Views (A-8), where letters to the editor appear:

"His refusal to pay for the special costs for his security detail during his presidential run while allowing our state to further decline is inexcusable," says Vince Giovinco of Mahwah.

"The governor should stay home and run the state."

Hackensack news

In Local, the editors managed to find room among all of the Law & Order and Passaic County news for a story about Hackensack (L-1).

For the second year in a row, the state has approved a long-term bond that allows the city to settle another portion of an estimated $30 million in property tax appeals, Staff Writer Todd South reports.

Pope in N.Y.

On Monday, The Record's transportation reporter provided more tips and advice to commuters (and people going to see the pope) than has ever appeared in the paper at any one time.

Also on Monday's front page, The Record focused on drivers who pour tens of thousands of dollars into their cars to get them to ride inches above the ground.

As if that isn't bad enough, the story was assigned to Christopher Maag, the transportation reporter.

If commuters wonder why their awful experiences on NJ Transit buses and trains rarely make the paper, the answer may be that the editors think of a horse race, low riders and other fluff as "transportation" stories.

Stale Cuba reporting distracts from Christie's 'dictatorship'

11:30 a.m. FRIDAY: Getting a new driver's license at the state motor vehicle agency in North Bergen took about an hour from when I got on line behind a dozen other people, above, outside the building in a shopping center at 90th Street and Bergenline Avenue. Last Tuesday, I went to the Lodi agency, but was told the wait was at least 2 hours.

12:10 p.m. FRIDAY: I waited on an even longer line inside the building to have my documents checked, then was in sight of the camera, above. After my photo was taken and I paid with a credit card, I had to wait about 10 minutes more for the making and laminating of the license itself. The clerk said I may be able to renew by mail when my 4-year license expires in 2019. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When a pope visits Cuba, Editors like Martin Gottlieb of The Record and reporters like Mike Kelly always manage to find a long-suffering island resident who complains about the lack of free elections and yearns for democracy.

Yet, on the third day of Kelly's stale reporting from Cuba, The Record is silent on how special-interest money, a gullible media and voter apathy have made a mockery of free elections in the United States, including New Jersey.

Despite inheriting a Democratic majority in the state Legislature, Governor Christie has managed to get his own way and wage war on the middle class by executing more than 350 vetoes since early 2010.

And despite all his bluster, Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, a Democrat from Camden County, has failed to overturn a single Christie veto.

The GOP dictator won his first term by promising to lower property taxes and save millions through consolidation of inefficient local governments, but accomplished neither.

Page 1 news?

Local readers don't find much to interest them on Page 1 today unless they are Catholic or Rutgers football fans (A-1).

From Havana, Kelly files a rewrite of the stories The Record published when other popes visited Cuba.

The first pope to visit Cuba, in 1998, was John Paul II, so what it meant by the use of "historic visit" in front-page coverage today of Pope Francis' trip to the biggest island in the Caribbean?

Pope Benedict XVI also visited the island in 2012.

Local news?

Why does a fundraiser for the Girl Scouts get such big play on the Local front today?

It's because they staged their "rappelling fundraiser" in the same Woodland Park building where The Record and Herald News rent space for a newsroom and executive offices, though there is no mention of that (L-1).

That meant the lazy local assignment editors didn't have to move a finger to send a reporter and a photographer to cover "the big story."

After The Record moved to 1 Garret Mountain Plaza from Hackensack in 2009, the number of stories and photos on nearby Route 80 accidents and other neighborhood happenings rose dramatically.

Missing pages?

Today, the Business editors publish a "reporter's notebook" on the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce's first business summit (B-1).

Staff Writer Hugh R. Morley managed to cover a dozen speakers, "some saying the state faces an emergency situation, and even a 'crisis'," without once mentioning Christie.

Did Morley lose pages of his notebook or did the Woodland Park editors sanitize his story on B-1 today?

Opinion columns

On the Opinion front, don't bother with a second rambling Kelly column on the pope's visit to Cuba, but do turn to Brigid Harrison's piece under the headline:

"Christie learns where pandering gets you"

"The man who spoke about putting the country's domestic house in order occasionally comes home to New Jersey to a ransacked and ramshackle state, with little vision for how we can get our own house in order," Harrison says of Christie on O-2.

Hackensack Democrats try to claw way back into power

In June, Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin conferred with Lynne Hurwitz, who runs the Hackensack Democratic Organization, which suffered a humiliating defeat in the 2013 City Council election. Salkin lost his second job as municipal prosecutor as a result.

Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker is hoping to take back one City Council seat for the Democrats in a special November election, even though he was a member of the losing sate in 2013. The Record has done a poor job of exposing the partisan rancor that has dominated meetings for more than two years.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Behind the facade of Hackensack's non-partisan City Council elections, the two major parties battle for the hearts and minds of an apathetic electorate.

Only 3,000 to 4,000 votes are cast in the May balloting every four years in a city with about 20,000 registered voters.

Now, the city's Democratic Organization is trying to claw its way back into power after its entire slate went down in defeat in 2013.

Zisaville

Bergen County Democrats were part of the political establishment that kept the Zisa family in power for decades, filling jobs with loyal party members and contributors.

In a message to Bergen Democrats, Lynne Hurwitz, head of city Democrats, is asking for financial support to elect Board of Education President Jason Nunnermacker to a vacant seat on the council.

Nunnermacker was part of the Open Government slate, allied with the Zisas, that lost the May 2013 election to reformers who ran under the banner of Citizens for Change.

Council critics

Since losing the election, Nunnermacker, former running mates and fellow board members have appeared at nearly every meeting to attack the reformers, including Councilwoman Rose Greenman, who resigned, setting up the special Nov. 3 election.

In her message, Hurwitz claims Nunnermacker "has dedicated himself to improving his hometown," but provides no specifics.

Other candidates on Nov. 3 are Richard L. Cerbo, the son of a former mayor; businessman Jason Some, who was appointed to fill Greenman's seat; and Deborah Keeling-Geddis, a teacher's assistant in the city schools.

Any of them have greater appeal than Nunnermacker, 38, an attorney some Democrats refer to as "a turkey."

Today's paper

Editor Martin Gottlieb again devotes most of Page 1 today to two of The Record's burned-out columnists (A-1).

Writing from Havana, Staff Writer Mike Kelly perpetuates media stereotypes of the Cuban Revolution.

But Kelly didn't find any political prisoners.

Instead, he focuses on pianist Angel Cabo, who left the island because he needed "more freedom to choose the songs he wanted to play" (A-7).

The Record's copy desk dusted off a photo over line the paper used the last time a pope visited the Caribbean's biggest island in 2012:

"Pope's visit raises curtain on Cuba"

After putting together this non-story, Kelly likely will go in search of Jo Ann Chesimard, a New Jersey fugitive and a central figure in many of his previous columns.

Christie's 'brand'

Meanwhile, it's hard to believe Gottlieb would allow Columnist Charles Stile to report Governor Christie is campaigning for president as a defender of the middle class without challenging the GOP bully in print (A-1).

Gottlieb and Stile are being irresponsible by not listing all of the programs and policies Christie has used in his war on the middle class in New Jersey, and his repeated veto of a tax surcharge on millionaires.

Stile's columns often are the print version of the sound bite that dominates TV news.

Christie is allowed to go unchallenged when he claims the middle class are "getting plowed over by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton" -- exactly the opposite of their record.

Local news?

There are few municipal-news stories in Local today to tell readers how well or how poorly their towns are being run in return for all those property taxes they pay.

Except for the centerpiece on new immigrants, including a man who left Cuba nine years ago, the entire Local front today is devoted to Law & Order developments and settlement of a lawsuit against the Teaneck Public Library director (L-1).

Englewood schools

On L-3, no one asked the new superintendent in Englewood what he will do to integrate the elementary and middle schools.

Instead, Robert Kravitz was praised for his management and business skills, including starting a company that sold desserts to local restaurants.

Staff Writer Kim Lueddeke doesn't say where Kravitz lives, whether he has children and where he will send them to school.

Kravitz has been superintendent of the Englewood Cliffs district since 2012.

Sugar puzzle

Freelancer Julia Sexton warns readers that the chef at Grange in Westwood has given the New American menu "a sugary, pan-tropical spin."

One dish, Floribbean Shrimp, is made with spiced rum and pineapple cream sauce ($12).

The delicate flavor of the shellfish, Sexton explains, "struggled to be heard in all that sugar" (BL-16).

Yet, one of the two dishes she recommends in the 2-star review is creme brulee "whose warm crust of caramelized sugar yielded with a pleasing crack."

Sexton is no better than Elisa Ung, the dessert-obsessed chief restaurant critic.

With both, the legions of diabetic readers also are struggling to be heard.

Gun-control foes have dead cops' blood on their hands

In Englewood, a condominium development called The M is sandwiched between Route 4, above, and an industrial section, photos below, more than a half-mile as the crow flies from Palisade Avenue, the main shopping street.

Residents of The M have a view of gas stations, traffic, industrial buildings and parking lots. A real estate advertising section in The Record tried to convince potential condo owners their homes border Englewood's downtown.

Some of the condo owners have this million-dollar view.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Guns designed to maim and kill are so commonplace in freedom-loving America even a supposedly great paper like the Los Angeles Times doesn't bother questioning where a hardened criminal got the revolver he used to kill two New York City cops. 

The L.A. Times story on Page 1 of The Record today mentions the Taurus 9mm in passing, noting Ismaaiyl Brinsley -- whose criminal record dates to 2004 -- used the gun to kill Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos as they sat in their patrol car on Saturday (A-8).

Gun-control foes are stained with the blood of Liu, Ramos and all the other cops killed by criminals whose right to bear lethal weapons is supposedly protected by our constitution.

Irresponsible reporting

Instead of pursuing the gun-control angle, The Record's clueless assignment editors had a reporter call small-town departments in Ramsey, Leonia, Tenafly and Saddle Brook to see if they had plans "to double up on patrols" (A-8).

Also on Page 1 is Staff Writer Minjae Park's story on 25 new police officers in Paterson.

How out of touch can the editors be?

Do Editor Marty Gottlieb, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza really expect a town like Leonia to double its patrols?

That department and others are stretched so thin, they can't even protect pedestrians using crosswalks from getting run down or homeowners from burglaries.

Paterson lies

Park, the reporter on the Paterson story, wastes a lot of space on Mayor Joey Torres and Police Director Jerry Speziale, two political hacks who preside over one of the most violent cities in New Jersey.

"Fighting crime has been a centerpiece of ... Torres' agenda," the reporter claims, failing to mention the mayor and the Police Department were powerless to prevent the murders of two innocent young girls in July and September.

It's bad enough when Paterson officials basically lie through their teeth about what they are doing to fight crime.

But when The Record merely regurgitates those lies in a Page 1 story, there simply is no hope for this once-great newspaper.

Pathetic editing

You have to wonder how this kind of irresponsible reporting gets into the paper, despite all the checks and balances the editing process is designed to provide.

The Record's copy editors -- who are supposed to enforce high standards of accuracy, fairness and balance -- now appear to do little more than spell-check stories and slap headlines on them.

The copy editors' supervisors, who approve editing and headlines, are simply out to lunch most of the time.

Liz Houlton, the paper's six-figure production editor and supervisor of the news, layout and copy desks, also has failed miserably to enforce those standards.

For example, how did this clunky headline get into The Record today?

Pope raises anger
for role in Cuba deal

Christie on Cuba

Governor Christie is demanding the return of convicted cop killer Joanne Chesimard from Cuba, but not taking responsibility for cutting aid to Paterson, forcing the layoff of 125 cops (A-3).

And New Jersey is so broke because of the GOP bully's own incompetence, no state troopers were sent to Silk City.

You never hear about the murder of police in Havana or Cuban school shootings. And crime is low, making it the safest destination in the Caribbean.

Americans have to ask themselves whether a free society also must mean a dangerous society where criminals have easy access to guns and police officers are murdered in broad daylight.