Is Christie's chief booster finally having a change of heart?

Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon, above and below, lampooned the first presidential debate when "Saturday Night Live" kicked off its 42nd season this weekend. The New York Times calls the show "the NBC sketch-comedy institution."

Baldwin's Donald J. Trump pronounced "China" as "Gina," "Big Gina," and said "all the blacks live on one street in Chicago." McKinnon's Hillary Clinton looks as if she can see the White House from Rockefeller Center.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The biggest laugh line in the Sunday edition of The Record comes from Columnist Charles Stile, who has been polishing Governor Christie's image for nearly 6 years.

After a tedious Page 1 refresher course on the George Washington Bridge lane closures in September 2013, Stile says with a straight face, referring to the Christie administration:

"In the first two weeks of the [Bridgegate] trial, there was little testimony or evidence presented of decisions driven by a commitment to public service" (A-8).

"The trial so far has produced a counter-narrative to the meticulously managed image of Christie as a bold, bipartisan leader determined to restore New Jersey's reputation and finances."

Stile has got to be kidding. When has anyone ever said "Christie" and "public service" in the same breath?

In fact, he is one of those journalists who turned his back on readers, and used his column, often played on A-1, to do his own meticulous managing of the GOP thug's image.

The veteran Trenton reporter has consistently ignored Christie's more than 500 vetoes, his unilateral cancellation of the first large-scale expansion of rail transit in decades; and his cuts in state aid to NJ Transit that may have led to Thursday morning's fatal crash in Hoboken.

Need I mention Christie's battle against affordable housing, his repeated veto of a hike in the minimum wage or his looting of state public employees' pension system?

Baldwin's Trump referred to moderator Lester Holt, portrayed by Michael Che, as "Jazzman" and "Coltrane."

Bergen light rail

Also on Page 1 today is a report on elected leaders cheering news that the long-delayed extension of NJ Transit's light-rail service to Ridgefield, Palisades Park and Englewood may finally happen (A-1).

Light rail will offer commuters a direct ride to PATH service into Manhattan.

Today's story mentions many more hurdles, including the need to complete an environmental study and the cost, around $1 billion.

But Staff Writer Christopher Maag doesn't even mention the air-quality benefits of an electrified train line that promises to take cars off of the road and reduce the need for more diesel transit buses. 

The big losers will be commuters who live in Tenafly, where residents voted against the plan.

It isn't known whether they were influenced by The Record, which ran two long stories that demonized the extension of light-rail service.

Those articles were edited by Dan Sforza, now the managing editor.

Paterson history

A Page 1 story about Paterson's once-vibrant Jewish community of 30,000 and a dozen synagogues is one of two in today's paper describing happier times.

The Business front waxes nostalgic over the Paterson Men's Shop, which will close Oct. 15 after an 81-year run on Main Street (B-1).

But the Local front carries a report on Silk City's 8th gunshot death in two months (L-1).

The Record's editorial board hasn't bothered asking why Christie has failed to bring to Paterson the same changes in policing he put into effect to fight violent crime in less-populous Camden.

Local news?

Staff Writer Deena Yellin has a glowing report on new businesses and restaurants opening in downtown Tenafly (L-3).

This while The Record's local editors continue to ignore the causes for all of the empty storefronts in neighboring Englewood.

But there is a follow-up to large-scale fraud in Englewood school cafeterias.

"Privacy concerns" are being cited over the district's decision to install finger scanners to prevent students from swiping for others, who then received a free lunch even though their parents haven't paid for the meal (L-1).

This contrasts to The Record's Hackensack reporter completely ignoring the city's Board of Education, its schools and the poor quality of food served at the high school, where hundreds of students rely on a nearby pizzeria and fast-food options for lunch.

Opinion

Page O-2 in Opinion  is worth looking at for Brigid Harrison's column, "All woman were onstage with Clinton," in which she discusses how men treat women in power.

During the debate, Harrison reports, an unnamed Republican member of the House of Representatives tweeted, "She [Hillary Clinton] just comes across as my bitchy/wife mother."

GOP strategist Frank Luntz replied, "I'm sorry, congressman, but tonight Hillary is coming across as presidential."

Says Harrison: "Whether that guy likes it or not."

Food addictions

If I didn't know better, I'd think today's Better Living cover -- "Addicted to food" -- was a report on chief Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung.

That piece of chocolate layer cake in the illustration is just the kind of dessert Ung obsesses over in nearly ever one of the appraisals she has written in the past decade.

And she's an unapologetic carnivore, swooning over the "funk" of aged beef and ignoring how the animal might have been raised on harmful antibiotics to speed it to market.

Food critic 'transported' to Spain should have stayed there

How robust is the state's economy? In Hackensack, thousands of new and used Toyotas stretch from River Street to the Hackensack River. Today, The Record reports the unemployment rate of 6.5% in May is a full percentage point above the national rate.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Restaurant critic Elisa Ung of the The Record tries hard to persuade readers that dishes served at Sangria restaurant in Mahwah "transported" her to Spain.

But her lukewarm, 2-star review in Better Living likely will have many steering clear of the place, which actually put out a hilarious sign reading:

"Modern Spaniard Cuisine"

Ung found "soggy paella, "greasy steak and ... disappointing sangria" (BL-18).

And she hated three of the four desserts she sampled, claiming the bread pudding contained "undercooked chunks of bread."

Off to Spain

Still, she says, a platter of ham, cheese and nuts, and another dessert transported her to Spain, where the owner's father was born.

Why didn't she just stay there, and try the rabo de toro at a Madrid restaurant not far from the bullring?

My advice for the owner: 

Change your stupid sign to "Modern Cuisine of Spain," even though you have Cuban and other dishes on the menu.

My advice for Ung:

Your job is to weed out disappointing restaurants, and when you find one, a few paragraphs of warning would suffice.

Doom and gloom

Why comment on the weekly restaurant review, which is buried deep in the paper?

Look at today's sensational front page, which is soaked in blood, if you will (A-1).

And almost the entire front of the Local section is Law & Order news, including a spectacular photo of a burning, overturned vehicle (L-1).

Errors 'r' us

But the errors keep on piling up, as demonstrated by the four detailed corrections on A-2 today.

Other errors in Thursday's paper aren't even acknowledged, some are repeated and new errors appear today.

Staff Writer Deena Yellin continues to send mixed messages on the death of a 13-year-old Cresskill boy who was riding his bicycle to school on Wednesday morning, just as she did in her story on Thursday. 

Her first paragraph reports Young Rok Lee was "struck and killed ... by a tractor-trailer" (L-1).

But her second paragraph says Lee "collided" with the back of the tractor-trailer, suggesting he rode into it.

Can't get town right

Also on L-1, the caption with the photo of the burning vehicle reports "three Englewood police officers and the deputy chief" were involved in the rescue of the driver.

But when readers turn to the story on L-5, they learn the officers and deputy chief were from Englewood Cliffs, not Englewood.

Readers never learn whether the unidentified woman whose vehicle hit a utility pole was speeding, texting or putting on her makeup before she lost control.

Who was at fault in death of Cresskill teen on bicycle?

On Summit Street in Englewood Cliffs, these two women and other domestic workers must walk in the roadway, exposed to potential injury from drivers, many of whom exceed the speed limit. In Bergen County's backward home-rule communities, too many streets lack sidewalks, bicycle lanes and other measures to protect residents and visitors from being injured or killed in accidents.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Another poorly reported and edited accident story in The Record today leaves many questions about who was at fault in the death of a Cresskill Middle School student riding his bicycle to school on Wednesday morning.

A story on the Local front reports Young Rok Lee, 13, "collided with a truck" that was turning from Jefferson Avenue onto Grant Avenue, not far from the middle school.

But an update posted on North Jersey.com this afternoon contradicts the print edition, reporting "a tractor-trailer collided with him, ... according to police." 

On L-1, the print edition says Lee, who was wearing a helmet, "made contact with the back driver's side of the tractor-trailer."

Yet the photo with the story shows investigators lifting up a sheet on the other side of the trailer.

Botched story

Two reporters, Deena Yellin and Stefanie Dazio, worked on the story, but neither went to the scene.

Dazio, an overworked police reporter who is chained to a telephone, is supervised by lazy and clueless editors in the Woodland Park newsroom who have botched too many fatal accident stories to mention.

This wouldn't be an issue if local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza didn't rely on police, court and accident stories and photos so heavily when they fail to find any legitimate municipal news to fill their section every day (see L-1 to L-6 today).

Of course, the Lee family likely will hire a lawyer who will file a negligence suit against the driver, owner of the tractor-trailer and possibly the borough of Cresskill for allowing such a large vehicle on Jefferson and Grant avenues.

In a comment below the story on North Jersey.com, Liz DeRuchie, a transportation planner says:

"Unless he was doing a delivery, that truck was illegally on those residential streets. Very busy at that time of the day with several schools within a block and crossing guards at every intersection. These are side streets with weight restrictions. I want to know why that sized truck was on those streets. So tragic."

Antiquated streets

Today's sloppily reported story doesn't say whether Grant Avenue or any other street in wealthy Cresskill has a bicycle lane or other measures to protect students and others who ride bikes.

In general, Bergen County's antiquated streets, roads and highways are narrow and hazardous, creating too many potential conflicts among drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.

And despite levying some of the highest property taxes in the nation, many municipalities do a poor job of installing bicycle lanes, maintaining crosswalks, adding speed bumps, and creating turn lanes to speed the flow of traffic and cut air pollution.

For example, Forest Avenue in Paramus is a four-lane road where drivers often exceed the 40 mph speed limit and cut each other off to avoid getting stuck behind turning vehicles.

Today, as I was driving back to Hackensack, I was shocked to see a young couple walking in the roadway because a short stretch of Forest didn't have any sidewalk.

Doom and gloom

What is Editor Martin Gottlieb's excuse for today's doom-and-gloom front page, the kind of sensationalism you'd expect from a New York tabloid?

The main story reports drug overdoes were the leading cause of accidental death in New Jersey in 2014, claiming twice as many lives as auto crashes.

Let's hope lazy Sykes and Sforza don't start running photos of the homes where these deaths are taking place or where police use a rescue drug to save people "in the throes of an overdose" (A-1).

Big error

The Record acknowledged a major error on Wednesday's A-2, correcting a Page 1 story on Tuesday that said public schools face flat state funding for a seventh year.

The correction quoted the New Jersey Treasury Department as saying "state aid to schools is expected to increase from $8.5 billion in 2010 to a proposed $9 billion for the 2015-16 school year."

Church massacre

Let's hope The Record and other media play up the inadequacy of our gun laws and call for reform in reporting today's massacre at a historic church in Charleston, S.C.

The easy availability of guns is a national disgrace.

Does a suspect's 'butter knife' justify 17 shots?

The Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. Mass-transit reporting continues to lag in The Record, especially in the Road Warrior column by John Cichowski.

More than two weeks after a mentally ill Leonia man was shot dead by police, The Record today reports on clashing descriptions of the suspect's weapon from two witnesses who called 911.

One described a "long knife," but the second person told a dispatcher on Nov. 25 he was following a man with a "butter knife."

Police video and audio tapes were released last week and reported on A-1, so it's unclear why the Woodland Park daily is just mentioning this significant conflict or why the story isn't on the front page.

And head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes hasn't asked any of her reporters for a story on whether police were justified in killing a suspect with a knife, if there are other, non-lethal ways available to make an arrest.

Open wound

Today's story says three officers fired "more than a dozen shots" at Rickey McFadden, 47, of Leonia, but the family's lawyer was quoted last week saying the cops fired at the black robbery suspect 17 times (L-1).

The new development in the McFadden case comes a day after a Page 1 story discussed the "healing process" in the year since another black suspect, Malik Williams, 19, was killed by Garfield police on Dec. 10, 2011.

For some weird reason, Editor Marty Gottlieb ran a moving Carmine Galasso photo of Williams' mother holding an urn containing his ashes on Monday's A-4 instead of with the story on A-1. 

I guess Gottlieb didn't want to generate too much sympathy over the killing of a suspect who allegedly "rushed at" officers "with a claw hammer and a metal handsaw." 

And the story was edited so poorly by Sykes or one of her minions that nothing new appears on the front page -- it's all background information.

Even more remarkable, there is no mention of the McFadden case in the Williams story, despite all of the obvious parallels. 

A nod to Hackensack

Hackensack made front-page news, but not for holding the line on property taxes.

Detective Thomas Aletta and Capt. Danilo Garcia, were acquitted by a Superior Court judge of conspiracy and official misconduct charges for allegedly helping Ken Zisa, the police chief at the time, cover up a 2004 investigation (A-1 and L-1).

Here comes the judge

The lead Page 1 story today is another poorly edited account, this one of the two men Governor Christie is nominating to the state Supreme Court.

The name of nominee Robert M. Hanna, president of the Board of Public Utilities, doesn't appear in the text of the story on A-1, which is devoted completely to Superior Court Judge David Bauman, who was born in Japan to a Japanese mother.

Last time, Christie tried nominating a Korean-American and a gay black man, but both were rejected. 

More Jewish news

At the bottom of A-1 is another example of The Record assigning a reporter to a story in which he or she has a vested interest.

Readers are familiar with all those stories about Cuba and Cuban-Americans written by two Castro-hating Cuban exiles, Liz Llorente and Miguel Perez, who are no longer with the paper.

In recent years, Staff Writer Deena Yellin has been reporting on the Orthodox Jewish community she belongs to -- without disclosing her loyalties.

Today, in a front-page story on community-based therapy for the disabled, an Orthodox Jewish high school in Teaneck is mentioned in the third paragraph. 

A photo of the Jewish students appears inside on A-6, along with more information about the school's program. 

Apparently, no black or Hispanic students are mentioned in the story.    

In an effort to publish a photo of every gee-whiz, non-fatal rollover accident in Bergen and Passaic counties, Sykes today runs an L-3 photo of a Jeep Grand Cherokee that doesn't look so grand. 

Giant miscalculation

A concerned reader sent this comment to management about the Road Warrior's Sunday column on finding a parking space at the mall:

"Road Warrior offered his best-liked reader's tip of 'Bring a giant with you' just in case there is a parking dispute between drivers who block you, disabled or otherwise, from leaving a parking spot so that your giant friend can step out of your car and shout, as he reported, '[Fee-fi-fo-fum!] Move the damn cars -- now!'

"Besides the Road Warrior's best tip being  impractical, here's some common-sense advice for everyone that could have been reported.  Pull out a cell phone, working or not working, and calmly tell any driver blocking your exit that you will be calling the police on 911. You'd be surprised how quickly they let you exit your parking space as you seem to begin dialing 911. 

"No need to worry if the offending driver has or is a bigger giant than your giant friend, or has more road rage than your giant, or how you are going to waste more of your time and go back and shop, as the Road Warrior suggested, while waiting for the offending driver to leave.

"I will not comment on the many bad opinions and stories offered by the Road Warrior from readers about how to find parking spots.  If readers want to waste driving time, their lives, and money based on bad advice, which is less effective and contrary to transportation experts, so be it."

  
 

Hey, we saw all of this on the TV news

Image via CrunchBase

Many critics agree Steve Jobs of Apple exploited Chinese workers.

With a major battle brewing between Governor Christie and the state judiciary, why oh why is most of the front page devoted to an international story we saw on the TV news last night?


OK. Editor Francis Scandale of The Record may have been right in trying to localize the prisoner exchange in Israel.


But is Deena Yellin, an observant Othordox Jew, the only reporter who can handle the story, and does it have to run on Page 1?


Scandale seems to think so, allowing her to write endlessly about the Orthodox in North Jersey. Meanwhile, the Woodland Park daily neglects many other groups.


It reminds readers of how only Cuban exiles were assigned to news of Cuba or, more recently, two black reporters covered the opening of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington.


Put N.J. news first


The story from Israel is far less important to North Jersey than Christie defying the state judiciary, which is in the off-lead position on A-1 today.


The governor says he'll fight for a constitutional amendment to require 432 judges to accept his changes to pensions and health benefits. 


This is a major story -- with several potential sidebars -- but only one reporter is assigned to it. 


Readers have to wait for an editorial on A-10 to find out Christie is being somewhat hypocritical about his desire to control the salaries of public employees -- giving a pass to police and fire chiefs, among others.


His fight with the judges over pensions and benefits is his second, major confrontation with the judiciary. Christie succeeded in replacing the state Supreme Court's only black member with a white female lawyer.


Christie tax magic


On A-3, in a story about the first family's declining income, readers learn the Christies' property taxes dropped in 2010 -- while everyone else paid more.


Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section is devoid of municipal news from Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood.


The biggest news Sykes and her minions could find is the homecoming of a Saddle Brook man after four years in the hospital -- a story that was covered extensively on Tuesday's front page.


A couple of photos would have sufficed.


In another L-1 story, the controversy over reopening Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood is called "Bergen County's epic health care battle" -- which makes readers wonder why thousands of inches have been devoted to The Valley Hospital's expansion plans in Ridgewood.


In Better Living, Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill's single weekly recipe (sticky buns) calls for 22 tablespoons of butter -- prompting a mobilization of cardiac-surgery teams at hospitals in Englewood and Hackensack.


Second look


The best reading in Tuesday's Better Living section was Robert Feldberg's review of "The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs," a one-man play created and performed by Mike Daisey.


Daisey's play contradicts much of the adulation heaped on Jobs by The Record and other media after his death Oct. 5.


Daisey says Apple, under Jobs' leadership, was "the peak of American capitalism," but also a low point "in its manipulation of customers and neglect of workers."

Related posts

• Protecting Christie's police chiefs (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Christie is the butt of jokes -- not N.J. (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Another puzzler from Liz Houlton's copy desk (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

Protecting Christie's police chiefs

Image via Wikipedia

The Road Warrior tells reader Elyse Cohen of Fair Lawn
 to drop dead. Above, NJ Transit headquarters in Newark.

In her front-page story in The Record today, Staff Writer Deena Yellin does a masterful job of dancing around the enduring controversy over inflated salaries and benefits for the more than 100 police chiefs in North Jersey.


"All over North Jersey," she writes, "police brass are figuring out news ways to cover their communities as budgets get slashed."


What about the creative ways chiefs have covered their asses since Governor Christie came down like a ton of bricks on any school superintendent who makes more than his $175,000 annual salary?


Or how reporters like Yellin conspire with their clueless assignment editors to protect the fiefdoms of the 70 police chiefs in Bergen County?


Who missed this grammatical error in her story? "Hackensack's police department is among the few who claim not to have suffered any major cutbacks [my italics]."


Time to cap chiefs?


Why not a similar cap on police chiefs? Why has The Record ignored those inflated salaries and Christie's inaction for so long?


Editor Francis Scandale changes pace today with an A-1 photo from Fort Lee -- a non-fatal traffic accident from ambulance chasing Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi -- rather than go with an image from Greece, Pakistan or some other far-off place.


Read the plea for better NJ Transit bus service in Paramus in a letter to the editor from Elyse Cohen of Fair Lawn (A-12), then turn to another in an unending series of L-1 columns about drivers from the Road Warrior, as Staff Writer John Cichowski refuses to leave the office and cover commuting problems.


Please get off your ass, John, and ride a rush-hour bus or train into the city to see what commuters are going through every day, report it and then ask why it has to be that way.


Or try to take a bus in mid-afternoon and ask why the waits are so long for seniors and people who can't afford cars?


Local yokels


On the front of Local, Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado writes about her fellow Hispanics being exposed to air pollution. 


But on L-3 today, the byline of Stephanie Akin appears over stories from Hackensack and Maywood, two of the towns assigned to Alvarado. 


Has head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes assigned Akin to Hackensack?


Also on L-3, Staff Writer Richard De Santa reports Social Security is closing its Glen Rock office and transferring employees to Sussex Street in Hackensack.


Unfortunately, the Sussex Street office closed months ago. Now, the office is at 401 Hackensack Ave.


On L-6, a brief reports Christie has nominated Jack Zisa, Hackensack's mayor from 1989 to 2005, to the Bergen County Board of Taxation.


Kosher trap


In Better Living, Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill helps to perpetuate the myth there are "health benefits" in keeping kosher (F-1).


Although kosher poultry and meat usually costs more, much of it is raised with antibiotics or growth hormones and animal byproducts, and it's no healthier than non-kosher.  

Belly laughs echo amid news drought

Image via Wikipedia

Hey, Governor Christie, one of the richest men in the state, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, has some practical advice on how to spend the state's money. 

Don't you love Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.,  telling Governor Christie in The Record today he can get it for him "wholesale"?


Christie railroaded commuters when he pulled the plug on new Hudson River tunnels, and now he's railroading taxpayers by shoveling more than $1 million for legal and lobbying services to his pals at a politically connected law firm in Washington, D.C. (A-1).


"Governor Christie could have gone wholesale, but chose to go retail at a heavy cost to the state," Lautenberg said.


You'll have to plow deep into the Page 1 story, all the way to the continuation page to see Lautenberg's comment (A-6).


So the clueless news or copy editor uses not the Lautenberg quote as a pop-out at the top of the column on A-6, but a quote from NJ Transit containing an embarrassing grammatical error.


And why do Staff Writers Karen Rouse and Herb Jackson insist on sticking to their deadly dull recitation of the facts?  


Loosen up. Use that great Lautenberg quote in the lead to hook readers and stop trying to pass off your stories as exposes.


Organ grinder


Editor Francis Scandale came up with a doozie front page today.


Where did this story on a New Jersey organ-making family come from, and why is it on A-1? As for the other A-1 story, isn't everyone already tired of federal snitch Solomon Dwek, and the petty officials he bribed?


What would have been wrong with putting out front a scary story that affects nearly every reader -- the one on commercial air travel safety -- instead of burying it on A-7?


There's even a Page 1 blurb about an idiotic column by Tara Sullivan in Sports, comparing the U.S. Women's World Cup team to the '99 squad. 


How about comparing the Woodland Park daily to The Record in 1999, before the Scandale scourge arrived?


More Jewish news


Another Page 1 blurb, on a Jewish center, doesn't even tell you what town it's in.


It's in Tenafly, Staff Writer Deena Yellin reports on the front of Local. Isn't there something wrong with allowing an Orthodox Jew to write so many stories about other Orthodox Jews?


Readers often learn a lot from letters to the editor, more than what they learn from the paper.


James T. Gallione  Sr., a retired Westwood teacher, comments on the ceiling Christie has imposed on superintendents' salaries, but notes that in addition to a $175,000 salary, the governor gets a $75,000 cash stipend, a luxury box and other perks (A-10).


It looks like head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes -- or her stand-in -- put the paper to bed real early Monday night.


No July Fourth fireworks photos appear on the Local front or anywhere else.