Britain's anti-immigrant vote shows Trump-like dark side

Wacko racist Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, commenting on the Brexit vote during a visit to Scotland on Friday. (Credit: Jane Barlow/Press Association)

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In a state as diverse as New Jersey, a newspaper editor who ignores the dark side of Britain's vote to exit the European Union could be called a fool.

Both stories leading The Record's front page today focus on the so-called financial impact in Britain's former colony, even though Staff Writer Richard Newman says "it may take two years or more for the change to take place" (A-1 and A-6)

A third story focuses on "companies doing business with Britain" (A-10).

Doesn't Editor Deirdre Sykes know tens of millions of people in this nation of immigrants -- including those who live in North Jersey -- are horrified by a country that votes against immigration? 

In fact, Britons seeking to "control their borders" was the focus of coverage on Friday's CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley.

And on HBO, satirist Bill Maher said 52% of Britons affirmed "Pride and Prejudice" over "Sense and Sensibilty."

Trump in Scotland

Wacko racist Donald J. Trump, the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, caused a stir on Friday when he tweeted:

"Just arrived in Scotland.... They took their country back, just like we will take America back."

That was met with a barrage of profanity directed at the billionaire businessman, who is despised in Scotland, his mother's homeland, which voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU.

I can't find any mention in The Record today of Trump putting both feet in his mouth in Scotland.

Of course, at home he is campaigning against Muslims, Mexicans and other immigrants in his futile quest for the White House.

Maybe the moron will try to run for British prime minister.

Trump and Christie

Saturday's front page reported Trump is considering Governor Christie for vice president or another job, in the unlikely event he wins the presidency.

The Record is the only major daily in the state that didn't call for the GOP bully to resign after ending his own doomed bid for the White House and endorsing Trump.

After the terror attacks in Paris last November, Christie sought unsuccessfully to bar Syrian immigrants, even children, from entering the United States, including New Jersey.

Since then, The Record's editors have published two or three Syrian refugee success stories, such as today's glowing portrait of night shift baker Hussam Al Roustom (L-2).

Local news?

Sykes continues to focus on two former Don Bosco Prep athletes killed in a highway crash this week while ignoring Ioannis Kapantais, 69, of Park Ridge who was struck by a car and fatally injured while walking on a sidewalk last Sunday night (A-1).

No death notice or obituary for Kapantais has appeared in the Woodland Park daily, which today publishes long wire-service obituaries of obscure musicians to plug holes in another thin municipal news report (L-6). 

Criminal cases

The Local front is dominated by charges against five people in the November 2014 sexual assault of a female Ramapo College student after a frat party (L-1).

A second story reports a four-year prison sentence for Donald DeWitt, 65, a former Bergen County Academies teacher who had sex with a teenage student.

Also on L-1 today is yet another story promoting the wonders performed at Hackensack University Medical Center.

Glowing stories about the partially tax-exempt hospital are more numerous than municipal news from Hackensack, which continues to be neglected by Sykes and her minions. 

Lazy editors let Bush blast Christie for lousy job in N.J.

A sign at Whole Foods Market in Paramus thanks Hackensack Middle School students for "making beautiful artwork in our cafe." That contrasts with The Record of Woodland Park's boycott of school and school-board news from Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Is it really front-page news that Governor Christie has not done "big things" or that "New Jersey hasn't done well," in the words of the inarticulate Jeb Bush?

Yes. Readers of The Record haven't seen a similar assessment from the editors of their hometown paper in the many months Christie has been chasing his White House dreams (A-1).

In fact, Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi, one of those covering the Christie campaign, still hasn't asked the GOP bully the question on the mind of every New Jerseyan:

"Are you saying you want to run the nation the way you run New Jersey?"

Everyone but Editor Martin Gottlieb and Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin knows Christie is running the Garden State into the ground.

Bigger fish

Still, Gottlieb has bigger things on his mind today --the health of Target and other retailers who are among the paper's best advertisers.

That's why a story on insomniacs shopping at 2 and 3 in the morning leads Page 1 today.

Gottlieb wastes more space on "Real Housewives" bimba Teresa Giudice, who was released from a "prison camp," a non-story despite the best efforts of Staff Writer Virginia Rohan (A-1).

Local news?

There is so little local news in the paper today head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes devoted most of the L-1 front to a pissing match between Woodcliff Lake and Washington Township officials over a turn lane (L-1).

Law & Order news dominates Local, as it has on so many days in the past, and desperate layout editors had to run two wire-service obituaries and a gee-whiz photo of an overturned vehicle on L-8.

Editor teaches Obama a lesson

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An oyster festival in Asbury Park "will feature foods," The Record reports.

In  his speech to Congress, President Obama scolded Republicans for their "political circus" and chastised the media for their fixation on polls and the 2012 election as the nation's crippled economy limps along.


The Star-Ledger, The Times of Trenton, Asbury Park Press and most other New Jersey dailies put the president's call to action on the front page today, but Editor Francis Scandale wanted to teach Obama a lesson for questioning the media's judgment.


So, Scandale demoted Obama to Page A-8, and devoted most of The Record's front page to 10-year-old news about 9/11 -- in another example of how the editor's famously flawed news judgment is a disservice to readers.


Flights of fancy


Staff Writer Lindy Washburn did a great job on how a small Canadian town with a long runway became a refuge for 38 passenger jets when U.S. airspace was closed on 9/11 (A-1).


But does this decade-old story of international hospitality deserve nearly half of the front page and a full two pages inside? 


And are the unlabeled first 10 paragraphs of italic type on the front page a contemporary account from Gander, Newfoundland, or what?


Were other stories held to accommodate this behemoth?


The other elements on A-1 today are more flooding news and Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson's review of the billions of federal dollars spent on local security since 9/11, a story that consumes another three-quarters of a page inside.


Colorblind


The A-4 story on the swearing in of Anne Paterson to the state Supreme Court neglects to mention she was originally nominated to replace the only black justice, John Wallace Jr., whom Governor Christie declined to reappoint.


The A-11 story and photo of a "seemingly intoxicated moose" in Sweden is such a waste of space, the Woodland Park daily's wire editor must be tipsy, too.


Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is well-acquainted with the Port Authority's historical disdain for mass transit, so why doesn't he say so in an editorial criticizing the bi-state agency for charging a state agency, NJ Transit, to use PA crossings and bus terminals (A-22)?


Lazy, hazy days


You know Road Warrior John Cichowski is desperate for material when he devotes an entire L-1 column to one driver's Top 10 list of irritating motorists.  


Either that or he refused to leave the office and do some reporting on commuting problems. 


Cichowski leads my Top 10 list of irritating editors and columnists.


On L-2 today, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes runs filler on a Teterboro Airport Aviation Hall of Fame expo, one day after a preview in Better Living.


Monsy Alvarado, the reporter assigned to Hackensack, wrote more than 20 inches today on a discovery motion in an assault complaint against the South Hackensack police chief (L-3).


Eat me


In her 3-star review of St. Eve's in Ho-Ho-Kus, Staff Writer Elisa Ung tells readers the beef she sampled was naturally raised, but is silent on the pork.


She ran out of room after wasting the first five paragraphs of the review on the chef's resume and his previous restaurants (Better Living centerfold).


A photo caption has the chef's name under his wife's image and vice versa.


On Page 22 of Better Living, an ad on the 34th annual Festival of the Sea in Point Pleasant Beach recalls the editors' recent error two days in a row,  confusing that town with the borough of Point Pleasant.


To save face, Scandale ran no corrections.


An item on Page 26 notes the oyster festival in Asbury Park "will feature foods."

Jock editor finds his soul mates

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Editor Francis Scandale leads The Record today with Rutgers University officials he can call soul mates: Blinded by their obsession with team sports, they threw money at athletics while cutting academics (A-1).


Scandale hypes sports on Page 1 to fill local news columns head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her minions can't.


Or he grabs desperately at Law and Order news as a substitute for local news, as he does today with the A-1 story on an 84-year-old psychiatrist charged with illegally issuing pain-killer prescriptions.


Hyping the case


It's readers who need pain killers -- to deal with the clunky main headline from Liz Houlton's news copy desk, which suggests the Wayne suspect is a drug "dealer."


And what purpose does the map of Wayne and Lincoln Park serve except to fill space? Why did three reporters work on this exaggerated story? Why is this on Page 1, except as another example of the editors' shoddy treatment of seniors?


How did one of the insensitive reporters get away with saying the woman -- handcuffed and in leg irons as she stood before a federal judge -- answered with "a meek 'yes'"?


The Record and other media have succeeded in making "unions" a bad word, but why do commuters have to subsidize workers' jobs by paying higher tolls (A-1)?


Are the media suggesting voters choose their president on the basis of how quotable he or she is (A-1 and A-5)? They seem enthralled with that Texas bigot, Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who loves to talk about guns and shooting.


Absentee reporter


There's no substitute for on-the-spot reporting, as readers can see from the sixth or seventh Road Warrior piece in recent weeks on long MVC lines, this one an interview with the head of the state Motor Vehicle Commission (L-1).


On Tuesday, I spent nearly two and a half hours renewing my license in Lodi, and noticed a few things I haven't seen in John Cichowski's many columns:


The building has a capacity of only 80, so people have to line up outside. Two of the eight cameras weren't staffed, and you have to wait even longer, if you don't re-use the photo on your old digital license and want a new one.


It's not clear why your I.D. documents are checked three separate times, but this is the drill: 


You wait outside until you and about 20 to 25 others are told to go inside and get on another line, where your credentials are checked two separate times.


Then, you're given a number and told to sit down and wait some more -- until three to six of you are called up to get on a third line to have documents checked a third time, get your photo and pay.


If you want a new photo, you have to sit down and wait some more, up to 30 minutes, before your license is ready.


New Jersey residents have to endure this every four years, but in New York, license renewals are good for eight years. How backward can we be?


More Law and Order news


Besides the same-old Road Warrior column, every other story on the front of Sykes' Local section is a police or court story -- cementing the assignment desk's reputation as the laziest east of the California coast.


More police and court stories appear on L-2 and L-3, including major Fair Lawn news: a car crashed, causing minor injuries. 


Two stories from Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado riff on the same subject, the Police Department.


Alvarado covered the City Council meeting Tuesday night, but only reported comments about the police (L-6).


On L-7, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais recommends drivers use off-brand gasoline to save money. But has he researched whether cheaper gas is harmful to car engines?


Bring home the bacon


In Better Living, Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill promotes a shrimp recipe that calls for 10 strips of artery clogging , preservative-laden bacon and 10 ounces of beef broth filled with antibiotics and growth hormones.


So, the recipe she ran a week earlier for a healthy cold vegetable soup
was a fluke.


On F-1, a story reports food at a Demarest wine festival costs extra -- something omitted from an ad that ran last Friday in Better Living.

Laziness is infecting the newsroom

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Car dealers have threatened to pull their advertising if Road Warrior John Cichowski and other reporters at The Record of Woodland Park write about mass transit woes.

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg is assigned to cover the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Road Warrior John Chichowski is supposed to write about commuting problems.


So why is The Record publishing Opinion columns today by two outsiders on issues those reporters have been ignoring?


The laissez-faire laziness of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her minions is clearly infecting the newsroom.


The Record has long been an editor-driven newspaper, where Sykes and her sub-editors are supposed to generate most of the local and regional stories that appear in the paper, as well as handle the heavy editing.


Under Sykes and Editor Francis Scandale, the news copy desk has been relegated to a minor role -- headline and photo-caption writing -- and even warned against trying to do any meaningful editing.


The copy desk under Editor Liz Houlton is at its nadir, producing confusing and inaccurate captions, as in today's paper. Sloppy editing is everywhere.


Sleeping reporters


On the Opinion front, a column by Philip Barbara discusses the continuing impact on commuters of Governor Christie's decision to cancel the Hudson River rail tunnels.


On O-2, Columnist Brigid Harrison exposes Christie's double standard on how he treats public transportation agencies, especially the free hand he's given the Port Authority.


"Governor," Harrison writes, "the state has been yours for a year and a half now. It is time to man up and take responsibility for it: the good, the bad and the mistakes."


Slipshod editing


Editor Francis Scandale has petitioned Congress to conduct a census every two years, instead of every 10 years, so he'll be able to publish more of the results on Page 1, instead of having his staff do any local reporting.


The copy desk really screwed up today's A-1 census story on same-sex couples moving to the suburbs. 


The photo caption identifies one of three youths shown as the male couple's "granddaughter," but the text on the continuation page (A-6) says they have "three children."


The heart-breaking obituary of a 6-year-old New Milford girl (A-1) includes a  family photo (A-6) that recalls the paper's once-great photojournalism -- before Sykes reduced photographers to ambulance chasers.


Sykes' pride and joy


Today's Local news section is a joke, especially for a Sunday.


The big news from Cresskill is higher fees on pet licenses (L-2). 


The first paragraph of a story on L-3 says a car crashed "through" a town house, even though the photo shows nothing of the kind.


In Better Living, Staff Writer Elisa Ung is out of ideas for The Corner Table, her Sunday column on issues facing restaurant-goers, so she literally throws them crumbs (F-1).


In Real Estate, more poor editing detracts from a story on recent grads getting their first apartments. On R-5, a paragraph starts, "Like Arnett...." But the full name doesn't appear anywhere in the story.


If there is a lazier operation than The Record's assignment desk east of Kansas City, Mo., then it's the news copy desk.

You won't find any news here

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Route 9W in Cornwall, N.Y.

What's the point of running a long Page 1 piece on conflicts between motorists and bicyclists on Route 9W, if there are no plans for more police enforcement, better signs or a real bike path?


This "status quo" story could run anytime -- and it certainly doesn't belong on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park today.


Stale views


How long was this long and winding story in the can? Just think, the editors can freshen up the quotes and run it again next year or the year after when they have nothing better for A-1.


Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes specialize in this kind of static reporting, because it allows their minions and their reporters to stay indoors and use the unlimited calling plan. 


You won't find a lazier local assignment desk in the entire metropolitan area.


Calling all cars


Readers get another editorial on A-11 about service at the MVC, so I guess Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is still looking for a Broadway or Hollywood analogy for the Port Authority's onerous toll-and-fare hike plan.


In Sykes' Local section, a 14-inch story reports Rockleigh's purchase of a used firetruck (L-2). 


This is her idea of ground-breaking local news. 

A master blends sports hype with news

Image by kevindooley via Flickr

A brain scan of Editor Francis Scandale found a large amount of wood.

Look at that earth-shaking front page.


Staff Writer Jean Rimbach took almost as long to get her latest double-dipping "expose" onto Page 1 of The Record today as Derek Jeter did to get 3,000 hits.


Jeter may be the first player on the Yankees to achieve the milestone, but 27 others did it before him, according to The New York Times.


So, Editor Francis Scandale, is this really such a big deal that you'd order most of  A-1 for the story and photo, plus a mind-numbing three sidebars and a commemorative page? 


I'm throwing up my breakfast all over that page.


Master of hype


In more than a decade as editor, Scandale has shown himself to be a master at avoiding issues of importance to North Jersey readers, while he peddles a blend of sports myth-making and business as front-page news.


At heart, he's a jock who somehow found himself in charge of a once-great suburban daily, where he's more comfortable slapping other editors on the ass than patting them on the back.


Also on Page 1, a brief about Lodi quotes "Luna," with no first name or title.


Copping out again


I'm not sure how many months Rimbach spent "investigating" cop-cum-CEO Frank DelVecchio, but he's identified as "deputy chief" in the A-1 headline, as "Fairview police chief" in the lead paragraph and then as "deputy chief" again in the third paragraph.


Confusing. I scanned the entire story and also couldn't find anything on how much Fairview pays him for his public job.


Rimbach, a favorite of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, has gotten away with murder in terms of her productivity, compared to other reporters.


And even after spending months on a story, she often leaves holes, unanswered questions and, as in this story, she and Sykes can't get it ready for publication before the alleged conflict has ended.


Readers may recall that also was the case with the Rimbach-led investigation of lawman Michael Mordaga by several reporters. 


Sykes allowed the probe to drag on for nearly three years, squandered an  estimated $500,000 in staff salaries and only managed to publish a single story even jock Scandale didn't think was good enough for Page 1.


Here is a link to December 2009 Eye on The Record post about the Mordaga story:


Way too little, way too late


Lost columnist


On the front of Sykes' Local section, Road Warrior John Cichowski wastes an entire column on a body shop owner who can't find addresses, when all he had to say was, "Hey, Bill and everyone else with this problem, get a GPS."


Sykes leads the section with a wealthy Alpine jeweler who presumably blew millions on his fighter-pilot fantasy, only to crash his military jet in West Milford on Saturday.


Thousands of North Jersey residents who have been awakened by his noisy plane cheered. Look at that L-1 photo of a hook-and-ladder, ambulances and whatever. I hope all those first responders send a big bill to Vatche Agihayan, 46, for all the trouble he's caused.


Forest and trees


On L-3, a story on coyotes by Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado doesn't mention that Borg's Woods, a nature preserve, once was the backyard where Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg frolicked when he was growing up in a big, white house at Summit and Fairmount avenues.


Borg tried to sell the 14-plus acres to a townhouse developer before the county stepped in and purchased the old-growth forest in the late 1980s.


Now, the Borg family's plan to sell about 20 acres on River Street in Hackensack to Wal-Mart Stores for $15 million to $20 million is being cheered by city business interests.

From a local garbage dump to your plate

Image by samenstelling via Flickr

Hunts Point in the Bronx is no garden spot, but does a wholesale food market belong anywhere near old garbage dumps in the New Jersey Meadowlands, above?

Laughing out loud.

The front page of The Record of Woodland Park today is filled with a couple of lousy Jersey Jokes from Brooklyn-born Editor Francis Scandale.

Eating garbage

The first whopper leads A-1, reporting that one of the world's biggest wholesale food markets might relocate to a contaminated former garbage dump in the Meadowlands from the Bronx. How appetizing is that notion?

Garbage dumps are where food goes to rot, not where North Jersey foodies who want to eat local go for their next meal. I suppose a big selling point is that methane gas vented from the old dumps would ripen the wholesalers' fruit and vegetables.

This sounds like another one of the bargaining chips the co-op has used over the years to get a better deal from New York City. There's zero chance Mayor Michael Bloomberg will allow the Hunts Point Market to pull up stakes.

And what about that clunky headline? "Market looks at EnCap." Is that the stock market? Housing market? 

Mob scenes

The second Jersey Joke is the A-1 refer and F-1 story about Englewood native John Travolta, who will play a dead crime boss, John Gotti Sr., in a feature film claiming the Gottis are "victims."  The producers aren't saying how many murders Travolta as Gotti will have to commit or order. 

Obituaries of judges, Hollywood stars, musicians and most murder victims hardly ever run on Page 1, so what is the photo of a funeral mass for a Bloomingdale barber doing here? Couldn't Scandale come up with anything better from his award-winning photo staff?

This is a strong North Jersey and New Jersey front page -- but the editor allows the paper to be used by Hollywood and Hunts Point.

How much is a consultant to Governor Christie's education czar being paid -- the $60,000 in the lead paragraph on A-1 or the "20 grand a month" in the quote from Assemblyman Louis Greenwald?

Hole in none

An A-12 editorial on a female sports writer for The Record being barred from a golf club locker room talks about the importance of "reporters trying to get to the truth." About golf? Does the writer expect readers to believe that's a reference to reporters at The Record? 

Dirt buster

In his third column in a row on highway litter, Road Warrior John Cichowski is taking credit for getting the mess cleaned up (L-1) -- just as he crowed about passage of the anti-roof snow law after he wrote dozens of columns about that.

Imagine what he could accomplish if he wrote about decrepit local buses or the need to hike the low gasoline tax a few cents to repair the state's bombed-out roads.

You won't find any municipal news today from Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood, Ridgewood or many other towns. 

I heard the assignment editors who work under the micro-managing Deirdre Sykes took the day off to shop North Jersey's malls.

Where did editors find elusive reporter?

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"You won't have to worry about reporter Jean Rimbach," the Indian tells the colonist.

Did Staff Writer Jean Rimbach hibernate longer than the bears this winter? You can count her recent bylines on the fingers of one hand.

In some years, you can count her stories in The Record on an amputee's hand.

Where did Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes find her on Thursday to report and write today's Page 1 story on the taped conversation between the tower and a small-plane pilot who landed on Route 80 about six weeks ago?

Does she rest her head on her desk in the Woodland Park newsroom, take long lunches, monitor the news from home or just look busy? 

Rimbach is another example of how far you can go at the former Hackensack daily by doing little or nothing, as long as you are a pal of Sykes, as she is.

But let's cut to the chase. This landing wasn't dramatic and no one was injured. 

Why is the story on A-1? As I said when it was splashed all over the front page on Feb. 1, this is not Bergen County's version of the passenger jet that belly-flopped into the Hudson.

Hearing on Italians

Another A-1 story today reports Republican Rep. Peter King "declared that U.S.Muslims are doing too little to help fight terror in America." 

What's next, hearings on whether U.S. Italians are doing enough to help fight the Mafia, followed by hearings on what U.S. Mexicans are doing to help fight drug-cartel violence? Give me a break.

Sloppy copy editing

The AP story on the King hearing calls him "Republican Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y.," giving his party affiliation twice, like bookends.

The A-1 flooding story uses one of the most overused headline words around, "brace." It's a close second to "woes." But it's readers who have to brace for this edition.

In Staff Writer Zach Patberg's story on illegal Mexican immigrant Vidal Tapia, he reports "Tapia was beckoned" to the United States from a small town in Puebla state. 

He must have excellent vision to have seen his parents signaling or summoning him as by nodding or waving. Maybe they use Skype.

Two more corrections appear on A-2 today, in what seems to be an uninterrupted stream lately.

Home-rule wonder

You know home rule is a joke when somebody like Anthony Suarez can become mayor of Ridgefield.  

A story on A-10 reports a federal lawsuit seeking about $100 million in flood-relief aid was dismissed "almost a year ago," because Suarez, the former Saddle Brook Township attorney, "failed to file routine paperwork." Why isn't this on A-1?

Readers in Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and other communities are let down for another day by Sykes' Local section, which has no news for them.

Newspaper becomes P.R. machine

Image by DoktorSpinn via Flickr

The Record often crosses the line between news and public relations.

Editor Francis Scandale and Staff Writers John Reitmeyer and Charles Stile crank up their public relations machine for Governor Christie's antiabortion beliefs today with a splashy, Page 1 story and an L-1 column in The Record of Woodland Park.

This is essentially a photo-op. Christie isn't pledging to change laws that now give women the right to an abortion, so I guess the message to readers is the Republican governor has more regard for fetuses than for the middle- and working-class schoolchildren, adults, and seniors he has targeted with his drastic budget cuts.

At least Reitmeyer's story noted Christie's $7.5 million cut in women's health programs.

The two other stories on A-1 today are signs of the editors' desperation and the shallowness of news coverage at the former Hackensack daily.

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The lead is another in the seemingly endless stream of stories on the prospects of cleaning up four-decades-old Ford Motor Co. pollution in North Jersey. Of course, the untold story here is the weakness of environmental laws, the courts and the media to move this industrial giant.

And, at the bottom of the page, readers find yet another story about the long and winding road to education reform and teacher "accountability," a word Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes apply to everyone outside the paper, but not to themselves or their staff.

At least, we can be thankful we don't have to read another A-1 story by clueless Staff Writer John Brennan on the Jets cleaning out their lockers, plus a detailed discussion of their bowel movements in the wake of their loss to the Steelers.

Two embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today, including the listing of a closed restaurant as one of the places to watch Sunday's football game.

Local yokels

Instead of a Bogota resident as one of the 2011 PEOPLE TO WATCH, readers are introduced to an "entrepreneur" who was born and raised there. He owns a restaurant, nightclub and lounge in Manhattan I have never heard of. His story is "brought to you by" a luxury car dealer's ad above the fold on L-1 today.

The 2010 blizzard hit about a month ago and we've had four more snowstorms since then, but Sykes' staff is just noticing how many homeless people are exposed to the cold, and, apparently, that's because a homeless advocate and police are patrolling the streets in search of them (L-1).

The homeless story runs with a mind-numbing graphic -- containing weather data going back to the 1930s -- that tells readers this winter isn't as cold as they think it is. Isn't that sort of insensitive to the homeless, many of whom live outdoors?

There's no Hackensack news, nor stories from Englewood or Teaneck, but you'll find coverage of tiny Northvale and of North Haledon.

Where is the Bergen County news?

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Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage.

Garrett rakes in Wall St. cash

Scott Garrett? He's the Republican congressman from Wantage. Can you hear the cows mooing? Does he represent any towns in Bergen County? Well, the story leading Page 1 in The Record of Woodland Park today mentions only Demarest. The subhead was confusing, but there is a nice graphic inside.

The off-lead today is about Paul W. Bergrin, an attorney who allegedly murdered a potential witness against his client. And his office is where? Don't see it in the Star-Ledger story, though a second lawyer charged in the case is from Paramus.

Oh, here's some Bergen County news: Victorious high school footballers in their photogenic red uniforms all over A-1. Can't you see Editor Francis Scandale slapping the asses of the other male editors in the news meeting that decided to splash that big photo and caption all over Sunday's front page? "Way to go!"

So, that's it for Page 1. Were you riveted? Hey, look inside the A-section. They're trying to bring back sturgeon for all those readers who miss their caviar (A-10).

Local yokels

Boy, what a great Local news section head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes has given us, including the front -- most of which is devoted to a tour of homes and businesses seen on "The Real Housewives of New Jersey." Does Sykes identify with those bimbas?

Also on L-1 are a near-fatal accident, and Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski, who found another dinky street to write about. He performs his job of filling space brilliantly, while failing miserably at writing about commuting problems and mass transit.

The last L-1 story, down in the lower, left-hand corner, is about stimulus money providing expanded health care to tens of thousands of low-income patients in North Jersey. Why isn't this story on Page 1?

There is no municipal news in the rest of the section -- nothing from Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood or many other towns across Bergen, Passaic and Morris counties. 

In a few short years, Sykes and her incompetent minions have managed to turn a special Sunday paper into something quite ordinary.

No bargain

Kevin DeMarrais performs an important service as the paper's only consumer reporter, but how relevant are his experiences when he gives advice to readers? 

Today, his B-1 Your Money's Worth column urges consumers to negotiate, citing a woman who saved money when ordering checks and DeMarrais' own success in lowering his Cablevision bill. Pretty thin. How many of us could do the same?

Also on the Business front today is a story on "creative re-leasing" of large stores that only highlights how weak local reporting has become. The real question is why towns such as Englewood and Hackensack can't find tenants for empty downtown storefronts.

GOP flunky

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin gives Governor Christie another journalistic blow job with a glowing portrait on the Opinion front today, but notice how strongly it clashes with a bunch of negative letters to the editor from readers, one of whom calls the Republican bully "an embarrassment" (O-3).

Did Doblin deliberately hide the loyalties of Carl Golden, who wrote the Christie piece, identifying him only as an analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton College? 

Shouldn't readers be told Golden previously served two Republican governors -- as press spokesman for Thomas Kean Sr. for eight years and as communications director for Christie Whitman for three years?

Empty table

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's Sunday column is called The Corner Table, which suggests it is supposed to be about restaurants from a consumer's point of view. But she avoids writing critically about restaurants at all costs. 

Today, on the Better Living front, she tells readers where they can buy capon, duck and other substitutes for the traditional Thanksgiving turkey. Last week, she wrote about the paper's holiday cookie contest. 


Will anybody tackle the question of why so many restaurant menus are filled with so little useful information? Or how most restaurants don't tell you how the food they serve was raised or grown? Even portion size would be helpful, so you don't over-eat and over-spend.

I guess Ung is one of those reporters who doesn't like to put news sources on the spot.
 

Today's front page from the Newseum

 

Everyone drops the ball

Image by prefers salt marsh via Flickr

The Ramapo River is endangered by toxic dirt piles in Wayne, officials say.

The dominant story on Page 1 of The Record of Woodland Park today is a sad tale of business owners who have for more than a decade resisted efforts to clean up piles of toxic dirt near a river. But despite the involvement of half a dozen staff members, this takeout puts the focus on dirt, not people.

Let's start with the stupid headline:

Court orders fail

to move mounds

"Mounds" are inanimate objects, and I'm sure the judge didn't order them to do anything. Why isn't the focus on the owners of the business, and why are their names buried on the continuation page, as if all of this is some sort of bureaucratic snafu?

It's bad enough the reporter can't get the father and son involved in the business, Allan Rombough Sr. of Medham and Andrew Rombough, to comment. But was an effort made to contact their attorney for comment? And why doesn't the reporter address an obvious question: Why didn't the state or the town hire a contractor to remove the dirt years ago, during flusher times, and bill the business?

The Local news section is another laughable effort from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her minions. It's a typical Monday section: A charity walk and an awareness-raising walk are written about at great length and played out front, because that's all the desperate editors have.

An overturned car is the gee-whiz, "Accident of the Day" photo element on L-1, and more non-profit news fills all of L-3.


Columnist Mike Kelly is really angry at the imam behind the Lower Manhattan mosque proposal, and continues his smear campaign against him on L-1 today. 

Kelly's language is uncharacteristically harsh for a reporter who treats just about everybody else with kid gloves, including his pal, convicted felon and former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie "The Crook" Kerik. Is this an anti-Muslim tirade?


Editor Francis Scandale got rid of the paper's only black, Hispanic and female news columnist, but kept Kelly the Mouse. Amazing.


Don't look for any Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood news today.