Editors boring us again with high school football, politics

The former Sears appliance store at 480 Main St. in Hackensack, above and below, is being demolished to make way for an ALDI supermarket, from a German company that also owns Trader Joe's. The store will be close to apartments on Main Street and on Euclid Avenue.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Deirdre Sykes of The Record is a fool if she thinks tens of millions of Democrats haven't decided whether to vote for Hillary Clinton or wacko racist Donald Trump.

Today's front page is dominated by an idiotic headline over another crappy Associated Press story that tries to inject suspense into the nominating process and Nov. 8 presidential election:

"Time to get onboard?"

In New Jersey and other states, the tens of millions of Democrats who were "Ready for Hillary" long before she declared her candidacy are poised in five months to make her the first woman to hold the presidency.

The AP story leads with a "fractured" Democratic Party instead of focusing on the all-out civil war among conservative Republicans on whether to back Trump and endorse his hate speech against Muslims, Mexicans and others (A-1).

Football 'war'?

Sykes leads today's paper with some nonsense about a high school "football turf war" that is only of interest to a couple of dozen parents and coaches (A-1).

She sure knows how to bore readers.

Mansions such as this one on the East Hill, hundreds of apartments on both sides of Route 4 and a large industrial section generate tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue for Englewood, yet the city's public schools are failing and downtown store vacancies are mounting.

Englewood election

A story on Englewood politics ends with Councilman Michael Cohen, winner of the Democratic primary on Tuesday, vowing to "limit tax increases" (L-1).

Sykes and Staff Writer Matthew McGrath want you to think Englewood is a municipal paradise where the only worry is high property taxes.

In fact, vacant storefronts, elementary and middle schools with few white students, and a high number of failing high schoolers tell another story -- one The Record ignores, even though North Jersey Media Group Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg has lived in a mansion on the city's East Hill for decades.

Rabbi gives Jews a bad name

Image by dougtone via Flickr
Englewood's schools, including Dwight Morrow High, above, can't afford to lose the $63,000 in annual property taxes paid by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on his East Hill estate.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of Englewood is a publicity monger and a hypocrite, yet The Record devotes a huge amount of space today to his shameless plan to seek tax-exempt status for his multimillion dollar East Hill mansion.


Boteach bought the estate in 2000, knowing the Libyan Mission to the United Nations was next door. He parlayed that into a million dollars worth of free publicity for himself in 2009, when he protested a planned visit by dictator Moammar Gadhafi.


The Record published five stories over the course of six days in August 2009, many of them featuring Boteach prominently. Later, the Better Living section wrote a glowing review of the rabbi's book on his relationship with Michael Jackson.


In recent years, Boteach withheld property taxes to protest the Libyan Mission's tax-exempt status in Englewood, but now he's proposing to take his own property off the tax rolls. This man gives Jews a bad name.


Editor worships rabbi


The story on Page 1 clearly shows Boteach has interim Editor Douglas Clancy in his pocket. From the size of the headline and the space devoted to his selfish plan, you'd think a major disaster had occurred in North Jersey.


Don't hold your breath for an editorial opposing Boteach's plan and urging the city Planning Board to reject the use of a caretaker's house as a synagogue. Let Boteach take Englewood to court.


Next, Publisher Stephen A. Borg will convert a room in his $3.65 million Tenafly McMansion into a newsroom, declare The Record and Herald News a non-profit and seek his own tax-exempt status.


More poor journalism


Another front-page story raises all the questions surrounding the month-old police shooting of Malik Williams, 19, of Garfield -- and answers none of them.


So, this is just a rewrite of previous stories by the lazy assignment desk under Editor Deirdre Sykes.


Why didn't the reporter talk to the owner of the garage where Williams hid and find out what he or she knows about the "tools" police said the escapee held in his hands as justification for killing him?


Today's story reports Williams was "found behind numerous objects" and "had allegedly armed himself with tools."


Taking on Garret


It's good to see Adam Gussen, the deputy mayor of Teaneck, is among Democrats who are weighing a run against arch-conservative Rep. Scott Garret, the Wantage  Republican who cowed Rep. Steve Rothman, D- Englewood (L-1).


Let's hope Garret will rue the day his district was reconfigured to include Hackensack and most of Teaneck, two of the most diverse communities in North Jersey.


Also on the front of Local, a story on the death of three seniors in a highway accident in Florida doesn't say who was driving nor quote police on what caused their small SUV to go off the road.

Where money is the root of all news

Image by Public Domain Photos via Flickr

"Follow the money."


That was the advice for two intrepid reporters trying to unravel the Watergate conspiracy way back when, and it soon became the first rule of investigative journalism.


But what gives with The Record's front page? Does Editor Francis Scandale and his minions save up stories so they can publish themed editions?


Today's theme is our broken budget and debt systems in New Jersey and the nation, and the politics they are mired in.


Too much politics


Readers' eyes are glazing over. They are sick and tired of reading about politics, but it seems to be the only way Scandale and his Trenton and Washington writers know how to tell a story.


Why doesn't The Record and other media recommend an independent panel on reducing the federal government's long-term deficit?


Why not report on how Governor Christie and Republicans in other states are behind an unprecedented shift of wealth to their rich supporters, while squeezing seniors and middle- and working-class families for all they've got?


Why not ask Republican leaders in Washington to document their oft-repeated, sound-bite claim that tax cuts for the wealthy create jobs or that closing tax loopholes will be a "job killer"?


Missing gonads


Where are your balls, Scandale and Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin? What does "P" stand for, putz? Are you taking your cues from your greedy publisher, Stephen A. Borg? 


Most of A-1 is taken up with another tale of malfeasance by members of an independent authority, this time lavish travel spending by the Bergen County agency that treats everybody's crap.


Does the story say why County Executive Kathleen Donovan can't do something to stop this or why she doesn't sue these bozos to recoup some of the $170,000 they blew over six years?


Haves and have-nots


As if the front-page stories aren't enough, a blurb on A-1 refers to the Local front and a story on Englewood's fiscal mess.


Mayor Frank Huttle III created a Commission on Budget and Finance, but why did he appoint members who are hedge-fund managers and insurance executives -- didn't they bring the nation's economy to the brink of disaster a few years ago?


Englewood's  haves and have-nots live on opposite sides of the tracks. It has hundreds of mansions on the East Hill, a small industrial section and new residential developments along Route 4.


Millions in debt


But the city has rolled up $55 million in debt, its downtown is struggling and its elementary and middles schools are segregated.


Maybe Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg and other wealthy residents, as well as the owners of commercial and industrial property, aren't being taxed enough.


Although Teaneck and Hackensack don't have the same extremes of wealth and poverty, they are similar demographically. Why are their finances in better shape?


I guess we can't expect the editors to connect the dots for readers.


Hey, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, thanks for another great section.


Belated nod


Travel Editor Jill Schensul is at her best when she isn't taking free trips and writing lavishly promotional stories for cruise lines and private-jet tours.


Witness her charming Travel section cover story and photos on Sunday about hidden treasures of the Garden State.


Now, if she just got rid of the idiotic photos of readers holding up the section on their trips, she'd have more room for such stories. As it is, she seems to be writing for an audience that is overwhelmingly white.

The media's power to deceive

Image via Wikipedia

Would you look at all those $100 million dollar smiles on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park today. Don't Governor Christie and Oprah Winfrey make a great couple? Next to them, the mayor of Newark and Facebook's founder are just beside themselves with joy.


Does young Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg (photo) know anything about New Jersey and what Christie has put state residents through since he took office in January? Does Oprah? If they did, would they really have the guts to smile in front of a nationwide TV audience about this huge donation to help Newark schools?

The news copy editor's heading over the photo makes me laugh. "A $100M GIFT WOULD MAKE YOU SMILE, TOO." We're not going to be getting any gifts. We're only going to get screwed by Christie and other politicians in one of the most corrupt states in the nation (despite all the indictments he crowed about in his years as U.S. attorney in Newark).

Editor Francis Scandale's decisions regarding A-1 photos -- dating to 9/11 -- will haunt him should he ever try to get a job at another newspaper.


Read the A-1 caption under the smile photo, read the A-3 story, read the A-11 editorial.

Why is the governor getting so much credit for this Facebook scheme, which might violate state education law? Why is there no mention of Christie's huge cuts in education aid, municipal aid, senior tax rebates, school breakfast programs for poor children and on and on, while the governor has given the elitist Borgs and other wealthy residents the tools to make them even richer? 


Christie just blew the state's chances at $400 million in federal education aid. Does this gift even come close to making up for that?


Does Zuckerberg know there are other segregated schools that could use his money, especially those that have been ignored by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes.

Hey, kid, come to Englewood, where Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg has grown fat on his profits in an East Hill mansion and raised the two Tarnished Silver Spoons running North Jersey Media Group and destroying The Record's reputation.

It's in Englewood where Zuckerberg would see lousy schools in one of the wealthiest communities in Bergen County -- a city that recalls, sadly, a plantation, with the rich, white folks living on a hill and most of the blacks and Hispanics living on the wrong, red-lined side of the tracks.

Today's Local section hammers home the drastic decline in local news, with more than half of L-3 taken up by the gossipy obit of Eddie Fisher and no news from Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and lots of other important towns.


A 10-inch story on L-3 tells us the school board in Sykes' town has lowered milk prices. That's earth-shaking news.


Bitch, bitch, bitch. On the front of Better Living today, food writer Elisa Ung complains about the lines, the waiting, the prices, the lack of grab-and-go prepared food and more at Eataly, a new, 42,500-square-foot Manhattan marketplace for Italian food. And she was being paid to go there.


I could have saved her a trip into the city, and she could have at least told her readers about a saner alternative right here in North Jersey -- Jerry's Gourmet & More on South Dean Street near Route 4 in Englewood, where the parking is free and the free samples delight shoppers. 

Jerry's carries most of the imported products sold at Eataly, plus lots of prepared food, including restaurant-quality takeout dinners with fish or meat for a low $6.99. Does Eataly offer free samples?  Ung doesn't say. More great food reporting.
  

Another odd newspaper

Image via Wikipedia

When I first looked at the big, black headline on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park today -- "66 killed in July" -- I thought, The heat did that? Then, I saw the word "Afghanistan" in smaller headline type and focused on the gauzy photo, which resembles art from the battlefield. I immediately lost interest, having seen TV reports on the U.S. death toll there all this week.


Then, to the left, an A-1 story about a 105-year-old woman from Englewood who has been chosen for a study on longevity and genetics carries the byline of Staff Writer Giovanna Fabiano, who covers the city. It is the second day in a row Page 1 has a story about a black person who didn't commit a crime.

Somehow, the reporter manages to avoid any discussion of the segregation this black woman experienced in Memphis and 1950s Englewood, when people of color could look forward to little more than a job as a maid or chauffeur for one of the rich families who lived on "The Hill." Of course, the East Hill is precisely where former Publisher Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg bought a big house years later and raised the two spoiled brats now running the former Hackensack daily. He made sure to send his kids to private schools.


At least, Fabiano is being consistent. She has completely ignored the segregated elementary and middle schools in Englewood, or reported on efforts to integrate them, if any. Were those schools the reason Publisher Stephen A. Borg bought a mansion in Tenafly?


The third story on A-1 today is a superficial look at the wonderful Jersey Shore and a TV reality show of the same name I have never watched. What I want to know is why even modest homes blocks from the beach are selling for more than $1 million, and why that's not in the story?


There is so much news from Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck and other towns missing from Local today, desperate head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes pulled out all the stops on filler, as her staff apparently were told to start a three-day weekend Friday, a reward for all their hard work.


L-1 carries a story by a business reporter that got lost on the way to publication. L-2 has another Dean's List. The center of L-3 has a photo of a truck-house collision, non-fatal, of course. Gee-whiz, would you look at that. Half of L-5 is taken up by expanded, wire-service obituaries of people we have never heard of. And L-6 has a story from distant Rockaway Township, where The Record and Herald News have been printed since, what, 2007. (Stephen A. Borg ended highly profitable commercial printing at the Rockaway plant and laid off 55 press workers.) Whew.


Also missing is a hit-run accident charged to a prominent Harrington Park landscaper -- that's the burg where Sykes lives -- but it was all over Cliffview Pilot.com on Friday. That town gets even less coverage than Hackensack, if you can imagine that.

Is Sykes trying to protect officials or friends in her town, or is she just lazy? Here, read the story for yourself at the following link:


Harrington Park landscaper arrested