Ebola is getting bigger play than the upcoming election

On Friday night, the streets around Clinton Place in Hackensack were packed with cars and costumed children making their trick-or-treat rounds as police directed traffic and watched over pedestrians. Bad weather cancelled Halloween festivities in 2012 and 2013.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Despite all of the front-page headlines, New Jersey still hasn't had a single confirmed case of Ebola.

Yet, Governor Christie and other politicians continue to run off at the mouth, and The Record continues to cover the epidemic that isn't.

Here comes Charles Stile to bore readers with another political column on the Ebola response of the GOP bully and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (A-1).

Another columnist, Mike Kelly, pushes hundreds of other words around on the Obama administration's response to Ebola, but loses readers almost immediately by flashing a shit-eating grin in his thumbnail photo (O-1).

Any journalist who allows his editors to use a dated photo that makes him look like a fool can't be taken seriously.

These Halloween scenes on Clinton Place were photographed on Thursday afternoon, above and below.

What about the election?

The editors haven't been paying as much attention to Election Day on Tuesday, when residents of the 5th Congressional District, which includes Bergen County, can get rid of Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, a Tea Party idol who is against just about everything (L-3).

An e-mail from challenger Roy Cho, an attorney in Hackensack, notes:

Daylight Savings Time Begins Today!

Make Sure You Set Your Clock Back One Hour

Election Day is Tuesday!

Make Sure You Don't Let Scott Garrett Set the Country Back

 

Since Elected in 2002, Garrett Voted Against:

 

Reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act

Equal Pay for Women

 Reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Protecting the Medicare and Social Secuity Guarantee

Reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act of 1973

Raising the Minimum Wage

Ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell

and a whole lot more...

Cho has been endorsed by The Record, The Star-Ledger, the New Jersey Jewish Standard and other newspapers, but Garrett hasn't received any editorial support in his bid for a seventh term.

Losing facts in the dark

Today, Road Warrior John Cichowski reports on dark street lights and highway lights, suggesting they are the reason he has completely lost sight of accuracy (L-1).

In his column last Sunday, Cichowski discussed reports of "teen violence" when he meant to say "violence against teens" tied those red decals on the license plates of young drivers, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

The page pits a fact-loving retired engineer against an addled columnist who has failed miserably to focus on issues important to commuters:

"In his Sunday column [Oct. 26], the Road Warrior continues to repeat mistaken and meaningless information and deadly, unsafe, and illegal advice for parents and teenagers about New Jersey's Graduated Driving License (GDL) laws and its impact on young drivers.

"Road Warrior indicated that GDL safety restrictions bar teenage drivers from loading cars with more than one teen passenger only if another experienced driver is present.

"The GDL law only allows for more than one passenger (teenage or otherwise), who are not dependents, only if a parent or guardian is present.

"He stupidly indicated that New Jersey has not documented any reports of 'teen violence' related to the GDL red decals on their cars.

"He should have stated there were no documented reports of violence against teenagers rather than teen violence, which means violent acts committed by teenagers."

See: Confusing teen drivers and parents

Why no one votes

A page and a half of Local is filled with the names of candidates in municipal, county and school board races, but for the vast majority, the paper hasn't reported what issues are at stake or what they stand for (L-6 and L-7).

Christie coverage

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, who is traveling with Governor Christie's entourage, continues to report on his out-of-state fundraising in the same, breathless tones you'd find in a press release from the Republican Governors Association (Page 1 on Saturday).

Hayes quotes so-called experts as she tries to nail down whether Christie, who heads the group, is going to seek the GOP nomination for president in 2016.

What about the perspective of environmentalists, mass-transit advocates, women and Democrats in the state Legislature who have been stiffed big time since Christie took office in 2010?

What about voters in northern New Jersey? Do The Record's editors ever think to ask them who they want as their next president?

Why is Publisher Stephen A. Borg's hair turning gray?

Shuttered businesses in Englewood, above and below, cast doubt on the strategies of officials there and in Hackensack to revive their business districts by building more apartments downtown, as reported today and Monday in The Record.

Landlords charging high rents could be causing business failures in Englewood in Hackensack, not the lack of foot traffic.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Stephen A. Borg of Tenafly is president of North Jersey Media Group and publisher of The Record, the company's flagship daily newspaper.

He lives in a $3.65 million McMansion bought with a mortgage from NJMG, and he's sitting on a pot of gold -- the 19.7-acre parcel that has been empty since the paper left Hackensack in 2009, as reported today in The Record (A-7).

That property might not be as attractive once Costco Wholesale closes its 20-year-old Hackensack warehouse store nearby and opens a bigger one in Teterboro (A-1).

But that certainly shouldn't be turning his hair gray.

You can clearly see the transformation in a photo on Page 112 of the October 2014 issue of (201) magazine, which celebrates the Dwight-Englewood School's Anniversary Gala in Englewood under the heading, "Giving Back."

Borg is shown with his wife, Monica, who appears in another photo on Page 102 of the same issue, one of four women in the "Best Dressed of the Month" feature.

Same old, same old

If anything, the hair of readers should be turning gray over the sameness of the front page today -- more boring news about the Ebola epidemic that isn't, and yet another tedious political column on Governor Christie's image (A-1).

The Costco story is the only one on the front page that could pass for local news, and that has been rumored for more than a year.

A bigger Costco is under construction near Teterboro Airport, about 3 miles from the Hackensack warehouse.

Second look

Road Warrior John Cichowski counts on his readers having memories as bad as his, especially when he repeatedly screws up the age of the George Washington Bridge.

Last Friday, Cichowski finally got it right, reporting the bridge was 83 years old on that day (Oct. 24) after four previous columns as far back as last December had already declared its age as 83.

According to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, the veteran reporter also messed up the name of the award bestowed on the subject of his column, Warren "Pops" Tashian, 99.

Cichowksi claims that in 2004, the Bergen County YMCA gave Tashian its "Man of the Year" award.

But the award has never been called that. The award is "Person of the Year," and Tashian didn't get that, either.

He was honored as "Most Inspirational Adult."

The Bergen County Y may add a "Most Incorrect Adult" award, and give it to Cichowski. 

See: Playing dumb and dumber again

Ebola hits newsroom, editors feed media hysteria

Park Avenue in Park Ridge also is called James Gandolfini Way. The Ridge Diner's coffee is good enough to drink black, but if you order a cafe latte, it will be served sweetened and with whipped cream on top. Yuck.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The irresponsible editors at The Record aren't even waiting for the first confirmed case of Ebola in New Jersey.

Joining the electronic media's hysteria, the Woodland Park daily today and Saturday broke out the big, black, doomsday headlines.

Transportation reporter Christopher Maag is back on the Ebola beat today, and the paper's medical writers also have entered the fray.

If you are already tired of Ebola stories, there isn't much else to on Page 1 today -- except another pedestrian political column, and a pissing match between two New Jersey architectural schools.

Is Editor Martin Gottlieb, the worldly former Timesman, this boring in person?

Joining Maag in not covering his beat is Road Warrior John Cichowski, whose L-1 column today again strays far from commuting issues.

Last Sunday, the Road Warrior column predicted Route 20 construction could be finished by December, as reflected in the headline and text, but others believe it will take longer.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior issues another dumb prediction

Noise makers

I get a kick out of photos The Record runs publicizing the charity work of Harley-Davidson owners, who cavalierly break every anti-noise ordinance on the books.

Today, the Bergen County Harley Owners Group is shown "during a benefit for the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals" (L-2).

So, modifying their motorcycle mufflers to be as loud as possible and cruelty to the eardrums of humans is OK. 

Word pusher

It must be hard being Mike Kelly, to echo the first line of the reporter's piece on Governor Christie (O-1).

Kelly rehashes the controversy over Christie's insensitive remarks about being tired of the Washington debate over raising the minimum wage.

But the burned-out columnist can't muster an opinion, and is reluctant to condemn the GOP bully, who has waged war on New Jersey's middle and working classes, and even vetoed a hike in the state's minimum wage.

"He needs to open his eyes," Kelly says lamely about Christie.

Kelly will be celebrating his 4oth year at The Record next year, if you can believe that.

'Cho in the 5th'

The Record's Editorial Board has finally come to its senses about Scott Garrett, the conservative Republican who has represented the 5th Congressional District for the past 12 years.

Today, an editorial endorses Democrat Roy Cho of Hackensack on Nov. 4 (O-2).

The district runs from the Delaware to the Hudson, and includes Bergen County.

Garrett voted "no" on the Violence Against Women Act and to end the government shutdown last year.

He also initially opposed federal Sandy aid, but lied about it in campaign literature.

Cho's highest priority as a freshman congressman would be transportation, an issue that has been neglected by The Record and ignored by Garrett and Christie.

Saturday's paper

The Ebola coverage on Saturday's front page mentioned twice that Hackensack University Medical Center's mobile satellite emergency department is parked "behind a McDonald's, in fact."

Is there a connection?

Symptoms of the African virus include "diarrhea, vomiting [and] stomach pain." 

They sound a lot like what McDonald's customers experience after eating the low-quality beef and other food.

Editors taunt Hackensack with medical center's success

One of NJ Transit's roomy double-decker trains pulling into the Clifton station last Monday. Clifton is one of the few stations with a free parking lot for commuters.

Upper deck or lower? Avoid the train's poorly designed upper deck, with its low, head-cracking metal luggage rack. The lower deck, shown here, is a far better bet.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's breathless front-page account today of another Hackensack University Medical Center expansion examines the deal from every angle except the one that means the most to residents of its host city.

"The new organization ... will employ 23,400 people and have more than $3.4 billion in revenues ...," the story reports in the second paragraph (A-1).

The medical center's building boom in Hackensack fundamentally changed the residential character of the neighborhood, and the city has little to show in terms of property tax revenue.

HUMC is non-profit, and hasn't returned anything in lieu of the tens of millions of dollars in taxes denied to the city.

Businesses and homeowners pay more as a result.

Yet, The Record's coverage of HUMC resembles boosterism, perhaps a legacy of the years North Jersey Media Group Vice President/General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg spent on the medical center board.

Localizing Ebola

The local assignment editors sent Staff Writer Christopher Maag to Newark Liberty International Airport on Thursday, the first day of "targeted health screenings for the Ebola virus" (A-6).

But someone, likely as editor, screwed up Maag's lead paragraph:

"The first day of targeted health screenings ... was quiet Thursday ...."

Instead, this is how it should have read:

"Thursday, the first day of targeted health screenings ..., was quiet ...."

Why send Maag and not a medical writer? 

The reporter covers NJ Transit and other transportation issues, and the airport presumably is part of his beat, according to the assignment editors' tortured reasoning.

Back to the story. Let's hope Nana Smith of Hackensack doesn't suffer any fallout from being photographed at the airport "waiting for a friend from Ghana" (A-6).

More Garrett lies

Diane Callaghan of River Vale, a letter writer, says a TV ad promoting another term for Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, claims the six-termer hits the ground running every morning "to create better economic opportunities for women and their families" (A-18).

Callaghan notes Garrett voted against the Violence Against Women Act, which would have passed tougher sentences for those who commit crimes against women, as well as the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which strengthened laws against wage discrimination.

Add women to Superstorm Sandy aid, both of which the Garrett campaign claims the conservative Tea Party icon favored, contrary to the truth.

Garrett will say anything to win another term in the 5th Congressional District -- getting elected is his main concern.

Roy Cho advances

Meanwhile, Democratic challenger Roy Cho of Hackenack says two recent polls show he has "vaulted into a very competitive position within single digits" of Garrett.

Compared to Garrett, who is against anything that will help the middle class, Cho has a lot going for him, including his making his first bid for elective office.

Redistricting of the 5th District in 2011 added several heavily Democratic communities, including Hackensack.

Seventy percent of the voters in the district live in Bergen County. 

The boomerang-shaped district stretches from the Delaware to the Hudson rivers.

Stomach turning

Flies not only stand on poop, they eat it, so word that Staff Writer Elisa Ung "repeatedly waved away flies in the dining room" of S. Egidio in Ridgewood is an instant turnoff (BL-16).

Only an overweight restaurant reviewer who tops off full meals with a Nutella-stuffed calzone and cheesecake could love this Neapolitan pizzeria, on which she bestows 2.5 stars.

Restaurant names continue to puzzle me. 

This joint is named after saint I never heard of. What about the Indian restaurant called Dhoom?