Editors bury another Christie failure, promote campaign

Ominous clouds greeted drivers heading east on Route 4 in Paramus this morning. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record continues to promote Governor Christie's lame presidential bid on Page 1, and bury his many flaws inside the paper.

Today, readers may have given up looking for something relevant to their lives before they see an L-2 story on Christie's "abysmal" environmental record.

For the A-1 report on Christie's New Jersey education "success stories," Gottlieb turned to the governor's favorite lap dog, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, who is covering the GOP bully's New Hampshire appearances.

What debate?

The lead front-page story today carries this sensational, made-up headline and sub-head:

Heartbreaking

debate over when

a life has ended

Family won't accept decision that teen is brain dead

Of course, there is no "debate." 

The lead paragraph clearly says, the case "could spur another emotional debate over when life ends and how organ donor cases should be handled."

I doubt even that. What shoddy journalism.

Where's the fire?

Another sensational story on the front page claims Paterson firefighters were "pushed to the limit" battling a series of fires in one of the city's slums in "searing heat and humidity."

That only serves to remind readers The Record has never identified the owners of substandard multi-family housing in Silk City or reported on the widespread exploitation of tenants who live in illegal apartments (A-1).

And the photo of firefighters in the same heavy gear they wear in winter makes you wonder why no advances in fire protection have been made (A-6).

On Christie, Editor Gottlieb's head remains up his a-hole

This morning, Hackensack firefighters and police responded after a transformer exploded, knocking out power to homes on Euclid Avenue and other streets in the city's Fairmount section. Power was restored in about an hour.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's coverage of Governor Christie is more evidence that Editor Martin Gottlieb's New York Times state of mind is wrong for North Jersey readers.

Could today's front-page story be the first time in nearly five years The Record has reported the financial damage from Christie's cancellation of the Hudson River rail tunnels, ending what would have been the biggest expansion of mass transit in decades (A-1)?

And how did Columnist Charles Stile and his editors in Woodland Park miss Christie's serious misstatement of fact at Thursday night's GOP debate on when he was appointed U.S. attorney for New Jersey (Friday's A-1)?

This embarrassing oversight -- whether deliberate or not -- was repaired on Saturday's front page by Melissa Hayes, the reporter assigned to cover Christie and, seemingly, promote his presidential bid:

"Christie twice said during the televised debate Thursday night that he was 'appointed' U.S. attorney on Sept. 10, 2001, the day before the terrorist attacks [on America]," Hayes reported on Saturday, a day late.

"And when [U.S. Sen. Rand] Paul referred to the hug between Christie and President Obama following Superstorm Sandy, Christie retorted that 'the hugs I remember are the hugs that I gave to families who lost their people on Sept. 11.'"

In fact, Christie wasn't "formally nominated until Dec. 7," and didn't take over as U.S. attorney until January 2012 (Saturday's A-6).

2016 election

The Record and other media continue to promote Thursday night's GOP debate as a watershed moment, when, in fact, it will be a mere footnote when the Republicans name a candidate for president in 2016 (A-1).

Two headlines on Saturday's front page tried to minimize Christie's fading campaign while portraying the election against the presumptive Democrat candidate, Hillary Clinton, as a horse race:

"Christie
renews
shaping
of image"

"Why Trump's
vulnerability
should worry 
Democrats"

On A-1 today, Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson claims:

"Christie
performed
according
to plan"

Local news?

Today's thin local-news section includes a story promoting the dying sport of horse racing (L-1).

And Road Warrior John Cichowski presents another column on a woman who bought a house next to Route 17 in Waldwick, "where tractor-trailers barrel through at night" (L-1).

Paterson editorial

An editorial defends the performance of Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale despite the "apparent shooting deaths last year of two young girls -- 12-year-old Genesis Rincon and 14-year-old Nazerah Bugg" (O-2).

The editorial even credits Speziale with a "truce" between street gangs from the 1st and 4th Wards after the drive-by shooting death in April of Paterson basketball star Armoni Sexton, 15. 

Low-quality food

On Friday and Saturday, the Better Living section promoted Callahan's and Kimchi Smoke, two businesses that serve pork, beef and chicken raised on harmful antibiotics, growth hormones and other additives.

On Friday, restaurant critic Elisa Ung used a hard sell in her informal dining review of Callahan's in Norwood:

She called the pricey deep-fried pork-and-beef hot dogs "a must-try," and claimed the grilled chicken sandwich is "a surprise star" (Friday's BL-16).

And Food Editor Esther Davidowitz promoted Robert Cho's "Southern-style" Korean barbecue company (Saturday's BL-1).

Davidowitz says nothing about how the marinated beef or ribs are raised or what separates Cho from most Korean barbecue purveyors, who rely on cheap cuts to maximize profit.

Will prosecutor appeal ruling overturning Zisa convictions?

Waiting on Railroad Avenue in Hackensack for an NJ Transit train to pass on the way to the Anderson Street station.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa was sentenced to prison in late 2012, but remained under house arrest while he appealed his convictions.

Today, a state appeals court overturned those guilty verdicts on official misconduct and insurance fraud charges surrounding his actions after his girlfriend was involved in a one-vehicle Hackensack accident.

But the Bergen County prosecutor could appeal that ruling, extending the legal saga involving Zisa.

I scanned the 38-page decision, which you can read in full by clicking on following link:

State of New Jersey v. Charles K. Zisa

Today's paper

On the Record's front page today, you'll find only one story worth reading, from Staff Writer Jay Levin.

Agnes Fenton of Englewood will celebrate her 110th birthday today (A-1).

That's unless you want to be bored to tears by another long, tedious 9/11 column from Staff Writer Mike Kelly.

Here is Kelly's scene-setting first paragraph:

"His grave lies just inside the cemetery gates, a few feet from a chain-link fence and the rattle and swoosh of cars, trucks and buses on Totowa's Union Boulevard" (A-1).

The "rattle and swoosh of cars, trucks and buses"? Readers' eyes are rolling. No motorcycles?

Local news?

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza continue to rely heavily on Law & Order news to fill their thin section today (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Editors chase the 'big story,' ignoring readers like us

A story on the Local front of The Record today reports the federal government plans to pay less than 10% of the cost for improvements at the new Great Falls National Historical Park in Paterson, above and below. Members of the park's Paterson advisory commission are upset, calling the plan unfair to their city, which has been mismanaged fiscally for years, though there is no mention of that in the story.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Yikes!

More than 20 million Americans were "affected" by "the massive hack" last year of the federal Office of Personnel Management's security clearance data, according to the lead story in The Record today.

Do any of them live in North Jersey? 

Of course, reporter Ellen Nakashima, who wrote The Washington Post story The Record's editors slapped into the paper, may not even know where New Jersey is (A-1).

And the lazy editors in the Woodland Park newsroom didn't even bother trying to localize the story or report the impact on North Jersey residents.

Too many of Editor Martin Gottlieb's front pages focus on national and international news, as if he were still working at The New York Times.

Instead, the focus should be on North Jersey's home-rule system of local government, the citizens we elect to run towns both small and large, the sorry state of affairs under an absentee governor and other stories that really affect us.

Women athletes

Gottlieb and other newspaper editors love to regurgitate history, because it gives them an excuse to ignore what is happening now, as in today's front-page story on the ticker-tape parade for the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team (A-1).

The photo-and-text package is so consumed with the past, the team isn't even mentioned until three lines before the story "jumps" to A-6, where readers learn this is the first all-female team to march up Manhattan's Canyon of Heroes.

When is the last time The Record reported on gender pay inequality in the newsroom, in sports and at all of those businesses promoted so lavishly in the Business pages?

There goes the judge

Today also brings us another Page 1 story on a "judicial emergency," this time in New Jersey's federal courts, where the 17 judges are "barely keeping our heads above water," according to the chief judge (A-1).

The story is reported in terms of politics, not how the so-called emergency affects residents who pay their federal taxes, don't plan to violate any laws and won't be hauled into court anytime soon.

Has Chief U.S. Judge Jerome B. Simandle, a former lawyer like all of his overworked colleagues, done anything to address the increasingly higher legal fees that deny many residents access to the courts, even though they may have legitimate grievances?

That's the real injustice in both state and federal courts, but Gottlieb wouldn't dare ask.

Prince Saud who?

In today's Local section, Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza found so little legitimate municipal news they had to use two long obituaries of people you have never heard of, including a Saudi prince (L-5).

A local obituary appears on L-1.

Sweet shops

In Better Living today, the upbeat review of Giovanna's Cafe in Ramsey mentions chicken dishes are based on antibiotic-free birds, but is silent on whether the Italian sausage and bacon used also are naturally raised and free of preservatives (BL-19).

"I particularly swooned over the thick bacon," writes Elisa Ung, who doesn't explain why artery clogging fat makes her feel light-headed.

She also "doubled back" and purchased a "lofty" carrot cake with cream-cheese frosting for $5. Her verdict: It tasted "more carrot-y."

This review is the first on "informal dining" I've seen from Ung. The 2 "hollow red stars" given Giovanna's mean, "If you're nearby, a must eat." 

With $3 to $7 appetizers and $4 to $12 entrees, this might mean The Record's management is trying to save money on restaurant reviews, among the many economy moves evident since a major downsizing in 2008. 

If you're watching you're weight, cholesterol or coronary arteries, avoid The Cake Lounge or just Cake Lounge in Little Ferry -- Ung's lukewarm July 3 review.

Home delivery

I stopped home delivery of The Record from June 27 until today -- about two weeks -- and requested delivery of all of the back copies.

But today, I received only four back copies.

When I called to resume delivery a day early, the automated system said my paper had never been stopped. 

Another Marty Gottlieb front page that doesn't affect us

In Manhattan, workers are trimming the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, above. The tree-lighting ceremony is scheduled for Dec. 3.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A sensational child-abuse trial in federal court involving an Army couple from Mount Holly. 

Rewrites of two other newspapers -- on sports wagering in America, and the resignation of Governor Christie's chief of staff, who lost hope of ever becoming New Jersey's attorney general.

And a real fluke: A Morris County homeowner who was awarded his house after the creditors missed a legal deadline.

This last story carries an inaccurate headline: The house isn't "free" since Gordon A. Washington paid $131,000 of the mortgage before defaulting, as noted in the A-1 data box.

This is another front page that is irrelevant to the lives of the vast majority of North Jersey readers -- straight from the mind of Marty Gottlieb, the sophisticated New Yorker who is editor of The Record.

Where is the tree?

I guess the staff photographer sent to cover a "living memorial" to Waldwick Police Officer Christopher Goodell was in a rush to get to his next assignment.

The photo appears on Page 1 and the Local front, but doesn't show the copper beech tree planted to honor the cop who died when a truck driver plowed into his radar patrol car in July (A-1 and L-1).

HUMC profits

An L-1 story says nearly 200 Hackensack University Medical Center employees have accepted early retirement packages, but adds the non-profit "will hire far more people in the next 90 days than the number who are leaving."

The story also notes "two credit reporting agencies said that Hackensack -- a 775-bed medical center with $1.4 billion in annual revenue -- was doing very well financially."

As written, this story belongs on the Business page, not the Local news front, filled as it is with financial jargon.

The story also is missing any explanation of why anyone but the affected employees should care.

Nature center

The Record has done a terrible job of explaining the opposition to expansion of the Tenafly Nature Center (L-1).

Residents voted against the proposal in a Nov. 4 referendum, but today's story notes local officials had called a larger center "a boon to Tenafly."

The story also says "both sides traded accusations of misinformation," but I cannot recall the paper making any attempt to separate fact from fiction before the election.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg lives in Tenafly.

The Woodland Park daily also didn't do much to separate fact from fiction when hysterical Tenafly officials turned thumbs down on extension of NJ Transit's electrified light-rail line to the wealthy borough.  

Second looks

November is Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month, but the first story that mentioned the disease likely was the obituary of former Rep. Marge Roukema on Thursday's front page.

Roukema, who was elected to the House of Representatives 11 time, was one of those "socially moderate, fiscally conservative Northeastern Republicans [who] became increasingly rare in the years after she cast her last House vote in 2002."

The obituary by Staff Writer Herb Jackson includes praise from Democrats and Republicans alike, but Christie's name is conspicuously absent.

Roukema retired in November 2001 after narrow victories in primaries "in which challenger Scott Garrett of Sussex County said she was too liberal."

Hollywood reporters

Did you see Thursday's Better Living cover story on "a new spate of movies on journalists"?

Do any of the new or old movies from La La Land even acknowledge the mediocrity of so many local daily newspapers like The Record that are struggling to stay relevant in our digital age?

And where is the analysis of unchallenged "sound bites" that have now migrated to print journalism?

In a brief on Thursday's front page, The Record quoted House Speaker John Boehner, who called the climate deal between the U.S. and China "the latest example of the president's crusade against affordable, reliable energy," an apparent reference to coal.

A longer Boehner quote appeared in The Washington Post story on Thursday's A-10, but that paper never reported whether the ultraconservative Republican is referring to coal generating plants, which are the direct cause of mercury in fish and air pollution.

The latter probably has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. 

More errors

As he has shown so many times before, Road Warrior John Cichowski is unable to accurately report data from the annual state police report on road deaths (Friday's L-1).

Here is a summary from the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his Friday column, the Road Warrior goes down his mistake-filled wormhole of reporting about another New Jersey State Police annual report (this time for 2013) on roadway fatalities.

"The Road Warrior indicated that the increase in fatalities for Bergen County pedestrians and truck drivers was part of a 'trend.'

"They are not part of any trend.

"Bergen pedestrian deaths have gone down in 3 of the last 6 years. Tractor-trailer deaths have gone down in 2 of the last 4 years and are on pace to go down this year.

"Road Warrior indicated that the 2010 law requiring drivers to stop for to pedestrians in marked crosswalks has 'driven down' fatalities.

"Unfortunately, pedestrian deaths have gone up every year since 2010, except for last year, and are on pace to greatly exceed last year’s record low number of fatalities."

See: Road Warrior reporting mistakes climb

With Christie in office, we might as well follow H.S. football

A dental and medical building in downtown Closter shares the street with nail, hair and foot-massage salons; several Korean restaurants and a caterer, and a couple of empty storefronts.

More Korean restaurants and businesses can be found in two nearby shopping centers, Closter Commons and Closter Plaza, both of which are badly in need of a makeover.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record is doing his best to distract readers from the Nov. 4 election.

For the fourth day in a row, the focus appears to be on high school football and Ebola, a potential epidemic created by the media (A-1).

One Page 1 headline seems premature:

SAYREVILLE STARTS HEALING PROCESS

With seven high school students facing sex-crimes charges -- "stemming from an act of sexual penetration on one underclassman," The Record reports -- Sayreville's wounds won't be healing anytime soon, especially if the media has anything to do with it (A-4).

Good health news

The front page today also carries some rare positive news about the federal Affordable Care Act, which Governor Christie did his best to derail in New Jersey (A-1).

In fact, with Christie waging war on the middle and working classes, we might as well follow something as inconsequential as high school football.

Readers have given up hope that Gottlieb and The Record will ever realize the mean-spirited Christie is the worst Garden State governor ever.

Against everything

The GOP bully is anti-everything: 

He's against affordable health insurance, expanding mass transit, taxing millionaires, cleaning up the environment, etc., etc., so on and so forth.

Christie seems to spend much of his time lately out of town, raising money for GOP conservatives and stumping for other Republicans.

N.J. and ISIS

Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson explores the New Jersey congressional delegation's stance on ISIS, the militant Islamic group that is trying to take over Iraq and Syria (A-1).

With only three weeks to go before the election, he should be doing a better job contrasting the positions of Roy Choy, the Democratic challenger to Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage.

The Tea Party icon is seeking a seventh term of naysaying from the 5th Congressional District.

What kind of reporter is Jackson? A lazy one. 

Why doesn't he or another staffer ask residents of the district -- which includes Fair Lawn, Hackensack and most of Teaneck -- what they think of the job Garrett hasn't done.

Another screw-up

Also on Page 1, the headline on a brief says "$2.7B is pledged to rebuild Gaza."

But when readers turn to the full story on A-6, the amount pledged to Gaza doubles to $5.4 billion.

Here are some other numbers: 

Incompetent Production Editor Liz Houlton gets a six-figure salary to prevent such errors from getting into the paper.

Why not halve her salary?

Fund-raiser report

Today, the front of Local focuses on the charity fund-raiser of the week: Curing diabetes.

But you won't find the paper's food writers checking their blood-sugar levels anytime soon.

They're too busy pushing dessert and other sugary foods as a major source of nutrients. 

The front of Local also carries a photo and story on the installation of a Martin Luther King Jr. statue on the Hackensack campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University (L-1).

On Saturday's Local front, a stand-alone photo of Bergen County's first MLK statue forgot to mention whether the memorial was on the Teaneck or Hackensack campus.

Travel editor betrays her readers with another free trip

When an employee of Babe's Taxi in Fort Lee complained about the huge traffic jam caused by closure of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge last September, a Port Authority police officer told him to write a letter to Governor Christie. The exit to the company's garage, above, is on Hudson Street, which normally provides three lanes leading to upper-level tollbooths, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Jill Schensul, the perpetually jet-lagged editor of The Record's Travel section, went on another free press junket in search of what might seem like a local story.

Her gushing Sunday cover piece -- delivered with today's paper -- describes an all-expenses-paid trip to a shipyard that is building Royal Caribbean's Quantum of the Sea, "which will sail to its home port of Cape Liberty in Bayonne in November" (T-1).

Traffic jams

Schensul should have stayed home and done some reporting on Cape Liberty, which was a traffic and logistical nightmare when I dropped off and picked up cruise-ship passengers this past summer.

In Bayonne, vacationers don't have direct access to the ship.

Instead, they are processed in a shed and then taken to the ship on shuttle buses.  

To drop off or pick up passengers, a long, double line of buses, cars, vans and taxis enter the port and must take a slow, circuitous route to the shed that can consume close to an hour.

What a great start to a vacation: Sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Schensul's free trip was to a shipyard in a small German town, raising questions about whether this same yard built warships during World War II.

Why this tremendous amount of publicity for Royal Caribbean? 

With 2,090 staterooms, the new ship will surely be a zoo at sea, complete with hundreds of bratty children. What is the appeal of that?

Correction

The Travel section also publishes an embarrassing correction -- to fix captions on two selfies from Venice that were "inadvertently" switched last week (T-1 and A-2 of today's paper).

Apparently, an Arabic family -- the Sayeghs of Paterson -- were given a Jewish couple's names -- the Kapplemans of Saddle Brook, and vice versa. Sweet.

Production Editor Liz Houlton, who is paid six figures to prevent such mistakes, must have been on vacation.

Last week, no one seemed to notice or care three names were under the couple's photo and two names were under the photo of a family of three.

Today's paper

Editor Marty Gottlieb leads today's paper with another report on Port Authority police officers at the George Washington Bridge "scrambling to deal with a traffic nightmare caused by ... lane closures that clogged Fort Lee's streets last September" (A-1).

Governor Christie is mentioned in passing:

"Christie has denied any involvement [in] or prior knowledge [of] the lane closures," reports Staff Writer Shawn Boburg, swallowing whole the legal whitewash that will cost taxpayers $7 million-plus.

Dumb and dumber

On the Local front, Staff Writer John Brennan reports what the headline calls "signs of activity" on the American Dream retail-entertainment complex, including painters covering the ugly checkerboard exterior (L-1).

Now, readers are waiting for test results showing signs of brain activity in the former sports reporter's head.

Dumber still was Road Warrior John Cichowski's Tuesday column on the anniversary of the lane closures in Fort Lee, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his Tuesday column, the Road Warrior returns to the scene of the crime and continues to compound so many of his grossly mistaken columns about the closures of tollbooths and access lanes for a local Fort Lee entrance to the George Washington Bridge during the week of Sept. 9, 2013.

"The Road Warrior reported that a Fort Lee resident was 'prescient' when he warned the Road Warrior during that week about impending tragedies that would be caused by the associated traffic jams.

"Yet, The Record and every other credible news source over the past year has reported that there were absolutely no tragedies that were directly caused by these closures."

Also, Cichowski and The Record have repeatedly exaggerated the impact of closing two of three access lanes to the bridge's upper level a year ago.

There are other Fort Lee access lanes to both the upper and lower levels, and the latter, dubbed Martha Washington, was largely unaffected during the week of Sept. 9, 2013. 

See:

More irresponsible reporting by the Road Warrior

Marty Gottlieb has little to show for 2 years at the helm

This morning, a path had been cleared so commuters wouldn't have to climb over the snow at a bus stop across the street from Sears in Hackensack, above, but that wasn't the case at another bus stop around the corner on Anderson Street, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

This month, former New York Times editor Marty Gottlieb is celebrating two years at the helm of The Record of Woodland Park, and readers can only guess at what he lists as his accomplishments.

Most of the lazy editors and burned-out columnists he inherited are still in place, including the error-prone Road Warrior, Staff Writer John Cichowski.

Except for a renewed focus on Hackensack's municipal affairs (L-1), the Local section often is dominated by police news and accident photos, no matter how minor.

If it wasn't for the Bridgegate scandal, the paper would still be acting as if it had been hired by Governor Christie to do his public relations.

Today's paper

The GOP bully was sworn in for a second term on Tuesday after winning the Nov. 5 election -- the lowest turnout of any gubernatorial contest in state history (A-1).

Given how Christie has waged war on the middle and working classes, isn't it sweet that an "intense winter storm" canceled "the image-building ball at Ellis Island" (A-1).

Longer stories

Gottlieb is known for often handling Page 1 stories, which have grown in length and complexity, not unlike what appears in The Times.

But the level of editing by The Record's assignment and copy desks is so low that the front-page has become known for tortured, poorly written paragraphs that have more twists and turns than an old river.

Mediocre editors

The merger of The Record and Herald News newsrooms brought on board a number of mediocre editors who have dumbed down content, including photo captions and headlines.

Fact-checking is almost non-existent, and for every correction published on A-2, readers know there are five or six more that will never be acknowledged.

Day after day, news and feature stories are published with huge holes, and even basic information is missing.

Today, for example, an interesting story on spices that appears on the Better Living front discusses AK Market in Paterson, but readers can search high and low and not find the shop's address or telephone number (BL-1 and BL-5).  

Page A-2 correction contains an error

Jersey menace: On Friday afternoon, a moron from Saddle Brook, N.J., backed his crew-cab pickup truck into a space at a service area on the Massachusetts Turnpike, stopping less than an inch from the rear bumper of the Toyota I had parked there.

You can't make this up: A correction on A-2 of The Record today sent readers to the wrong page in search of the repaired story.

The correction told readers the wrong photo was published on Friday's L-5 with an obituary for South Hackensack Police Chief Frank Furbacher, and directed them to the correct photo with the full obituary "on Page L-6."

But the story is on L-5 today. LOL. 

On Thursday, NorthJersey.com promoted the Road Warrior column, but misspelled "Valentine" as "Velentine."

Two corrections on A-2 today are among 5 published in the past week, but many other errors were never acknowledged.

Where is 'Queen of Errors'?

Even though Liz Houlton was promoted to the six-figure job of production editor several years ago, she appears to have failed miserably in getting her copy editors and proof readers to catch mistakes or at least avoid introducing error into stories, photo captions and corrections.


Proof readers should be catching errors on pages they review on the computer screen, not watching the David Letterman show on TV.

For many years, Houlton ran the paper's features copy desk, and earned the title of "Queen of Errors" for all the mistakes that got past her cursor.
 

"The Nose" opens in Hackensack. Police responded on Thursday, when a man bled profusely from his nose in front of Starbucks. The man got into an ambulance.

Editor Marty Gottlieb doesn't seem to care that errors have piled up on Page 1, in the Road Warrior column  and throughout the paper in the year since he left The New York Times to take over the Woodland Park newsroom.

The unprecedented slopinesss undermines the credibility of the paper.

Today's paper

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, have patented the use of gee-whiz, non-fatal accident photos as filler in the Local news section, and they are submitting this novel approach for a Pulitzer Prize.

Today, apparently for the first time, such a photo is used as filler in the A-section (A-4).

In a letter to the editor, Catherine Cahill complains The Record has never mentioned how hard Superstorm Sandy hit the middle class in Moonachie (A-13).

That makes sense. The paper also tirelessly promotes Governor Christie's anti-middle class agenda.

Friday's paper

What is the connection between Sandy damage to NJ Transit rail cars and locomotives, and the agency sending four employees to New Orleans to prepare the bus and rail system for the 2014 Super Bowl in the Meadowlands (A-1)?

Until Sandy, The Record virtually ignored mass transit in favor of intense, car-centric coverage in the Road Warrior column, which recently published boasts from male drivers about all the blow jobs they received in lover's lanes.

Can there be anything more boring than the three political stories about Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Sen. Robert Menendez that appear on Page 1 today and Friday?

Stop the presses

Friday's Road Warrior column on red-light cameras is filled with distortions, according to a concerned reader of The Record:

"The Road Warrior's failing crusade to promote red-light cameras -- based on distortions, misinformation, key relevant omissions and cherry picking of contradictory facts to support his sadly mistaken conclusions -- continues in his Feb. 15 column.

"His report on the Assembly Transportation committee meeting on Feb. 11 contradicts local and national news reports about reasons for the meeting and what actually took place.

"It certainly is NO coincidence that the Road Warrior cherry picks statistics to support his baseless claims and conclusions in support of the red-light cameras, which have turned out to be more of a money maker for municipalities rather than addressing safety.

"The Record management should STOP the Road Warrior from continually misreporting news about red-light cameras and advocating for these cameras with baseless or senseless claims."

To read the full e-mail, go to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Seeing red 


Reviews go on a diet

In Better Living, The Record's slimmed-down restaurant review no longer has room to inform readers of important information, even if the editors were inclined to do so (BL-16). 

In his lukearm appraisal of Palmer's Crossing in Tenafly, Bob Probert doesn't say whether the hotel restaurant's $22 fried chicken is drug free or whether the $25 salmon is farmed or wild.

The Mercedes-Benz SUV, right, damaged the sedan at 24 Hour Fitness in Paramus.

Jersey-style parking

You can escape New Jersey, but not all the morons with a license who fancy themselves parking wizards.

Last Monday, I took a photo of a Mercedes-Benz SUV that had  been backed into a space so crookedly it damaged the car in the next space.

On Friday, I experienced deja vu all over again in Massachusetts, where a workman from Saddle Brook came within less than an inch of damaging the Toyota Camry I had parked in a turnpike service area lot.

I had just finished a smoothie from a food counter called Fresh City, which adds lots of ice cubes to the fruit and yogurt listed on the wall menu, then charges nearly $5 for the watered-down drink.

I had parked the Camry as far away from the door as possible, but sure enough, a pick-up had been backed to within less than an inch of the Toyota's bumper.

The driver and his companions walked up just as I was trying to see if the truck had hit the car, and I asked if he had damaged the Camry.

No, he said, it's called "judging" and "using the mirror," though it was clear he couldn't possibly see the rear of the car in any mirror.

He pulled away, and I couldn't find any damage. That's dumb luck, not "judging." 

Toll charges

One thing I noticed in Massachusetts is how cheap the turnpike is, compared to its counterpart in New Jersey.

A trip of roughly 5o miles cost only $2.10 there, around $8 here.

In New York State, the Tappan Zee Bridge is $5, but the thieves at the Port Authority demand $13 to cross the same river from New Jersey.

Like New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut have no shortage of drivers who speed and tailgate, and, like us, little enforcement of highway traffic laws.

A blood sport

In Connecticut, tailgating and driving 80 mph on the narrow, winding Merritt Parkway is considered a sport. 

Friday afternoon's rush hour was a nightmare, with a 7-mile delay on Route 91 south through Hartford followed by an accident that closed at least one lane.

After the sun set, thousands of commuters choked the Merritt Parkway north, blinding me and other drivers on the southbound roadway.

The rush-hour congestion is familiar to anyone who commutes by car in New Jersey.

Yet Road Warrior John Cichowski ignores all of that, preferring to report on sex in cars and people who met on buses.