Lazy editors still ignore long-suffering property tax payers

As they do four times a year, hundreds of Hackensack homeowners will be dropping off their property tax payments at City Hall early next month. The city tax collector offers a 10-day grace period for payment of taxes, so the deadline is Feb. 10. Quarterly payments above $3,000 and $4,000 are not uncommon.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Tens of thousands of readers are bracing for their 1st quarter property tax payments on Feb. 1.

But if they're scanning Page 1 or the Local front of The Record today, they won't see anything on why their taxes keep going up year after year, and why services, such as street paving, remain stagnant.

Today, thousands of Jewish, Muslim and Hindu readers are staring dumbly at all of the front-page space devoted to a Ridgewood church former members call a cult, wondering what the controversy has to do them (A-1).

And the rest of the page -- devoted to Iran, a North Jersey casino proposal and Rutgers -- surely means Editor Martin Gottlieb still hasn't retired to his Manhattan apartment (A-1).

Local news?

Local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza lead the first page of the Local news section with a story on a proposal for affordable housing in tiny Ho-Ho-Kus (L-1).

Do residents fear an influx of minorities seeking the low- and moderate-cost town houses? Reporter Steve Janoski doesn't say.

Reinforcing the stereotype of minorities committing crime, a rare story from Hackensack focuses not on property tax increases or unchecked school board spending, but on a black church that helps inmates reenter society (L-1).

Police news

A large piece of L-3 is devoted to a fatal Route 4 crash in Englewood that saw the driver ejected and killed by a second vehicle, but he isn't identified and police weren't asked if he was speeding or racing.

Sykes and Sforza desperately need this and other Law & Order stories to plug holes in their section that should be filled with municipal news.

More and more, The Record reads like a police blotter, but the online service Hackensack Daily Voice.com does a far better job, and regularly scoops the supremely lazy local editors.

Fact checking?

A Business front story on New Jersey's antiquated liquor-license laws incorrectly calls Costco Wholesale's house brand "Kirkland" instead of Kirkland Signature (B-1).

And Costco offers its own brand of French champagne, Italian prosecco, cognac, California cabernet sauvignon and other red wines, not just the "chardonnay, tequila and whiskey" described in the article.

$4M-plus houses

The Real Estate cover on sale of a dozen Bergen County houses for more than $4 million in 2015 must have been commissioned by the publisher's office (R-1).

Publisher Stephen A. Borg may be feeling a little cramped in his $3.65 million Tenafly McMansion, purchased with a mortgage from his family's North Jersey Media Group.

Only months after the home was purchased in 2007, Borg put into motion a major newsroom downsizing in Hackensack that saw the departure of many veteran employees.

The following year Borg closed the landmark Hackensack building, and decamped to a nondescript office building in Woodland Park.

Who's depressed?

The Record continues its one-dimensional coverage of seniors with a Better Living cover story on depression (BL-1).

The majority of readers are older, but it never occurs to the editors that many seniors dine out regularly, enjoy Broadway shows or concerts of classical music, and do so well into their 80s.

Mike and Chris

Columnist Mike Kelly is taking more swings at Governor Christie, our absentee governor, but the veteran reporter still can't bring himself to tell it like it is (O-1).

The GOP bully certainly is the worst governor in state history, and holds the record for vetoes -- 450 and counting.

Many residents believe Christie lied about his involvement in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal, and should be impeached. 

But not Kelly, who has been writing a column for more than 25 years.

So, you've got to wonder why the reporter still hasn't grown a pair of balls.

Money talks

Today's nostalgic Travel cover story on the lire and other national currencies replaced by the euro is of little practical use (T-1).

Jet-lagged Travel Editor Jill Schensul should be telling Europe-bound readers about credit cards that don't impose a foreign-currency transaction surcharge, and where to get the best exchange rates.

Saturday's paper

On Saturday, Gottlieb led the paper with yet another column on how Christie is doing in his futile bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

This front-page column was from Herb Jackson, the paper's so-called Washington correspondent, not Charles Stile, who is recovering from injuries he suffered from all the time he has spent in bed with the GOP bully.

Jackson also had a rare story on Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, the conservative who defied the reporter for six months "on his decision not to give money to a Republican campaign fund because of its past support for gay candidates."

Almost all of Saturday's local-news section was devoted to state and county politics; and police and court news, including a lawyer sent to prison for embezzling legal fees.

Should Bergenfield police chief make more than Christie?

It's been rough going for local-news readers of The Record since the Borg family abandoned Hackensack in 2009. But local drivers were pleasantly surprised to find a new surface on what was a crudely patched stretch of River Street in front of North Jersey Media Group's old headquarters, above.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's upbeat front-page story on Bergen County's first female municipal police chief raises obvious questions the lazy editors of The Record don't bother addressing.

Staff Writer Nicholas Pugliese waits until deep into the continuation page to mention what is foremost on the minds of Bergenfield taxpayers:

How much will the town pay Capt. Cathy Madalone, who is the Borough Council's choice to succeed former Police Chief Michael Carr (A-6)?

Pugliese not only doesn't tell you how much she will be making, but also omits whether that is more or less than Carr's salary.

Well, it turns out Capt. Madalone is being paid $173,228, including longevity pay -- significantly less than the total of $190,536 Carr received as chief.

If Madalone gets a raise when she becomes chief, is it appropriate that she make more than Governor Christie's $175,000 (and the same question applied to Carr)?

Pugliese also doesn't address whether Bergenfield, which has a large Filipino-American community, has any Filipino officers.

Another question

Given all the problems in North Jersey and the state, is Editor Martin Gottlieb, a New Yorker, just being contemptuous of local concerns by running another silly sports column on what is supposed to be the paper's premier page (A-1)?

In Local today, there is extensive coverage of a hit-and-run that took the life of a Paterson teen on a bicycle (L-1), and a house fire in Passaic city that displaced six families (L-3).

Other Law & Order and court stories appear on L-1, L-3 and L-6.

What is long overdue is for Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza to work with their layout editors and designate a page or a page and a half  in the back of their section for crime, court, and accident news and photos.

Welcome change

In Better Living, for a welcome change, recipes for radicchio salad and shrimp salsa appear on BL-2.

Hillary's biggest obstacle is media's love of controversy

The cellphone lot at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queen is where drivers of limos and black cars go to die. The other Port Authority airports, Newark and La Guardia, have nothing like it.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Now that Hillary Clinton is a candidate for president in 2016 the news media represent her biggest obstacle.

The media's obsession with controversy likely will mean an endless parade of stories like the nonsense from The Washington Post on The Record's front page today (A-1).

I laughed at a story The Record carried last week claiming Hillary will have trouble convincing voters she is "fresh and different."

Voters don't want "fresh and different" candidates like Marco Rubio and Rand Paul.

They want someone like Clinton who is experienced in leading -- she was the first to propose national health care -- not the parade of Republican candidates intent on stripping seniors of their entitlements.

The media are so bored with elections they portray every one as a horse race, and their reliance on the sound bite is irresponsible.

Lazy coverage

You just have to look at what has happened to election coverage at The Record in the last two decades.

Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, the lazy local assignment editors, stopped covering uncontested elections long ago, and school board contests are reduced to briefs.

In Hackensack, less than a sixth of registered voters turn out for council elections and even fewer bother with the April election for school board, ensuring the latter is filled with incompetents.

Herb Jackson and the paper's Trenton staff devote major coverage in statewide and congressional elections to the candidates who have raised the most special-interest money.

In a major front page story last year, Jackson even omitted conservative Republican Rep. Scott Garrett's initial opposition to federal aide for victims of Superstorm Sandy.

Rare is a story discussing how the candidates stand on the issues, resulting in tremendous voter apathy, such as the record low voter turnout in the last gubernatorial election in New Jersey.

Think pieces

Three of the four major stories on Page 1 today are speculative "think" pieces that go on and on and on.

Let's hope U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman at leasts names Governor Christie as an unindicted co-conspirator, if he brings criminal charges in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal (A-1).

I know it's only a typo, but how did the editors on the assignment, news and copy desks misspell the name of Bridget Anne Kelly (A-6), the onetime Christie official who sent the infamous email to a Port Authority official, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee"?

The danger of long, speculative stories like this one is that it will put to sleep the underpaid, sleep-deprived copy editor (who also writes headlines and photo captions) long before he gets to its bitter end.

With a bimbo like Joe Giudice for a father, wouldn't his four daughters be better off living with relatives or even in an orphanage while their mother is in prison (A-1)?

Local news?

For the meaning of a "slow news day," see today's Local section.

For 2nd day in row, front page has readers stifling yawns

A rare sight in Hackensack: Delivery of home-heating oil.

On Monday morning, a woman was clearing snow in front of a church on Summit Avenue in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

All this Page 1 coverage today and Monday of new state tests has readers wondering whether Editor Martin Gottlieb's grand kids live and attend school in North Jersey.

What yawners, not to mention the story on Girl Scout merchandising deals at the bottom of today's front page (A-1).

Gottlieb ran not one, but two favorable columns about Governor Christie on Monday's A-1. 

Today, Christie's controversial choice for the Pinelands Commission and a proposed pipeline seem like an afterthought (A-1).

In an editorial on A-8 today, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin can't even muster strong criticism of Christie for balancing his budgets with money won in court battles with polluters.

"This misguided maneuver keeps money from being used for its intended purpose: eradicating pollution [italics added]." 

What a genius that Doblin is.

The only item of real interest on Page 1 today is a brief about U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, 78, a Maryland Democrat who says she is shifting her focus from "raising money" for another election campaign to "raising hell" (A-1).

Hah. 

Compare that with all of the stories Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson has written about the so-called war chests of special interest money that have kept Rep. Scott Garrett, a conservative crackpot from Wantage, in office.

In fact, Jackson's stories, which rarely focus on issues, feed voter apathy, another factor in Garrett's success in an overwhelmingly liberal 5th District.

Hackensack news?

Despite all the snow we've gotten, head Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, continue to enforce a drought on Hackensack news (Local section today and Monday).

They might protest, pointing to a story on L-2 today, reporting a Paterson school administrator is taking a job in Hackensack.

Targeting pedestrians

Reporter John Cichowski has sunk to a new journalistic low by putting a target on every pedestrian.

In his Sunday column, the irresponsible Road Warrior columnist actually quoted a maniacal driver claiming:

"At least once a week, I resist the urge to hit a pedestrian because he decides to cross at the last minute in front of me."

In the same column, Cichowski continues to struggle for accuracy in citing data from studies, one of his favorite ways of filling space:

He reported that "most states" showed a drop in pedestrian deaths, but the study he cited reflected an improvement in only 24 of the 50 states.

Seventy-five pedestrians were killed in the first half of 2014 in New Jersey, not the 74 cited by the confused Cichowski.

Etc. Etc.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior 'jerks off' readers with more errors

The Record continues to publish one inaccurate Road Warrior column after the other, because none of the editors are doing their jobs of providing checks and balances on a reporter who clearly has lost his mind.

At the end of the line is six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, supervisor of the news and copy desks, who continues to laugh all the way to the bank.