New normal is baseball, crime, animal news and politics

The entrance to Costco Wholesale's bigger store in Teterboro during a preview party on Tuesday night. The store opened for business on Wednesday morning. The old warehouse store in Hackensack will reopen next year as a Costco Business Center catering to small businesses, but open to all members.

Costco offers organic and non-organic produce at low prices.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record must be so tired of the news business.

That's the only possible conclusion judging from the last three days of Gottlieb's lazy, inconsequential front pages:

Baseball and animal news, a Teaneck man charged with killing his mother and brother, and ignoring the issues in presidential and congressional races to report on fundraising.

Today's paper, for example, goes over in great detail how much Governor Christie has raised in his quixotic bid for the White House (A-1).

Then, on A-3, a long story reports Rep. Scott Garrett's fundraising has slowed.

Garrett, a seven-term conservative Republican from Wantage in Sussex County, represents a good chunk of Bergen County.

Staff Writer Herb Jackson, the paper's so-called Washington correspondent, who wrote today's story on Garrett, has written far less about issues.

In fact, Jackson has called previous Garrett elections solely on the basis of the congressman's fundraising ability.

Local news?

The only Hackensack news today involves police wounding a murder suspect who "confronted officers with a large knife" (L-1).

Residents who want to know why their property taxes are so high would like the paper to look into inflated school and administrative salaries, and why the Board of Education pays lunchroom aides at two schools $22 an hour.

The principal of the high school is paid more than $172,000 a year, just a few thousand less than Christie.

Between the bread

A rave informal dining review of Bogie's Hoagies in Hawthorne would be far better if the critic reported whether the chicken, beef and ham used in the sandwiches are naturally raised (BL-16).

But I guess Staff Writer Elisa Ung was distracted again by her raging obsession with dessert, including "the fudgiest brownie, served in a dangerously generous chunk" and an "enormous chunk of bread pudding, studded with cranberries and chocolate pieces."

When it comes to sugar, this woman is out of control.

This is yet another review from outside Bergen County, which Ung seems to be neglecting for some reason.  

Thursday's paper

Thursday's A-2 corrected two major errors, but I had to rescue my Sports section from the recycling bin to look at another major boo-boo.

A Record reader says Sports Columnist Steve Popper erred when he reported Lamar Odom was found unconscious Tuesday in "a Las Vegas brothel."

The reader noted:

"As all of the news sources showed he [Odom] was at the bunny ranch, which is 60 or so miles away. Actually, prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas. Every other news source has the right location."

Sun glare blamed

A second school crossing guard was injured critically by a driver who may have been blinded by sun glare.

Thursday's L-1 story doesn't name the driver who knocked down the Westwood senior, a retired engineer, or whether any charges will be filed.

Nor is there any reporting on whether car manufacturers can produce a windshield that cuts down on glare.

Wednesday's paper

On Wednesday's A-1, The Associated Press story on the Democratic debate reported Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' comment on the media-manufactured controversy over Hillary Clinton's emails.

"The Secretary is right," Sanders said of Clinton. "The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails."

Voters want to discuss "the real issues," Sanders said, reiterating a message The Record and other media continue to ignore.

Best headline

The headline in The Record on Wednesday's L-6 was good, but the one in an email from the Hackensack Daily Voice site was better.

First, The Record:

"Man attempting suicide

survives being hit by train"

But the Daily Voice did a tabloid turn on the events over a Jerry DeMarco byline:

"Hackensack man hit by train

 loses arm, walks home"

Desperate editors pit GOP against Dems to sell papers

At Wednesday afternoon's 120th Commencement, graduating Hackensack High students used an elaborate, wheelchair-accessible pedestrian overpass to cross to the football field from the school, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Thursday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling was a victory for millions of Americans who were able to buy affordable health insurance for the first time.

But that's not sexy enough for Editor Martin Gottlieb, who is desperate to sell copies of The Record during what is certainly print journalism's darkest hours.

So, as he has done so many times in the past with this and other stories, he reports the decision in political terms, pitting President Obama against the Republicans who have been trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act (A-1).

Gottlieb uses "Obamacare" liberally, even though GOP conservatives have made it a dirty word.

Sadly, the word fits into headlines more easily than Affordable Care Act.

Since Gottlieb left The New York Times to take over the Woodland Park newsroom in early 2012 and cruise into retirement, Page 1 stories have grown longer and more complex, and many show his own rewriting.

Today, a paragraph in a front-page sidebar sums up the political conflict once again for weary readers:

"Amid the applause, however, came a strong dissenting voice that echoed the chorus of outrage from ardent opponents of the Affordable Care Act nationwide, including many Republican Party leaders" (A-1).

Give me a break, Marty. 

Absentee governor

The front-page story quoting sources on Governor Christie's entrance into the race for the 2016 GOP nomination has an unintentionally hilarious line:

The GOP bully is making an announcement on Tuesday at Livingston High School, "where he served as class president for three years" (A-1).

Let's hope he doesn't hold that presidency up as experience that makes him suitable for the White House, especially given how badly he has screwed up New Jersey.

According to radio news, Christie today signed the state budget after vetoing taxes on the wealthy and state pension system contributions proposed by the Democrats (A-3).

Gottlieb splashes the Christie-might-run story on Page 1, but the budget story is on A-3, even though that is the one that affects middle-class readers most.

Production error

Six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton must have been snoozing at her computer after a big lunch at a nearby Italian restaurant.

That is the likely explanation for why the same story on the Garfield Council appears twice in Local today, on L-2 and L-3.

Temper tantrum

There are only 10 paragraphs in the appraisal of Nirvana Indian Kitchen in Allendale, but one of the longest relates how Staff Writer Elisa Ung "struck out on all counts" on the desserts she sampled (BL-14).

I'll bet the majority of readers, who are older and watching their weight and cholesterol, don't even bother with dessert.

Still, Ung is obsessed, and in the data box notes the pricey restaurant is "less appropriate for anyone for whom dessert is a priority."

Like her. The poor woman.  

Eye on The Record

 will return in a couple of weeks

Stories don't go far enough

Image by Xin Li 88 via Flickr

The lead story in The Record of Woodland Park today reports that significant population gains by Asians and Hispanics in North Jersey are, for the most part, not reflected among elected officials, but there's no discussion of minority representation on state and municipal court benches.

However, on the jump page (A-8), the editors re-run a map that was color coded incorrectly on Friday. The error was never acknowledged on A-2, where corrections run.

There's a lot to read on Page 1 today and, thankfully, no sports or sports-related coverage in anticipation of today's Super Bowl. Editor Francis Scandale must have been out sick.

Local yokels

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski is going on again about the new Motor Vehicle Commission office in Lodi -- at least the third column he's written about construction there. 

Chick loves to monitor the long lines of "road warriors" at the MVC office, but routinely ignores all the commuters standing on packed trains and buses going into the city. 

He's a friend of drivers, not mass-transit commuters, and one of the pets of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who apparently is another mass transit hater.

There's no Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news in the Local section today and most other major towns are ignored as well.

Don't forget to brush

In Better Living, Elisa Ung's "The Corner Table" column further explores her obsession with dessert, claiming Asian treats "are generally lighter and less sugary than American desserts and offer an accessible gateway to ethic cuisine."

If she really wants to write about lighter, less sugary desserts -- rather than just stuff her already pudgy face -- her column would report on all the Middle Eastern pastry shops in North Jersey. And the paper's restaurant reviewer is just plain wrong when she suggests ethnic food is accessible only through fattening desserts.

An article on restaurant inspections appears on F-4 today, but doesn't explain why the paper no longer reports fines levied against restaurants and other food establishments with major sanitary violations, such as thawing meat on the floor.

Image via Wikipedia

Read it in a weekly

The County Seat, the weekly paper published by the Zisa family, reports Hackensack High School plans to open four Academies, similar to those at the Bergen County Academies in Hackensack. 

The Record reported recently that New Milford High School plans to add Academies, but Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado apparently missed the story about Hackensack High.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes has been coddling Alvarado, along with her other favorites on the staff.