More bad journalism: False Bridgegate trial story, column

The upper level toll plaza of the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee in September 2013 (Credit: The New York Times).

Editor's note: Today's post has been revised and expanded.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In a major error on Page 1 today, The Record says the federal judge at the Bridgegate trial has already instructed the jury on the law.

Also on A-1 today, Staff Writer John Cichowski, The Record's pathetic excuse for a commuting columnist, quotes one of his moronic readers comparing the Bridgegate trial to the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals after World War II.

The conspiracy trial of two of Governor Christie's ex-aides, Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, opened on Sept. 19, and the judge instructs the jury on the law governing the charges only after prosecutors and defense attorneys sum up their cases.

This morning, U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton postponed those closing arguments until Friday, apparently to resolve defense objections to proposed instructions that jurors should ignore the political motive for the lane closings.

Kelly is charged with sending an email to David Wildstein, Christie's crony at the Port Authority -- "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" -- that set into motion five mornings of gridlock, starting on Sept. 9, 2013, the first day of school.

The traffic jams were intended to punish Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a Democrat, for refusing to endorse Christie's reelection, prosecutors say. 

Missing type

At least nine words of Cichowski's Road Warrior column between the front page and the continuation page (A-6) went missing due to a production error.

The complete column appears online.

His first paragraph names five "victims" who were "trapped in their cars" when two of three Fort Lee access lanes to the bridge were closed.  

"Bridget Kelly is a single mother who was worried about losing her job, but that's not a good enough defense," says Hyla Epstein. "It's a self-serving argument" (A-6).

In an exaggeration typical of the column, Cichowski says Epstein "recalled nearly being trapped in her Fort Lee home by gridlock for most of the week."

So, I guess we can assume cars caught in the traffic jam mounted the sidewalk and blocked Epstein's front door.

Trial coverage

The biggest flaw in The Record's coverage of the Bridgegate trial was the editors' decision to assign reporters who apparently have little or no experience covering trials in federal court.

Two of those reporters are Paul Berger, who is assigned to the Port Authority; and Dustin Racioppi, a reporter in Trenton who covers Christie.

That can be the only explanation for why Racioppi's report today on a "closed meeting with lawyers" says incorrectly that the judge "read the charges to the jury, a routine procedure in criminal cases so that each member [of the jury panel] understands instructions on how to deliberate" (A-6).

The sub-headline on Page 1 says:

"Jury told to ignore possible

 motivation for alleged scheme"

His reporting and the sub-headline are flawed, because the judge instructs the jury on the law governing the charges in the case right before they start their secret deliberations, and does so in open court.

Since both prosecutors and defense attorneys haven't given their closing arguments, the judge couldn't have read the instructions, which usually are so extensive and complicated they can put even an experienced lawyer to sleep.

Time to lock up Governor Christie and throw away the key

The Evil Twins, Governor Christie and wacko racist Donald J. Trump, are favorite subjects on the front page of the New York Daily News, above and below. This Christie front page is from February.

On Wednesday, the Daily News urged Trump to end his GOP campaign for the White House.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Why wait for the trial?

In the court of public opinion, Governor Christie has been viewed as culpable since he first joked about moving traffic cones to close access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in September 2013, causing massive traffic jams for four days.

Now, former Christie aide Christina Renna says the governor "flat out lied" to reporters [in late 2013] about his administration's involvement," The Record reports on Page 1 today.

Christie's continuing denials -- "I absolutely dispute it" -- sound hollow a little over a month before two of his former loyalists go on trial in federal court in Newark for using the lane closures as political retaliation against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee.

Locking up Christie now would likely also break the legislative logjam in Trenton.

Today's columns

What's the point of the Charles Stile column that runs on A-1 today, and largely duplicates what is in the news story next to it?

Do we need Stile, the Woodland Park daily's chief apologist for Christie, to tell us the obvious -- that the former aide's text message about Christie lying is a "bombshell in the court of public opinion" (A-6)?

Another front page column also is a waste, coming a day late on Donald J. Trump's comments that it may be up to "Second Amendment people" to stop Hillary Clinton from getting elected and appointing liberal judges to the U.S. Supreme Court (A-1).

Trump should quit

On Wednesday, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman compared Trump's inflammatory words to those that led to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995,

Also on Wednesday, the New York Daily News called on Trump to end his GOP campaign for the White House and if he doesn't, for the Republican Party to abandon him.

What does Record Columnist Mike Kelly say about Trump on Page 1 today? Does the veteran reporter condemn him?

Of course not. He is an opinion columnist without any opinions or balls.

Journalism 101

Kelly sounds like a reporter fresh out of journalism school, claiming with little basis in fact that Trump's comments "further stir [the] nation's gun debate," as the sub-headline says.

What? 

The only debate is whether megalomaniac Trump is fit to hold the office of president.

At least, The Record's editorial -- after attacking Hillary Clinton as "unprincipled and unworthy" to hold office -- says unequivocally:

"A presidential candidate [Trump] making a quip about gun violence should be as out of bounds as jokes about bombs at airports" (A-8).

Local news?

Readers who have to wait on line at the Motor Vehicle Commission every four years to renew their driver's license are pelted with more hysterical coverage in The Record today.

In a Road Warrior column leading Local, Staff Writer John Cichowski reports two state senators are calling for a legislative hearing "as early as next month" (L-1).

That's the bad news, because when has a legislative hearing every accomplished anything?

When lawyers always win, it's time to limit their high fees

For years, Prospect Avenue in Hackensack was pounded by ambulances into little more than a crudely patched track that resembled a third-world road. City officials neglected it, even though Prospect is a premier street lined with expensive high-rises. Now, the repaving of Prospect, between Essex and Passaic streets, has been greeted with oohs and aahs.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record is running major stories today on just three of the things Governor Christie is against, including a Page 1 report on the fallout from his refusal to raise the low gasoline tax.

Port Authority reporter Shawn Boburg says the bistate agency has spent $1.75 million on favored outside lawyers to defend itself and its employees from a probe of actions they took at Christie's urging (A-1).

That's nearly three times the $675,000 the agency spent on outside legal eagles during a grand jury probe of the George Washington Bridge lane closures (A-8).

Hourly rates?

Boburg's long story doesn't mention the rates the Port Authority was charged by connected law firms in New York and New Jersey, but you can bet it is several hundreds of dollars per hour.

Whatever the outcome of the probe, the lawyers will win by collecting millions in legal fees and laughing all the way to the bank, taking comfort in the knowledge that no one is moving to regulate their rates.

The Record prefers to report on lawyers who dress well, but never questions high legal fees, which deny many people access to the courts.

And its own general counsel happily pay hundreds of dollars per hour to lawyers at Pashman Stein in Hackensack.

Anti-transit, too

At Christie's urging, the Port Authority shifted $1.8 billion to the repair of New Jersey roads from a fund that was supposed to help build two Hudson River rail tunnels, a project the GOP bully killed in 2010.

"New Jersey needed the funds because its own Transportation Trust Fund had virtually run out of money and could no longer support large projects," Boburg reports.

He notes the repairs "allowed Christie to plug a hole in the state's budget ... without raising New Jersey's gasoline tax ..., the main source of income for the state's transportation funding" (A-8). 

The Port Authority is defending its actions from probes by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Also anti-voting

A story on A-4 today reports Christie also opposes a revision of New Jersey's laws "by expanding early voting to two weeks before general elections, automatically registering voters when they are issued a driver's license and allowing online registration."

On A-9, another story reports Christie is attacking President Obama's "sweeping plan to cut carbon emissions from power plants."

The Record and other media should question the conservative's racial motivation for repeated attacks on Obama's policies.

Christie is running against 15 or 16 other Republicans for his party's presidential nomination, not Obama, and in the unlikely event he gets it, he certainly won't be facing the president in the 2016 election.

More errors

A-2 today carries corrections from Better Living, Sports and Local, showing a total breakdown in the editing of the Woodland Park daily.

In Local, the drought on Hackensack news continues.

Bridgegate editors bury an elaborate Christie cover-up

Today is a thoroughly miserable day to be driving around Bergen County.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If the miserable, sunless weather doesn't get you down, The Record's whitewash of a legislative panel's report on Governor Christie and Bridgegate is certain to do the trick.

"Cover-up" was the word used by some media outlets to describe the report's conclusions, including WNYC-FM.

But you would have to read far into today's upbeat Page 1 "ANALYSIS," a Charles Stile column and an editorial (A-9) to understand just how far Governor Christie, his aides and his cronies went to cover up the real purpose of the George Washington Bridge lane closures -- political payback.

When the Woodland Park daily's editors and reporters sound like the GOP bully's own spin doctors, you know journalistic principals have been compromised.

Wrong-way Boburg

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg claims in his first paragraph today that the Legislature's Bridgegate report concluded Governor Christie didn't know of the scheme (A-1), but that contradicts what he reported on Friday.

The state legislative committee investigating the September 2013 gridlock in Fort Lee said there was "no conclusive evidence" as to whether Christie "was or was not" aware of the closures or involved in directing them, according to Boburg's Page 1 story on Friday.

And Boburg's lead paragraph today mentions "two reports," a reference to the whitewash by Christie's own lawyers, including Randy Mastro, who soaked taxpayers by submitting a request for $7.2 million in legal fees.

Treating the credibility of the two reports equally completely violates the standards of objective journalism.

Indeed, a gullible Boburg quoted Mastro on Friday's Page 1 claiming that "with this [legislative] inquiry behind it [sic], the governor and his office can focus on what they do best -- serving the public interest."

At the moment Mastro's press release went out, Christie was thousands of miles away in Canada, pursing his White House dreams. 

So much for "serving the public interest."

Editorial trickery

Stile, one of the paper's biggest Christie boosters, claims in his first paragraph the latest report "may help [the governor] in his yearlong quest for rehabilitation" (A-1).

The headlines on today's editorial are even more bewildering (A-9):

No involvement

GWB panel implicates only Christie aides

Really? 

Today, none other than Boburg reports "the legislative report said Christie and an aide had deleted 12 text messages they exchanged during damaging testimony by Port Authority officials" (A-6).

And readers have to question the motives of Boburg and his editors to bury the lead in the last paragraph of his so-called Analysis, quoting a spokesman for the Democratic National Commitee:

"Some of Christie's closest aides and allies put safety at risk, seemingly to exact petty political revenge, and in the aftermath, they lied about it. That, in itself, is inexcusable conduct coming from the administration of someone who wants to be president of the United States" (A-6).

Practicing jock-itching journalism with the best of them

Two stone horses outside P.F. Chang's China Bistro in Hackensack were painted pink on Thursday in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, above and below. For Chinese food, a better bet is Lotus Cafe, a BYO in the Home Depot Shopping Center just down the street.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb -- he's called "Marty" in The Record newsroom -- apparently is obsessed with sports, and he led the paper today and Friday with the rivalry between two jock-itching, ass-slapping high school football teams.

The chart on Page 1 today compares Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey and Paramus Catholic, revealing a possible racial filter in the acceptance policy of the former.

White students at Don Bosco make up 91.3% of enrollment, and Asians are only 1%. Blacks and Hispanics are 4.4% and 3.3%, respectively.

Does the sports rivalry really deserve this kind of coverage, especially on the front page?

No. This kind of tripe from Gottlieb has little general reader interest.

More corrections

Two embarrassing corrections on A-2 today include an attempt to repair a factual screw-up by the great Mike Kelly.

The veteran reporter drove 41 miles from his Teaneck home to do a column on alleged male-on-male sexual assaults by members of Sayreville's high school football team (Friday's A-1).

Friday's paper

The front page on Friday was wrapped in an ad for The Modern, a controversial, 47-story residential tower that was opposed by many Fort Lee residents.

Governor Christie is rumored to be considering renting a $2,500-a-month studio in the building as a field office for his team of dirty political tricksters, who have targeted Democratic mayors in Fort Lee and other communities.

Christie hopes to get a studio overlooking local access lanes to the George Washington Bridge.

Booker v. Bell

Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson continued to try and interest readers in the limp challenge to Sen. Corey Booker, D-N.J., who is seeking a full term on Nov. 4 (Friday's A-2).

In Friday's Local section, Staff Writer Todd South finally came through with a story from Tuesday night's Hackensack City Council meeting (L-3).

Heart-attack news

The Record's model for restaurant reviews is broken, as you can see from Friday's appraisal of Allendale Steakhouse in the Better Living tab (BL-20).

If Staff Writer Elisa Ung had to lay out $84.95 for the porterhouse for two from her own salary, she might have investigated whether the beef, finished with butter, was pumped full of harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones.

But The Record paid for this double heart attack on a plate. And the service sucked, too; yet she gave the place 2.5 stars.

That porterhouse is listed as costing $85.95 in the dizzy reporter's data box on the same page -- a dollar more than in the text.

The prime beef used is the highest USDA grade, Ung reports, but she doesn't tell you that cut also is the fattiest, most artery clogging available. 

The restaurant serves frozen lobster tails, and the only fish available is swordfish, which has a high mercury content. 

Steer clear of this place, if you know what's good for you.

Christie may be lying about GWB lane closures

In all of his self-serving statements about the early September George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee, above, Governor Christie has never spoken under oath. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The latest developments in the Bridgegate scandal could be a modern spin on the Biblical story of "Samson and De Liar."

"Samson" is Governor Christie's hand-picked Port Authority chairman, David Samson, a powerful New Jersey lawyer who has been called a father figure and mentor to the GOP bully.

After Samson was named to the unsalaried position, his law firm saw a significant increase in fees from lobbying and legal work for developers, NJ Transit and others, WNYC-FM and The Record have reported. 

Christie whitewash

But a day after an "internal" review supposedly cleared Christie of any wrongdoing in the George Washington Bridge lane closures, his Friday news conference brought us no closer to the truth about whether he is "de liar" in everything he's said -- none of it under oath (A-1).

In fact, an "ANALYSIS" on Page 1 today reports "many documents [in the 300-page report] appear to lend at least some credence" to the allegations against Christie (A-1).

Sacrificial officials

Samson resigned Friday, becoming at least the sixth official to take the fall for the governor, whose claim of being lied to by a vindictive staff just doesn't ring true.

The staffer who should resign is Christie's foul-mouthed chief press spokesman, former Star-Ledger reporter Michael Drewniak, a real low-life who made derogatory references to reporters and newspapers covering the scandal.

In reference to Christie's onetime Port Authority crony David Wildstein, Drewniak (rhymes with "maniac") threatened to "claw his eyes out, pour gasoline in the sockets and light them up" (A-6).

But the story and report do not provide any context for the threat.

Wildstein says he told Christie at a 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan about the lane closures as they were happening.

Political payback

Also hard to swallow is the report's claim that Christie "did not create a culture of political retaliation" against Democrats in Fort Lee, Hoboken and Jersey City who refused to endorse his bid for a second term last November.

Let's remember the internal review was led by prominent Republican lawyer Randy Mastro, a $1,000-an-hour practitioner who worked at a discount for Christie, but still managed to roll up a $1 million legal bill to choke taxpayers.

Critics aplenty

The lawyer for Bridget Anne Kelly, who sent the "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" e-mail as Christie's deputy chief of staff, blasted the report:

"The report's venomous, gratuitous and inappropriate sexist remarks concerning Ms. Kelly have no place in what is alleged to be a professional and independent report," attorney Michael Critchley said (A-1).

Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer says she's willing to go under oath and repeat her claims that Christie officials threatened Sandy aid money to her city.

The report, she said Thursday, is "a one-sided whitewash of serious misconduct by the Christie administration" that was "sadly predictable" (A-1 on Friday).

That says it all.

Photo puzzle

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza continues to rely on accident photos and captions that provide no real information to readers, but do fill out his thin local news report (L-1).

A story on five people arrested last Sunday in an assault on a Palisades Park parking attendant is missing information on whether the victim worked for a restaurant, bank or other business (L-2).