Reporter wins Black Hole in Journalism Award

On Wednesday, Englewood police chose to close North Dean Street during the afternoon rush hour, above, further aggravating the city's well-known traffic congestion. Officials have refused to install turn lanes on North Dean at Palisade Avenue, arguing the city can't afford to lose revenue from the half-dozen downtown parking meters that would have to be removed or the paint needed to mark the pavement with lines and arrows.

In Hackensack, officials have decided to wait for the spring thaw to melt this snowbank, which prevents two cars from passing on two-way Euclid Avenue.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

In Road Warrior John Cichowski's warped mind, the George Washington Bridge, state highways and shopping centers are "landmarks."

The slalom competition at the Olympics is a "ride," and cars can be seen "bobbing up and down as they approached highway queues."

Readers find all of this odd language today on Page 1 of The Record, which presents the addled reporter's annual "Black Hole Awards" for the worst potholes in North Jersey (A-1 and A-8).

The columnist who is famous for assembling his rantings and ravings from reader e-mails, state police surveys and reports tells readers in the second paragraph that he actually left the office for "first-hand ... observations."

The Black Hole in Journalism Award again goes to Cichowski for allowing facts to get swallowed up by his need to exaggerate, and for giving a pass to most municipal crews for all of the destructive potholes that haven't been filled.

Actually, the Tyson Trish photo with his column today should get an award for its nearly pavement-level perspective of potholes on Route 4, near Route 17 (A-1).

They both suck

If you think Cichowski's column sucks, check out Political Stile next to it on the front page (A-1).

It took Trenton reporter Charles Stile a full 24 hours to realize Governor Christie couldn't be more different than Mahatma Gandhi, whom the GOP bully quoted in his budget address on Tuesday.

Stile actually tracked down Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi, who said, "Sometimes we refer to New Jersey as India's 29th province" (A-5).

Fender benders

For years, the local assignment editors used photos of fender benders to fill space that would otherwise remain empty.

Now, it seems, to make the paper the photo must show that a vehicle door was removed to free the driver, as in today's photo on L-3 and Wednesday's image on L-6, both by Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi. 

Unfocused reporting is cheating readers

Instead of fighting for a seat on a bus into Manhattan, Road Warrior John Cichowski chose a ferry for his "commute."

Horror master Stephen King was walking with his back to traffic when he was struck and seriously injured by the minivan of a distracted driver in 1999 near the author's summer home.

Two teenage girls walking with their backs to traffic in Kinnelon were killed by an intoxicated driver in 2006.

And, over the weekend, the 2010 Paramus High School valedictorian was jogging along a road in the Poconos when she was struck and killed by a pickup truck -- earning her two straight days of front-page coverage in The Record.

Pennsylvania State Police say Gabrielle Reuveni, 20, was running with her back to traffic. 

Focus on driver

Does The Record focus on this common error by walkers and joggers, and provide tips for readers on safe practices? No.

Instead, it slaps a trite headline on today's follow-up ("A senseless death"), and focuses on the apparently unstable driver -- though what his "rap sheet" has to do with the accident eludes many readers.

Sadly, Reuveni contributed to her own death. She was a victim both of the driver and of the media's unfocused reporting.

The message that should be reported is: Face traffic and live. 


Paper is in a jam

Also on Page 1 today, The Record threw "a traffic nightmare" and no one came.

Readers of the Woodland Park daily have been bombarded with horror stories predicting George Washington Bridge gridlock, but when Monday dawned, nothing happened. 

Of course, the paper long has ignored daily rush-hour gridlock in and around North Jersey, and how an inadequate mass-transit system provides little relief.

Ferry reporter

Today, Road Warrior John Cichowski reports he actually tried mass transit as his "contribution to this newspaper's coverage of Monday's expected traffic jam to end all traffic jams" (L-1).

Did he ride an SRO-only NJ Transit express bus into the city or board a train to Secaucus and switch to a second train into New York?

No. That would be beneath him. He took the most expensive way to get to Manhattan after driving -- the Weehawken ferry.

Not in the press release

Also on the Local front today, a story says NJ Transit doesn't know how much the agency is losing from the use of counterfeit bus and rail tickets (L-1).

But WBGO-FM's news report on Monday said the transportation agency is losing $3 million a year.

Selling low quality

On the Better Living front, leave it to Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung to help butchers at Fairway Market and other stores hide the antibiotics, growth hormones and other harmful additive used to raise beef cattle ("BEEF ON A BUDGET," BL-1).

I guess Ung and Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill haven't seen the August 2012 issue of Consumer Reports or the hundreds of other articles on how consumption of animal antibiotics makes drugs given to humans less effective.

"The declining effectiveness of [human] antibiotics is becoming a national health crisis," Conusmers Union has declared.

The magazine's policy and action arm said: "A whopping 80 percent of the antibiotics in the U.S. are used not for human health but by the meat and poultry industry to make animals grow faster and to prevent sickness in crowded and unsanitary conditions."

Why did the editors wait until now?

Starting Monday, the George Washington Bridge is expected to be gridlocked during the morning commute because of road work on New York's Alexander Hamilton span.

You'll find more information on mass-transit alternatives to commuting by car at the bottom of Page 1 of The Record today than I've seen in at least a decade.

Even the transit-adverse Road Warrior discusses riding a bicycle to the Weehawken ferry (Local front).

Why did it take a major road-repair project less than a mile east of the George Washington Bridge to unleash this relative torrent of advice from the car-loving editors and their so-called transportation writers?

Why did The New York Times and the Daily News publish subway columns for many years, while The Record's editors ignored the quality of train and bus service into Manhattan and around North Jersey? 

More lazy editing

Most of the stories in today's Sunday edition raise more questions than they answer, and poor editing makes it a chore to read them.

The main A-1 element, "Drinking water going to waste," should have told readers in the first paragraph the cost is ultimately passed on to consumers, and not wait until the continuation page (A-6).

The rare appearance of Jean Rimbach's byline on the front page only reminds readers of how she remains one of the least productive members of the staff -- due chiefly to her friendship with head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes.

Her story on multimillionaire developer Fred Daibes reports he was fined $1.6 million for completing several riverfront projects without an EPA permit at his French restaurant in Edgewater (A-6), but readers have to plow through a lot of copy to get there.

Shouldn't the focus be on whether someone who apparently broke environment laws can be entrusted to clean up 11 acres of pollution on the waterfront?

Christie's waistline

There's a huge amount of copy about Governor Christie today -- an A-1 column, a long A-5 story and an Opinion front column -- but no one seems to notice that he is growing fatter by the day, calling into question whether he is fit enough to run New Jersey, let alone run for vice president.

Just look at the unflattering photos of the GOP bully on A-5, O-1 and O-4. 

Kelly errs again

On the Opinion front, The Record's editors continue to allow their reporters to interpret and improvise on the report issued in the fatal police shooting of Malik Williams, 19, of Garfield.

Today, Columnist Mike Kelly claims Williams was shot and killed "after he emerged [from a garage] cursing at pursuing officers and waving a hammer and saw."

Boy, did Kelly screw up again.

Prosecutor John L. Molinelli's long-delayed report on the Dec. 10 shooting said Williams "advanced towards" the two officers, holding a hammer and a saw.

Molinelli said Williams was holding the tools "in an aggressive, threatening manner," but didn't specify what the suspect was actually doing, and the prosecutor never answered questions from reporters.

There is nothing in the June 27 report about Williams "waving" the tools,  just as previous stories were wrong in saying the suspect was "charging" the officers. 

Apples and oranges

On the Better Living front today, an elaborately promotional column on Applebee's compares apples to oranges.

In discussing the chain restaurant's new "seasonal" menu, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung concludes you can find fresher food at a farmer's market.

Ung has spent tens of thousands of The Record's dollars eating out at restaurants all over North Jersey, leaving no dessert untouched.

Surely, she could have named places that do serve fresh, seasonal food as an alternative to the mediocre fare at Applebee's.

So, why didn't she?

Editors give belated nod to mass transit

Traffic has reached the point of no return.

A "looming" traffic nightmare on the New Jersey side of the George Washington Bridge is expected to boost mass transit use, The Record reports on Page 1 today, in belated recognition of the region's bus and rail service.

Car-centric coverage by the editors and their transportation writers, including Road Warrior John Cichowski, makes readers think "bus" and "train" are synonyms for the F-word.

Daily nightmare

Commuters are caught in traffic nightmares every weekday and an overburdened mass-transit system can't provide much relief now or in the immediate future, especially after Governor Christie killed a major expansion of rail service.

 

Buried in today's GWB story is a "never mind" on the massive traffic jams The Record predicted in March in connection with repair of Route 495, the so-called helix to the Lincoln Tunnel (A-4).

Now, Staff Writer Shawn Boburg reports, the Port Authority plans to do the work between 10:30 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. on weeknights, so the roadway can be reopened for the morning rush-hour commute.

Second bus lane?

But Boburg still has not asked agency officials why they have ignored repeated calls to add a second reverse lane into the tunnel to relieve crowding on Manhattan-bound buses.

The best thing on A-1 today is a touching obituary for Steve and Polly Gerdy, a Little Falls couple married for  64 years. They died 17 hours apart in separate hospitals.

Keep on trucking

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes ordered an artistic photo of an overturned truck in Fort Lee blown up as big as possible to fill a huge hole on the front of the Local news section (L-1).

Sykes also needed stories about an OTB parlor and a motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Giants and Jets to plug other holes in municipal-news coverage (L-1 and L-3).

Hackensack reporter Stephanie Akin helped cover a hearing in Superior Court -- the only connection to her beat being the location of the courthouse (A-1).

Second look

One driver who contributes to daily congestion is Irvin Gordon, a Long Island man who claims to have rolled up nearly 3 million miles in his 1966 Volvo.

On Monday's A-5, a photo shows an overweight Gordon wedged in the door of the sports coupe after years of driving from one fast-food restaurant to another and taking all of his meals there.

Dear Marty: Seven ways to save The Record

Image via Wikipedia
It's a long way from The Times' new building in Manhattan to the unmarked office building on Garret Mountain in Woodland Park where The Record has set up shop. 

Editor's note: Marty Gottlieb is leaving his position as global editions editor at The New York Times to take over as editor of  The Record of Woodland Park some time early in the new year. Here is an open letter to Gottlieb on changes he should seriously consider to save the dysfunctional local newspaper.

Dear Marty:


In editorial terms, The Record of Woodland Park has been running in place for more than a decade -- laboring under the same tired editors -- and there's been a noticeable lack of hustle in gathering local and North Jersey news.


Here are a lucky seven changes you should consider to save the onetime great daily newspaper: 

1. Re-assign the local assignment desk, now run so poorly by Editor Deirdre Sykes, a lifer who can't get out of her own way to inspire the staff. If the assignment desk is the heart and soul of a newspaper, this one has suffered cardiac arrest.
2. Try and change a newsroom culture where several Sykes' favorites do as little work as possible or are allowed to pursue endless investigative projects.
3. Remove Sykes as an impediment to promotion in the newsroom, where only staffers she "likes" get anywhere. For example, news copy editors have gone on to better jobs at The Times, but none has ever been promoted to Sykes' assignment desk.
4. Replace the tired voices of Columnists John Cichowski, Mike Kelly and Bill Ervolino, all of whom ran out of ideas long ago. (See their stale columns in today's paper on L-1, O-1 and F-3, respectively.)
5. Empower the news copy desk, which was relegated years ago to the minor role of headline and caption writing. For that to happen, the news copy editors must be allowed to edit stories and suggest ways the assignment editors can repair them. And their copy desk supervisors, Liz Houlton and Vinny Byrne, should re-instate the high standards of accuracy and language enforced by Co-Slot Nancy Cherry before she left as part of a 2008 downsizing.
6. Change the focus of local-news gathering. Instead of only covering meetings or re-writing press releases and quoting the same officials and gadflies day after day, assignment editors should encourage reporters to go in search of  residents and quote them for a change, writing a "Talk of the Town" where appropriate. Local reporters also should be allowed to write a clearly labeled "analysis" or column on important or controversial issues.
7. Take on the really big issues -- from the broken home-rule system of government to a state tax policy that protects millionaires to the obesity epidemic -- that Sykes, interim Editor Douglas Clancy and former Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale did their best to ignore. For that to happen, the newspaper needs to treat Governor Christie more objectively and not constantly anoint him as a gift from the political gods. 

Good luck, Marty. You're about to enter a hornet's nest of a newsroom, where Publisher Stephen A. Borg, a marketing whiz, has had the upper hand since mid-2006, when he took over from his Dad. 

The younger Borg did his best to get rid of many older newsroom staffers in the downsizing that preceded the move out of Hackensack, and here you come at the age of 63. I can't wait to see what happens.


All the best in 2012,
Victor E. Sasson
Eye on The Record

Today's paper

Besides being a few months late, today's Page 1 story on the easing of property tax hikes ignores why Governor Christie hasn't been able to fulfill his major campaign pledge -- to lower those taxes -- even though he's been in office for almost two years.


Nor does the story explain why Hackensack raised taxes by 6.9%, compared to most other towns, which complied with a 2% cap.


On the front of Local, it's bad enough the Road Warrior column is based on readers' e-mails and strays once again from its core mission of discussing commuting problems.


But John Cichowski's answer to at least one question ignores reality. Asked why traffic on the 80/95 local lanes to the George Washington Bridge moves faster than on express lanes, Cichowski makes up a silly answer, instead of explaining there are only two express lanes, compared to at least three local lanes.


At the bottom of L-1, a look back at notable and intriguing North Jerseyans who died in 2011 begs the question why most of their expanded obituaries were buried inside the section.


There is no Hackensack new in Local today, but in letters to the editor on O-3, residents Joseph Urban and Richard Gelber question the city's change in insurance carriers, which was reported in Thursday's paper. 


Urban notes the apparent conflict of interest in the payment of more than $500,000 to  the firm of City Attorney Joseph Zisa, cousin of suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa.


Despite numerous stories about Ken Zisa's legal problems in recent years, The Record has never examined the propriety of this arrangement with Joseph Zisa -- in a city some residents refer to as "Zisaville." Frank Zisa, the family patriarch, died on June 8, 2011, at 91.


Related articles

• Timesman named editor of The Record (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Editors ditch their objectivity (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• 'Chocolate Face' discovers mass transit (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Editors can't stomach big issues (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Is PSE&G responsible for two deaths? (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

Screwing of commuters is complete

Image via Wikipedia

Commuters may emulate Gen. George Washington, standing in boat, to avoid higher tolls on the bridge named after him, as well as on other Port Authority crossings.

Will readers ever learn whether the $1.50 toll hike "compromise" heralded on the front page of The Record today is, in fact, another back-room deal by the bloated, free-spending Port Authority and the governors of New York and New Jersey?


Staff Writer Shawn Boburg, who wrote the A-1 lead, has already reported Governor Christie had been briefed before the toll-and-fare hike proposal was made public, only to feign surprise. 


Now, let' s hope Editor Francis Scandale has told the reporter to follow through.


Boburg provides no details today on how car-pool and other discounts will be affected when the first hike goes into effect next month.


Nor does he report whether the toll hikes would have been even lower if Christie didn't grab $1.8 billion in PA funds to repair New Jersey roads -- so he could squirm out of raising the state's low gas tax to pay for those projects.


Finger pointing


Liz Houlton's news copy desk leaves readers in the lurch again with the photo caption for the Page 1 Wall Street story. The photo shows two traders pointing their fingers, but the caption says:


"Philip Finale, left, directing trades on the floor" of the stock exchange. So what's the finger-pointing  guy on the right doing, also directing trades, blaming Finale or what?


Road to nowhere


Can anyone figure out what Road Warrior John Cichowski is trying to say about the toll-and-fare hikes in his L-1 column today?


The columnist, who is supposed to be writing about commuting, waited until today -- the day of the vote on the proposal -- to say something serious about a plan first unveiled on Aug. 6. 


The big local story is the trial of a former Rockland County police officer on a firearms possession charge (L-1).


Bruised and beaten


The big Hackensack story today is yet another renovation at Hackensack University Medical Center, which threatens to swallow the neighborhood whole (L-2).


Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado didn't bother to get any comment from beleaguered residents.


She works for Editor Deirdre Sykes, who runs the laziest assignment desk in the United States and Canada, including the North Pole.


HUMC gets more ink in The Record than any other hospital in the world. Does that have anything to do with Vice President/General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg, a former member of the hospital board?


Another broken photo caption is on L-6, where the copy editor basically echoes what he had written in the headline over the obituary of George Turrell, rather than telling readers something new.


Dumplings or dump?


On Page 19 of Better Living, the health inspections column reports the closing of Petite Soo Chow, a Chinese restaurant in Cliffside Park, for the second time since Staff Writer Elisa Ung gave it a rave review in September 2008.

I'd like to take a baseball bat and ...

Image by wallyg via Flickr

I guess it will take the fat end of a baseball bat shoved up Editor Frank Scandale's you-know-what before the "Castrato" stops wasting readers' time by covering Page 1 of  The Record of Woodland Park with the exploits of overpaid baseball players, such as today's big color photo of pumped-up Yankee Alex Rodriguez. 


Given the state's fiscal mess, outrageous property taxes, a broken home-rule system and numerous other concerns, you'd think there is plenty of other news worthy of A-1. But Scandale, who was castrated by Publisher Stephen A. Borg's almost total revamp of news and feature coverage, continues to lord over the front page and give priority to the interests of a minority of his North Jersey readers.


Many of the other stories in today's paper raised questions that were never answered, on A-1 or elsewhere. For example, why is no wealthy New Jersey resident among those answering Warren Buffett's call to pledge half their wealth to charity? Why didn't the Borgs respond?


I wanted to know a lot more about what looks like the meaningless death of a 21-year Glen Rock woman, who witnesses said walked head-on into a moving NJ Transit train with her head down, and why the Ramsey station didn't have better safety measures. The L-1 story says the woman raised money for a suicide-prevention group, but doesn't explore the possibility she committed suicide.


Of course, if the train fatality was played on A-1, as it deserves to be instead of baseball, then head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes wouldn't have anything to put on the front of her pathetic Local section, which has had only one Englewood story since July 15.


Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado follows Wednesday's confusing story on school board re-votes with a deadly dull piece today on legal maneuvering in the disciplinary hearing of a police lieutenant, yet writes almost an entire column to say the hearing may be postponed. She has yet to write about the city budget, tax hike or new mayor. Teaneck reporter Joseph Ax has another story about that endangered giant oak tree.


Reporters love press tours, such as the one the Port Authority gave Wednesday to publicize a 75-year-old aviation warning beacon atop a tower of the George Washington Bridge (the L-2 story doesn't say which tower). The clueless assignment desk sent Tom Davis and a photographer out, but has never nagged the transportation reporter to ride on and write about the decrepit NJ Transit buses that creak and moan along local routes.

Can you make any sense of the A-16 editorial that seems to be calling for reform of the home-rule system of municipal government? There is so much in here about raw sewage, maybe the editorial is just more timid bullshit from Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin. 


A second letter to the editor says the entrance to the new Overpeck Park is hard to find, and, like the first, the paper simply prints Paramus resident Richard Conroy's complaint today, but fails to indicate how to get there (try Challenger Boulevard in Ridgefield Park.)

On the front of Better Living, that long piece about the best lobster roll in New York City would have been more useful to readers if Food Editor Bill Pitcher or one of Feature Director Barbara Jaeger's young staffers weighed in on  North Jersey options. Hint: CIA-trained Chef Christine Nunn offers two lobster rolls, with slaw and fries, for $30 at Picnic, the Restaurant, in Fair Lawn.

Soft news is no news

Image by p_x_g via Flickr

The Record of Woodland Park has cranked up its elaborate publicity machine for Governor Christie. Today, it presents a flattering Page 1 account of the governor's plans for the Meadowlands by reporter John Brennan, master of schlock.

The story begins by saying Christie faces a "constellation" of problems. Wouldn't that be thousands of problems? Then, the reporter says, Christie intends to use "the same pugnacious style that marked his campaign." How much did the Governor's Office pay for that line?

This is the same reporter who wrote a long profile of Jayson Williams and downplayed the former athlete's problems with alcohol that led to the killing of his limo drive.

Today's Christie story doesn't even have a "peg," the event on which a lot of stories hang. No. This is a long, speculative piece that would be more appropriate for the Opinion section. There is no real news in the other front page stories today, including a second by Brennan.

How about a consolation prize in the Local section today? Sorry, residents of Teaneck, Hackensack, Englewood and many other important Bergen County towns, you won't find any education, municipal or development news about your town.

Englewood reporter Giovanna Fabiano jumps on manhole explosions in the shopping district, interviewing people as if it was a terrorist attack, and there is a color photo of  PSE&G employees standing around and doing nothing. No one was hurt. 

But the death of an Englewood woman who was run down in Union Township is treated as "filler," with no attempt to tell readers anything about a 28-year-old killed in the prime of her life while crossing the street and talking on her cellphone.

Last year, Stephen A. Borg, president of North Jersey Media Group, pledged during a symposium in Fair Lawn to continue "an editorial focus on downtowns." He added: "It's important that we continue to let people know about the depth and diversity of Bergen County."

Since he gave that speech in May, The Record has published three long stories about downtown Ridgewood, but none about Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood -- three of the most diverse communities in the paper's circulation area.

Today's paper, like so many others before it, shows the Borgs are merely absentee landlords. More troubling, is whether Stephen Borg's speech was yet another attempt to deceive --  much like listing the paper's headquarters as 150 River St., Hackensack, on Page 2 every day, or telling staffers at his first meeting with them in 2006, "I'm not in this for the money"?