Demonizing Obama, teachers

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Can't you see the lazy, incompetent editors of The Record of Woodland Park rubbing their hands in glee at the opportunity to demonize President Obama and North Jersey teachers -- the two major stories on today's front page?

What's with the unflattering photo of Obama in his big moment of triumph, signing health-care reform into law? Why run a big, A-1 photo showing him with his eyes closed (another black man with vision problems, like ethically challenged New York Gov. David Paterson)? That surely wasn't the only photo available.

And why give health-care reform such a negative spin, with a photo over line reading "LAWSUITS COME QUICKLY AFTER BILL SIGNING"? Again, that seems designed to deprive Obama and supporters of their big victory. (Photo: A handsome Barack Obama takes oath of office.) One thing you can say about the conservative editors: They love aggravating readers.


It makes sense that court challenges to health-care reform would be embraced by the unhealthy editors I worked with at The Record. There was no limit on their sick time, so they could be out for weeks with back problems or with the flu (they refused to get a flu shot). Of course, those employees raised the cost of health insurance for the rest of us, who, like me, had a great attendance record and had to take up the slack when they were "sick."

The second punching bag today are teachers, as they have been for years in The Record, where editors have blamed their salaries and the salaries of police officers for why property taxes are so high in all the little, inefficient towns we live in. So Governor Christie gets the lead position on the front with his call that teachers forgo raises and pay for medical benefits to make up cuts in state aid and avoid layoffs.

What has the governor given up in this austere time? What about the Borgs and his other rich, ruling-class friends? What sacrifices are they making?  The Record is silent on that.

The Hackensack news blackout continues in Local, where only Passaic County schools are discussed in "every day" education coverage. Haitian relief stands in for any news from Teancek and Englewood.

Is it fair to call The Record's editors racist? You decide, but first recall  how Editor Frank Scandale got rid of his only black columnist and his only Hispanic columnist; count the few minority staffers in the newsroom; consider how clueless head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes does her best to ignore Hackensack, with its large black and Hispanic populations; and weigh the deliberately negative treatment of the president on Page 1.

How The Record baits readers

Image by SEIU International via Flickr

If you are going to be a reporter at The Record of Woodland Park, you have to learn how to bait readers. And the best way to do that with home rule is to tell readers their taxes are going to go up -- preferably in the lead paragraph of your story -- even if that isn't true.

None other than Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson does that today in his Page 1 story on the historic passage of health-care reform. He's dying to goad readers into finishing his story (and maybe feeling  bad about the reforms). I can recall the health-care reform demonstration Jackson covered, carefully omitting any mention of hysterical protesters who compared the Obama plan to the Holocaust. He's some reporter.

Today, his first paragraph says the House overhaul "expands coverage by raising taxes [and] imposing new fees." Isn't it irresponsible to write that without saying right away which taxpayers are going to get hit? You have to wait for the last paragraph of his story to find out the Borgs and other wealthy families will be the ones paying higher taxes and insurance companies will be paying the higher fees. I say, Hooray.

I'm glad Democrats finally got their act together or the incompetent, jock-itching editors would have undoubtedly put Tiger Woods on the front page again. 

The second story on the front is by Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado, whose dereliction of duty in covering Hackensack municipal and school affairs is well-known. Her last story in that vein ran Dec. 14.

Today's A-1 story involves Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa, who partly owned a company that sold three properties in Paterson to a woman now accused in a mortgage scam. Alvarado has written numerous stories about cops' lawsuits against the chief, but seems unable to bring herself to ask the city's mayor and council why they don't suspend Zisa.

Instead, she apparently has been told by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes to pursue the Zisa story wherever it will take her -- even if that means blacking out Hackensack readers for months at a time. As you may know, Alvarado was sidetracked on the Michael Mordaga vendetta for about two years before the results of that woefully weak "investigation" were published Dec. 16.


I guess I should be paying more attention to Jimmy Margulies, whose Sunday cartoon was so ambiguous on how Governor Christie is treating the rich. Today, his cartoon, on A-11, purports that in the face of looming state aid cuts, town officials are actively considering "consolidation, regionalization, merger [and] shared services."


From the cartoonist's pen to God's ears. Does Margulies live in North Jersey? Have you heard of any home-rule towns, with the possible exception of Teaneck and Bogota, discussing major ways to economize? Maybe he is privy to closed-door meetings. I feel this kind of distortion just pisses off local taxpayers.


Englewood reporter Giovanna Fabiano has an L-1 story today on an Englewood-based agency helping homeowners facing foreclosure. Her last story about the city ran March 4. 

I don't think she spends that much time in Englewood or you'd expect her to get to the bottom of why stores and restaurants on and off Palisade Avenue have been closing in recent years. Is it just the economy or are landlords too greedy? The latest is Zeytinia, the upscale food market across from City Hall. And I don't think she reported the ShopRite in Englewood was forced to throw away thousands of dollars worth of food during the storm-related power outage last week.

The Al Frech mystery

The Record of Woodland Park gave a big  chunk of  the editorial page Nov. 25 to an attack on both health-care reform and Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. from Al Frech, saying only that he "lives in Wayne." Virtually all other opinion writers have been identified by the newspaper.


In 1999, Dr. Al Frech was identified on the Web site of  Ramapo College of New Jersey as director of its Center for Health and Counseling Services. He apparently is a psychologist with a PhD, not a medical doctor.

Does that qualify Frech to write about health-care reform? Is anything he says close to being accurate or is he another critic who distorts what the reform bill will and will not do for his own purposes?

Why didn't The Record identify him or respond to inquiries from readers? Is this another example of sloppy journalism, like Thursday's front-page listing of stores open on Thanksgiving that failed to note exceptions in Paramus?