Editors ignore heart disease, even when it hits newsroom

Compare this photo of Mike Kelly, a reporter at The Record, taken from his own Web site, Mike Kelly Writer, to the dated, dark-haired thumbnail that appears with his Page 1 column today.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Mike Kelly has been writing a Record column for more than 25 years, but you would never know he is a survivor of heart disease, the No. 1 killer in the United States.

As you can see from his Page 1 column today, Kelly writes about nearly ever subject under the sun -- again and again -- rather than discuss the coronary bypasses that saved his life.

From working in the same newsroom with him for close to 30 years, I was impressed with how fit Kelly was -- tall, thin and in good shape from going out to jog during his shift.

So, how did a seemingly healthy man come close to dying? That would be a fascinating read.

Yet, after his operation, he returned to The Record and resumed his column, tackling the same subjects he had written about so many times before, including 9/11, Superstorm Sandy, Governor Christie and gun control.

Mostly, he pushes words around, and pads his columns with an excessive amount of background to fill a void -- Kelly rarely expresses an opinion about anything or blasts public officials like Christie.

Other staffers

But Kelly isn't the only staffer who ignores heart disease.

The Record has two medical writers, but neither has spent much time reporting on the causes of heart disease, and what readers can do to avoid ending up under the knife or dead from a sudden, irrevocable "widowmaker" attack. 

"Cardiac arrest" killed Alexander Kaplen, the Englewood resident whose obituary appears on the Local front today, and he was only 56. 

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz shows no understanding or concern, publishing numerous recipes filled with such artery clogging ingredients as butter and cream.

Restaurant critic Elisa Ung is totally obsessed with meat and dessert, and rarely orders a salad or vegetable at the lavish, expensive meals she enjoys on The Record's dime.

On Tuesday, excerpts from Ung's reviews of the Top 10 Restaurants of 2015 showed her clear preference for lamb, pork and beef over heart-healthy fish and other seafood.

Breaking news: Columnist reveals pigs are 'child-bearing'

One of the liveliest streets in downtown Hackensack is Banta Place, above and below, a single block between State and Main streets. On Main Street, opposite Banta Place, a developer plans to turn an old bank building into apartments.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Did Columnist Charles Stile actually write on the front page of The Record today that breeding pigs are confined to metal gestation crates for most of "their child-bearing lives"?

Yes, as unbelievable as that might seem.

The phrase is in the very first paragraph of his column about Governor Christie's expected veto of a bill that would ban the practice in New Jersey.

With his sights set on the White House, the GOP bully already vetoed the bill once before, so what is the point of today's column (A-1)?

Since 2010, Christie has shown as much regard for the middle and working classes in New Jersey as he has for pregnant pigs.

First Family

Maybe, Christie's piggish behavior and his overweight wife remind Stile of breeding pigs, given that their children are overweight, too.

Did nobody at the newspaper notice the words "child-bearing lives" in Stile's lead paragraph? 

Did anyone proof the front page before the paper went to press in far-off Rockaway Township?

Do Editor Martin Gottlieb, Stile's assignment editor, a copy editor and the copy editor's supervisor -- all of whom presumably read and edited the column -- think pigs have children?

Of course, Stile is not about to tell readers anything about the brutal practice of confining pigs to gestation crates.

For that you'll have to look at this video:

Crammed into gestation crates

Road hog

The editors put another pig on the front page today -- a 1962 Chrysler Newport, a shining example of the unsafe behemoths America produced when gas was really cheap.

In view of the climate-change crisis, you'd think The Record would praise a student who walked or biked to his high school or drove a gas-electric hybrid or all-electric car there.

Why haven't any of those students been on Page 1?

Here, Anthony Di Liberto, 17, of New Milford gets a lot of ink for driving a 2-ton car that probably doesn't get 10 mpg on premium and pollutes like crazy (A-1).

Hackensack news

Staff Writer Todd South, the reporter assigned to cover Hackensack, actually attended Tuesday night's City Council meeting, and makes a reference to the Nov. 10 meeting he didn't report (L-2).

But South is still keeping readers in the dark on the identity of "members of the public" whose repeated attacks have prompted officials to propose an ordinance to foster "civility and respect between the governing body and its very vocal critics."

Surely, South knows Richard Salkin, who is quoted extensively in today's story, is the attorney for the city's Board of Education, but he doesn't identify him as such.

Nor does South tell readers Salkin has a very sharp ax to grind: 

The former double dipper is an ally of the losing slate in the May 2013 election, and he was fired as municipal prosecutor by the new City Council.

Officers praised

South did a second story, reporting on the restraint shown by Hackensack Police Officers Edmund Meneses and Allan DeLeon when confronted by John Wolf, a suspect described in the story as "a 6-foot-5-inch, 250-pound black man with a knife" who wanted police to kill him (L-2).

With Ferguson all over the front page and other recent instances of New York City police killing black suspects, why wasn't this story on Page 1 today?

Oh, that's right, there wouldn't have been room for another column boosting the White House aspirations of our piggish governor.

The Zigelmans

A joint obituary for Rabbi Abraham Zigelman, 94, and his son, Dr. David Zigelman, 66, both of Fort Lee, suggests The Record missed or ignored the Nov. 7 death of the younger man (L-1).

According to Staff Writer Jay Levin, the doctor "died unexpectedly Nov. 7, possibly of a heart attack, his wife said."

Why "possibly"? No one knows for sure how a doctor died? Why was it unexpected, because the doctor led a healthy lifestyle and possibly was done in by stress?

Here is another example of how The Record continues to ignore heart disease, the leading cause of death for both men and women.

Loves animal fats

Just in time for Thanksgiving, freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson has just the recipe for turning leftover turkey into an unhealthy dish (BL-2).

Her Turkey Pot Pie needs only 10 tablespoons of artery clogging butter, 1 cup of whole milk and three-quarters of a cup of heavy cream.

Make sure you serve this with the telephone number of the local ambulance corps.

Too much 'Sopranos' fluff, too little substance

Construction on West 34th Street in Manhattan slowed New Jersey drivers heading to the Lincoln Tunnel on Friday afternoon, and some cars displaced pedestrians at this intersection. The Record continues to ignore the region's nightmarish traffic congestion and the need for more mass transit.

Newsroom boss Marty Gottlieb whipped his staff into a frenzy after the premature death of actor James Gandolfini, 51, a Bergen County native who portrayed mob boss Tony Soprano on TV.

Friday's coverage on Page 1, A-6 and the Sports front is way more than any reader wants to know about a single actor, and today's A-1 piece on Gandolfini and actor Don Draper is just a waste of space.

Meanwhile, the Better Living cover story today focuses on the medical aspects of Gandolfini's heart attack in Italy, and virtually ignores the dietary causes of clogged arteries (BL-1).

That's no surprise for a section whose food editors and writers promote recipes that rely on butter, heavy cream and other artery clogging ingredients.

Death has been in the news this week, so the L-1 obituary of environmentalist Ella Filippone, 78, should be on the front page today, in place of either the silly political or television column.

Racist fired

In a related development, it's too bad the Food Network didn't dump "celebrity cook" and racist Paula Dean long ago for pushing fried chicken and other unhealthy Southern dishes (A-1 and A-4 today).

Today's Local section also carries the obituary of Dr. Robert Manzi, 61, of Ridgefield -- the subject of a series in The Record -- but there is no explanation of how the paper missed his death 10 weeks ago (L-5).

Another obituary lists "pneumonia" as the cause of death for Scott Byers of Clifton, the "voice" of the world-famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

But a photo of Byers on Friday's L-6 leaves readers wondering whether obesity had anything to do with his untimely demise at 48.

Mean-spirited Christie

All of this hysterical coverage of Gandolfini's death forced The Record's editors to demote approval of Governor Christie's mean-spirited $33 billion state budget.

Running under a 1-column headline on Friday's front page, the story only mentions in passing cuts in women's health services, preschool education and tax credits for the working poor. 

With that fresh in mind, readers got a good laugh when they saw a quote from Christie on A-2 today, "When people are suffering, we're all Americans ...."

So, I guess we're to assume New Jersey's women, preschool children, the working poor and the middle class aren't "Americans," because the GOP bully treats them like shit.

Bipartisan lies

All of this "bipartisan" B.S. is coming from Christie, the King of Vetoes, and it's being regurgitated by the editors.

They, in turn, pull the strings of Staff Writers Herb Jackson, Melissa Hayes, John Reitmeyer, and Columnists Charles Stile and Alfred P. Doblin, editor of the editorial page.

Road Warrior errors

Friday's Road Warrior column neglects to tell readers that calling #77 to alert the state police about aggressive driving or road rage does little good, if you can't supply a license-plate number.

The problem lies in Staff Writer John Cichowski's almost total reliance on e-mails from drivers whose observation skills are questionable and whose  exaggerations are evident (L-1 on Friday).

Cichowski's previous Road Warrior report -- Wednesday's piece on Route 80 bathrooms or the lack thereof -- was the 14th column in a row with major errors, according to a concerned reader's e-mail to management

See the full e-mail on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior pisses all over himself again

Are they blind?

Production Editor Liz Houlton's copy editors keep on embarrassing the paper.

Today's Page 1 photo has an over line that could have been written by a 12-year-old, and neglects to report how the accident caused massive problems for commuters:

"TRUCK STUCK ON TRACKS HIT BY TRAIN"

If that's not bad enough, the photo caption describes the truck as a "tractor-trailer," when readers can clearly see a round tanker, not a square trailer (A-1).

I have an over line to suggest:

FIRE 6-FIGURE PRODUCTION EDITOR

Don't expect a focus on the causes of heart disease

Hackensack Police Director Mike Mordaga got some good news today from a federal judge, who threw out a lawsuit filed by a dead mobster's family against Mordaga, who was then chief of detectives for the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, according to a front-page story in The Record.

Hit men couldn't bring down Tony Soprano, but the actor who portrayed him on TV was killed prematurely by "a massive heart attack" on Wednesday in Italy.

The Record apparently tore up the front page on Tuesday night to report the unexpected, late-breaking death of James Gandolfini, 51, who was from Bergen County.

How times have changed.

On 9/11, The Record's editors -- citing the extra expense -- refused to remake Page 1 for Tom Franklin's unusual photo of firefighters raising the American flag over the ruins of the World Trade Center -- a potential winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Photography.

The photo ran on a back page. Now, North Jersey Media Group spends tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees to sue outsiders who use the copyrighted photo.

Poor coverage

The Gandolfini coverage is full of holes.

I hate the headline -- "Jersey's family man" -- a play on the Jersey Mafia stereotype.

It's especially bad because "The Sopranos" never rang true. Leave it to television to turn a mob boss, one of the lowest forms of life on earth, into a likable guy.

Editors in denial

I don't expect to see any coverage in The Record of the causes of heart disease or whether Gandolfini's diet and weight had anything to do with his death.

The Woodland Park daily has at least two obese editors who are in denial, and a bunch of food writers who obsess over bacon, dessert and other unhealthy dishes.

Staff Writer Mike Kelly waited 7 long months before writing a column about his heart problems, but couldn't bring himself to do so in the first person.

And just try to follow today's editorial on the classification of obesity as a "disease" (A-8).

Real mobster

The Gandolfini obit runs today next to an A-1 story about a real-life mobster, Frank Lagano of Tenafly, whose family tried to pin blame for his unsolved 2007 rub out on county law enforcement officials.

Mike Mordaga, Hackensack's civilian police director, was the last defendant in the suit, which was dismissed Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Faith S. Hochberg.

The notoriously inaccurate copy desk and Production Editor Liz Houlton strike again with the headline:

"Lawsuit

against

officer

tossed"

Mordaga wasn't an "officer" when the suit was filed and he isn't an "officer" now.

It takes nearly a week to get it right

Image via Wikipedia
Oprah Winfrey has a new network, but her interviewing skills leave a lot to be desired when it comes to exploring Governor Christie's weight problem and the obesity epidemic.

Alex DeCroce is back on the front page again today -- nearly a week after he died in a State House bathroom.

The Record has published thousands of words about the life and death of the Republican state assemblyman from Morris County -- completely out of proportion to his prominence -- because he was one of Governor Christie's key allies.

But what The Record failed to report was what killed DeCroce on Monday night, and readers noticed the glaring omission in Tuesday's lavish front-page coverage and in a follow-up story on Friday.

Heart of the matter

Today, it takes a Page 1 funeral Mass story from The Daily Record, which once competed with The Record, to finally inform readers that DeCroce, 75, died of a "heart-related problem."

Abbott Koloff, The Daily Record's reporter, quotes the state police on the cause of death. Imagine that. A reporter called the state police to ask about a death in the State House. 

This is Reporting 101.

Why didn't interim Editor Douglas Clancy and all of The Record's other editors and reporters think of that? And is it any surprise DeCroce's death is linked to heart disease?

The Record is so fixated on autism and so determined to ignore the problems of older people, its editors apparently are totally unaware of just how common heart problems are.

In fact, on A-4, a story reports former presidential candidate John Edwards has a serious heart condition.

Hand kissing at funeral

On A-6, the continuation of the DeCroce story, a photo of a chivalrous Christie shows that he definitely has the hots for the widow, BettyLou DeCroce, who may fill her husband's Assembly seat. 

Page A-2 carries two more embarrassing corrections and a clarification.

Check out A-3 for an unflattering photo of Christie with Oprah Winfrey. He makes her look svelte.

In an interview scheduled to air Sunday, Oprah apparently fails to find out how much the GOP bully weighs or whether he has lost weight working out with a personal trainer.

Nor does the story mention whether Christie and the first lady, Mary Pat Christie, are doing anything about the epidemic of obesity in New Jersey.

Cops make news again

If you're looking for Hackensack municipal news, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section disappoints once again today.

On L-1, Staff Writer Stephanie Akin has yet another account of legal problems in the Police Department -- a day after the story appeared in the weekly Hackensack Chronicle.

The section has lots of other news about the police as well as police and court news on every page but L-4, which is filled with death notices.

On the Better Living front, an article on the health benefits of tai chi lists only one class for beginners -- in Little Falls.

That may be close to the Woodland Park newsroom, but it's far from the majority of readers.

Can you believe big-city paper's food writing?

Image by Adventures in Librarianship via Flickr

The Record today carries an article from the Chicago Tribune on nutritious foods, including sardines (Page F-3). Because I eat a lot of sardines, one sentence caught my eye: "Avoid sardines packed in vegetable oil, which is high in pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids."

Before I dump all my sardines in oil and replace them with cans of fish in tomato sauce, I did some research and came across this from the American Heart Association:

DALLAS, Jan. 27, 2009 — Omega-6 fatty acids – found in vegetable oils, nuts and seeds – are a beneficial part of a heart-healthy eating plan, according to a science advisory published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

So who do you believe, Julie Deardorff of the Chicago Tribune (whoever she is) or America's heart doctors? The link to the AHA article is below:

Omega-6 fatty acids can be part of healthy diet

The lesson here is that material supplied by other newspapers, even big ones, shouldn't be run without a local editor such as Bill Pitcher and the features copy desk going over it thoroughly and editing it with North Jersey readers in mind. Unfortunately, Pitcher and his copy editors often are literally out to lunch.