Exxon deal, roads are bigger stories than vaccinations

Gasoline prices below $2 a gallon are just a memory. Take that, drivers of gas-guzzling SUVs who speed and hog the road.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's front page exposes Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record to charges he is a slave to the conservative agenda adopted by Governor Christie and congressional Republicans.

Four of the five main elements on A-1 cast such issues as vaccinating schoolchildren, a pollution settlement and a nuclear deal with Iran in strictly partisan terms -- Republicans v. Democrats.

Gottlieb even legitimizes a crackpot group's wildly distorted estimates of road building and maintenance costs in New Jersey in an effort to kill any gas-tax increase (A-1).

Leading the paper with the so-called controversy over vaccinations is bewildering.

Ugly politics

The real controversies involve Governor Christie caving in to Exxon Mobil, and the transportation crisis brought on by the GOP bully's refusal to raise the gasoline tax to repair roads, bridges and rails.

One example of how politics is allowed to influence many of The Record's stories is today's report on the proposed $225 million settlement with Exxon Mobil Corp. for $8.9 billion in damages (A-1).

Staff Writers Scott Fallon and James O'Neill write almost the entire story as a battle between Democrats and Christie's party.

They note "Christie's practice of siphoning funds from environmental settlements to close state budget gaps instead of using the money for restoration efforts" (A-6). 

But in a related story at the bottom of the same page (A-6), O'Neill quotes a Democrat, Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, on Christie's money grab, casting it as a partisan issue.

Of course, this and just about every other story neglects to point out the state's ongoing fiscal crisis is caused by Christie's refusal to impose a tax surcharge on millionaires and raise the gas tax, two moves that would raise billions of dollars.

'Breaking news'

In his Feb. 22 column bestowing 2015 Black Hole Awards, Road Warrior John Cichowski neglected to warn drivers about numerous potholes on Route 4 west.

In today's column, the confused reporter is Johnny-come-Lately for two drivers I know who lost a total of five tires on that highway between Englewood and Hackensack (L-1).

Cichowski isn't the only disoriented reporter in the Woodland Park newsroom.

Staff Writer Hugh Morley insists the Tesla Motors showroom he visited (and wrote about in December) is on "Route 17 west" in Paramus (L-7).

Of course, that highway runs north and south.

How did his editor, a news editor, a copy editor and their supervisors miss that blatant error?

Hospital coverage sickens readers

Image via Wikipedia
The Record ran an OpEd column by former Gov. Christie Whitman, but editors don't think much of her idea for a bipartisan presidential ticket. The story is on A-3 today. 

Starting on Page 1 of The Record today, more than 80 inches of text, headlines and a photo are devoted to a subject few readers care about: the future of The Valley Hospital.


Did Publisher Stephen A. Borg -- a member of the President's Council at the Ridgewood hospital -- have anything to do with this extensive "analysis" -- just the latest in a seemingly endless stream of stories in recent years?


The President's Council is a group of community and business leaders who "learn about the work" of the hospital and serve "as liaisons to The Valley Hospital community," according to the hospital Web site. 


Of course, Borg's affiliation is not mentioned in today's extensive coverage nor has it ever been mentioned in previous stories.


Cain wasn't able


Another non-story dominates Interim Editor Doug Clancy's front page today: Herman Cain suspending his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.


Did the media or anybody else really believe that after demonizing Barack Obama, Republicans and their rabid Tea Party faction were going to elect a black man as their president, even if his last name didn't recall Cain and Abel?


A more significant political story is on A-3, and it should have been played out front, in place of the anticlimactic Cain story: former Republican Gov. Christie Whitman's effort to put together a "bipartisan" presidential ticket.


More jock-strap news


A photo at the bottom of A-1 shows a group of stoned Wayne Hills High School students -- referred to in the photo caption as part of "a thinned but enthusiastic cadre of fans" -- at the football game missing the nine thuggish jerk-offs who were suspended after being charged with aggravated assault.


Despite extensive Page 1 coverage in recent weeks, The Record hasn't provided any real details of the assault allegations or explained whether the rivalry between Wayne Hills and Wayne Valley High School goes beyond football.


Any reader who can fathom the front-page story on police consolidation should get a year's subscription free (A-1).


Same old, same old


On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, readers find another deeply flawed Road Warrior column, this one based on a 42-year-old accident (L-1).


John Cichowski is relying more and more on e-mail from readers to determine what he writes about. 


Does the reporter have any original ideas left? Isn't commuting supposed to be his beat? Will he ever leave the office to report a story? Do readers get off seeing their names in print among all of Cichowski's drivel and misinformation?


The section contains no Hackensack or Teaneck news or anything from many other communities.


Industry oriented


In Business, Staff Writer Hugh R. Morley does a good job of reporting the controversy over low-priced Chinese solar panels flooding the market and the drastically lower value of credits solar panel owners sell to utilities (B-1).


But the story could have been more consumer friendly, if he included information on loans that allow homeowners to install solar panels with little out-of-pocket expense, and the Dec. 31 deadline for such a program at Public Service Electric and Gas Co.


Stomach turning


In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's Sunday column promotes new owners of the once-bankrupt Charley Brown's chain (B-1). 


They've expanded their mystery meat menu to overcooked farmed salmon; a bizarre fish taco, made with melted cheese, iceberg lettuce and a hard taco shell inside a soft tortilla; and an antibiotic-packed pork loin. Yuck.


In Opinion, I guess Columnist Mike Kelley is telling readers he doesn't eat meat or wouldn't his column condemning the bear hunt be hypocritical (O-1)?


Related posts

• Mac Borg settles porn-suit allegations (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Columnist trashes 'drunken Indian' (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Stephen Borg fingered as 'the real problem' (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

Check the lost-and-found for all those jobs

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

People wait on line to speak to job recruiters at a career day program.

Is The Record of Woodland Park trying to hide its role and the role of every other employer in the dismal jobs picture -- a main issue in next month's congressional elections? On Page 1 today, a refer carries the headline:

Jobs not growing
in Garden State

Gee, if you could grow jobs like tomatoes or corn, New Jersey would be in great shape. But the text below the headline says "the state lost 20,200 jobs" last month as the rest of the U.S. added them. How did it "lose" jobs? Did anyone check the employment lost-and-found?

Of course, the Borgs and every other employer would like nothing more than if readers believe jobs could be "lost" and "found." Publisher Stephen A. Borg is especially sensitive about this issue because of the $3.65 million he sucked out of North Jersey Media Group in the form of a mortgage for his 8,000-square-foot home in Tenafly.

If Greedy Stevie had stayed in his $2 million home, could he have postponed the downsizing that followed several months later or made it less severe? 

The quality of the paper had been going downhill under the incompetent leadership of Editors Francis Scandale, Deirdre Sykes, Tim Nostrand, Jim McGarvey, Barbara Jaeger and others, but when Borg jettisoned many experienced workers and moved to Woodland Park, the decline gathered great speed.

In the employment story on L-8, the first Business page, Staff Writer Hugh Morley does not use the word "employers" or "companies" or "businesses" or "small-business owners" anywhere. Jobs are identified as "government" and "private sector." It's other-worldly. 

So, if you read between the lines, you learn that businesses in New Jersey fired, downsized, laid off or otherwise royally screwed 9,400 more people in September than they hired. How many thousands of families saw their lives turned upside down, while Stephen sipped a great Bordeaux at the Englewood wine bar in which he and his big sister have invested?

Recently, the Business pages had a Q&A with an executive from Ramsey who said it was "too expensive" to hire employees. What goes unsaid by this moron, Borg and others is that the worker who remains standing is expected to do the work of two, three or more who have been shown the door, while the executives keep more of the money for themselves.

The L-8 story reports "the state lost 10,800 government jobs." Was that because of Governor Christie's state aid cuts, which have fallen most heavily on the middle and working classes? Not a word on the cause of the jobs "loss" appears in the story.

This is Zisa's defense?

On A-1 today, the defense attorney for suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa complains  the investigation of him was one-sided and he was denied the chance to testify before the grand jury. He also proclaims his innocence, but if this is all his attorney has, he'll soon be going down in flames. 

Why is this on Page 1, in place of the debate between Bergen County executive candidates?


Monsy catches up to the weeklies

Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado has a second story in the paper today, an L-1  report on  zoning and other changes proposed for Main Street that are many months old. 

She buries on the continuation page that one of the changes sought is a return to two-way traffic, and omits any mention of how The Record's abandonment of Hackensack has affected businesses.

Better Living


Thursday's Better Living section has been missing food coverage for years, but a Starters column appears today, moved up from its usual Friday slot. Unfortunately, this first look at a new restaurant in Tappan, N.Y., completely omits prices, making the piece sound suspiciously like an advertisement.

 

Millionaires' friend bites us again

Image via Wikipedia

Governor Christie's favorable tax policies toward the rich are already coming back to haunt us, according a few paragraphs on Page 1 of The Record of Woodland Park today. If the governor didn't give the Borgs and other millionaires a huge tax break, he probably would have been able to keep film and television tax credits, and "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" would still be filming in North Bergen


As it is, 200 jobs and $55 million in related spending will be lost, said the landlord of the warehouse sound stage used for interior shots. Ouch. Why the full story is on L-7 and not A-1 is a puzzle, unless the former Hackensack daily doesn't want to make Christie look bad.


In fact, the governor looks great in the Page 1 photo today. But didn't any of the journalists covering President Obama's visit to Edison think to ask what he and Christie said to each other at Newark airport? The photo shows the two men with big smiles on their faces. What a tease. The joke is on readers.


There is another problem with the Obama coverage by Staff Writer Hugh Morley, whose story dominates A-1. Morley's lead paragraph begins: "After a sub sandwich lunch with President Obama ..." But TV news  reported the president didn't eat lunch at the Tastee Sub Shop, but did order a half-sub to go. Morley doesn't say what kind of sub the president ordered; it was a "Super Sub" (ham and three other cold cuts with cheese).

 What's with the pissy editorial on A-18, where Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin or one of his staff fumes at NJ Transit over the cost of making the Ridgewood train station handicap accessible but not doing the same for Hoboken Terminal? There was a major story Tuesday about Ridgewood, but Hoboken wasn't even mentioned in the well-padded construction update. Did Staff Writer Tom Davis miss the real story?


There is no Englewood news in Local today, but Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado finally was able to get some comment from the landlord of the Prospect Avenue high-rise where the parking garage collapsed. And head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes managed to find room for another overturned-vehicle photo. What a great job this veteran editor is doing.


It's hard to tell whether Columnist Kevin DeMarrais is siding with the woman who samples grapes to make sure they aren't sour or ShopRite in Hackensack, where an employee made a sarcastic remark about her (L-8). DeMarrais is careful not to pass judgment on ShopRite produce (it often is tasteless or rots overnight because of improper storage).


Now that Bill Pitcher has decided to leave his $71,000-a-year-job as food editor, shouldn't readers expect local food coverage while he is still around? I guess not. A canned story from another newspaper is on the front of Better Living today. It discusses the history of pepper.

(Photo: Hoboken Terminal)