Newsroom 'backups' and 'black holes' really worry readers

These potholes appeared in the parking lot of the H Mart in Little Ferry two weeks ago, part of a crop of bone-jarring cavities The Record is finally getting around to acknowledging. But Road Warrior John Cichowski's column falls flat today when he compares his "Black Hole Awards" to the Oscars, an instant turnoff to readers already sick of the media's endless Hollywood hype.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm not sure why Christopher Maag, The Record's main transportation reporter, got the smelly assignment of reporting on Hackensack River sewage backups (Page 1).

But serious blockages also can be found in the Woodland Park newsroom, where burned-out editors and columnists prevent talented younger voices from being heard.

Today, Road Warrior John Cichowski belatedly bestows his 12th annual "Black Hole Awards" on a woefully incomplete list of potholes (L-1), hoping to deflect attention from the biggest black hole of all -- the one in the veteran reporter's head.

I suppose readers should be happy the addled Cichowski is no longer trying to panic them into believing a heavily traveled Route 4 bridge in Teaneck is unsafe.

Mike Smelly

On the Opinion front, Columnist Mike Kelly returns with his thumbnail photo's shit-eating grin --acknowledgement that his writing style ranges from constipation to diarrhea (O-1).

Kelly has basically been boring readers with the same column since 1988, pushing around words, rewriting news stories and rarely expressing an opinion about anything.

Today, he avoids pointing fingers at anyone for the key role Paterson plays in North Jersey's heroin epidemic -- not Governor Christie for triggering the layoff of 125 police officers in the crime-ridden city, not the parents of suburban addicts; and not slumlords, red-lining banks or racism.

The pathetic columnist can't even manage to see The Record's three-part series, "In heroin's grip" (Page A-1 on Feb. 15), as a call for action, but readers got the message, as several letters to the editor show (O-3).

Hey, Marty

Of course, Editor Martin Gottlieb, a veteran of the august New York Times, is in his mid-60s and can be expected to support veterans like Cichowski and Kelly, even when they are guilty of journalism malpractice, to use a phrase coined by satirist Bill Maher.

That also must be the explanation for why Gottlieb still hasn't cleaned house in the newsroom three years after he took over, suggesting he sees the job as a way of cruising into retirement.

He's also allowed many non-performing veterans -- including head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, Staff Writer Jean Rimbach and other liabilities -- to keep their jobs.

Local news?

Today's weather story on the Local front is as weak as every other one we've seen this winter (L-1).

Weeks after the first major snowfall, sloppy municipal snow clearing continues to endanger drivers, pedestrians and bus riders, but not a word of criticism has appeared.

Why don't the editors try to explain why we get such sorry services and pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation.

Hole in head

Road Warrior John Cichowski relies on readers to report the worst potholes and rough roads in North Jersey, and boasts of "nearly 300 miles of follow-up inspections by this column" (L-1 and L-2).

I guess that means the notoriously lazy columnist actually drove 300 miles to look at road conditions, but how did he miss pockmarked Route 4 through Teaneck, Hackensack's crudely patched River Street and other problem roads?

Downtown Hackensack in late November.

Local business?

The Record's business editors and reporters can't be bothered slumming in such hard-hit downtowns as Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood.

But they devote plenty of energy reporting on the concerns of the Borg publishing family and other members of the wealthy ruling class.

What else can you conclude from the story dominating the Business front today -- on the slowing delivery of business jets costing up to $50 million each (B-1)?

The mindless coverage of that industry amounts to a royal F.U. to all the residents of Hackensack, Teaneck and other towns near Teterboro Airport whose quality of life is compromised by aircraft noise around the clock.

Editors claim evil Paterson is killing white suburbanites

The Great Falls of the Passaic River in Paterson are a symbol of a glorious industrial past. Today, if you believe The Record's biased three-part series on heroin, the evil, largely minority city is luring young white men and women from the suburbs to their untimely deaths.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

"IN HEROIN'S GRIP" -- a three-part series in The Record that ends today -- is one of the most biased pieces of journalism I have ever seen.

Timothy Linnartz, 29, of Waldwick and all of the other dead and dying white drug addicts who are the central characters in this drama; their parents and the police, who don't arrest them, remain blameless.

On Sunday's front page, Staff Writer Rebecca D. O'Brien reported  a new phenomena -- "heroin so pure and inexpensive that it is not only hastening the fall of this once vibrant city, but feeding on the wealth of nearby suburbs, towns like Glen Rock and Clifton, Mahwah and Waldwick."

Eye on prize

Lusting for a Pulitzer Prize, Editor Marty Gottlieb and the other white editors who worked on this opus are so eager to demonize Paterson they claim Silk City's "legacy as the first planned industrial city could also be, in part, what contributes to the problem."

Then -- in one of the most ridiculous of the many assertions in the series -- they blame the city's easy access, "more than 30 points of entry, connecting some of the region's wealthiest communities to the poorest" (A-8 on Sunday). 

The only suggestion that Bergen County isn't blameless for the behavior of the addicts flocking to Paterson comes from Capt. Timothy Condon of the Prosecutor's Office:

"Bergen County is coming in and sustaining this violent narcotics trade with their money," Condon says.

The rest of his quote on Sunday's A-8 is incomprehensible.

In the final part on Page 1 today, O'Brien revisits the layoff of one-quarter of Paterson's 500-member police force and once again doesn't mention Governor Christie's cuts in state aid as a factor.

Another error?

One of The Record's readers thinks the photo caption on the Local front today is incorrect in describing a rabbi "chanting Lincoln's words in the form of a 'haftarah'" (L-1).

"First, there are four people and the rabbi on the bimah [a raised platform]. When one reads a haftorah, only the reader is on the bimah. It is clear that the Rabbi is reading from the Torah.  The people are in the position for a torah reading and, most significantly, if one looks at the picture you can see the ends of the torah scrolls.  Gottlieb should have spotted this."

With Christie, cops and more, editors won't place blame

On Tom Hunter Road in Fort Lee on Friday afternoon, the danger from sloppy municipal snow clearing was clearly evident on what is normally a two-way street, leaving no room for vehicles to pass each other, above and below. Behind the car were several more vehicles that had to squeeze past the school bus. This scene was repeated on many of North Jersey's narrow and not-so-narrow streets.

A story on The Record's Local front today -- "Wacky weather hangs on" -- makes no reference to how drivers and pedestrians have been put in harm's way by incompetent plowing and clearing in North Jersey weeks after the first big snowstorm.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's editors seem to tremble before authority, whether it's Governor Christie or the Police Department in Paterson.

An editorial today is only mildly critical of Christie's extensive out-of-state travel in pursuit of the White House, but praises the GOP bully for "a series of first-term accomplishments, including bipartisan deals with the Democratic-controlled Legislature" (A-13).

Christie's many policy failures, including Sandy recovery and the state economy; his record number of vetoes and his use of traffic to retaliate against Democrats are nowhere to be found.

Crime City

Then, in the second part of a series -- "IN HEROIN'S GRIP" -- Staff Writer Rebecca D. O'Brien only hints at Paterson's lack of resources and police manpower (A-1, A-6 and A-7).

For some reason, O'Brien doesn't mention the layoff of 125 officers in 2011, blamed on Christie's state aid cuts to poor cities and Paterson's own budget constraints.

Typical of how The Record criticizes authority, O'Brien quotes Charles Florio, a Ridgefield Park developer who owns 130 properties in the city.

"He blames the poverty, the addicts and the lack of police," the reporter says of Florio (A-7).

Later, Florio says, "at the end of the day, you have no police presence" and "police often take hours to respond to complaints about trespassing."

"They don't have the manpower or money to do real police work," Florio says.

This is a variation of how Trenton reporters politicize any criticism of Christie by quoting Democrats, and rarely ask readers for their opinion.

To better demonize Silk City, O'Brien reports:

"The Paterson of vibrant neighborhoods ... often exists in memory."

That amounts to a big lie, given Paterson's mansion-filled Eastside and South Paterson, a Middle Eastern bazaar of bakeries, food stores and restaurants.

Selling papers

Editor Marty Gottlieb's only interest is to sell newspapers, judging from more front-page play for an ISIS video showing beheadings, this time of Coptic Christians in Libya (A-1).

A full page in Local today is devoted to a house ad claiming The Record is North Jersey's "trusted sources for news, sports and entertainment" (L-7).

A photo shows part of a woman's face, but she looks too young to be a reader.

Sheepish

Hackensack readers are accustomed to sporadic news, but why does Staff Writer Sachi Fujimori freeze out Lotus Cafe in her story on Chinese New Year (BL-1)?

The Hackensack Avenue BYO is offering a four-course Year of the Sheep menu for $29.95 per person, including an appetizer, soup, main course and dessert.

Entrees include filet mignon, flounder, a half duck, jumbo shrimp or shredded roast duck served with buns.