Christie is boss and we are his faceless mob

Part of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack before it was patched a couple of months ago. City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono said today that contrary to recent press reports, all 5 blocks of Euclid, between Main Street and Summit Avenue, will be paved with proceeds from a bond. Bids for the work came in lower than expected, he added.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Wilting under the endless coverage of actor James Gandolfini's untimely demise, readers got some good news in The Record today.

A story on A-3 reports his body will be flown back to the United States for services on Thursday.

If he's buried on Thursday, how much longer can Editor Marty Gottlieb keep the story of Gandolfini and mob boss Tony Soprano going?

Mobbed up

Everybody at the Woodland Park daily is getting into the act.

Today, a column by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin claims Governor Christie "has gone one step too far and ordered flags to be flown at half-staff" to mark Gandolfini's death last Wednesday at 51 (A-11).

Is this really worth a column?

Why hasn't Doblin raised a bigger stink over all of the mean-spirited vetoes Christie is known for -- from shooting down a hike in the minimum wage to killing a tax surcharge on millionaires?

And today's short-sighted editorial, also on A-11, opposes dedicating a portion of sales tax revenue to the preservation of open space.

Give us a break

It was a real stretch on Sunday, when the Better Living cover story compared Christie to Tony Soprano, calling the GOP bully "a governor with a style, theatricality and swagger that Tony would have no doubt appreciated."

OK. Let's get something straight. Someone who is obese can't "swagger;" it's all flab. And Christie doesn't have "theatricality" or "style."

He's a conservative, veto-happy Republican who treats the middle and working classes with contempt, and in less than 4 years, he's proven to be the worst governor New Jersey ever had.

Journalists like Doblin and Bill Ervolino love him, but that tells you everything about the sad state of newspapering at The Record, where editors and reporters fall all over themselves trying to stay in Christie's good graces.

Second look

Although I didn't care for the dated subject, Staff Writer Jeff Pillets turned in a beautifully written story on Sunday's front page: "Not the same old Jersey mob."

But that couldn't save the paper from wallowing in mediocrity by publishing more crap from Columnists Mike Kelly and John Cichowski.

In trying to pillory Paterson Mayor Jeffery Jones for traveling to India in search of investors, Kelly offended readers and all Asian Indians:

"Can we all say 'Huh' -- in Hindi?" Kelly wrote on O-1.

Bad writing is one thing. But bad reporting is unforgivable, especially from a columnist who has been at this game for so long.

Kelly blames Jones for the layoff of 125 police officers 2 years ago -- roughly 25 percent of the force -- conveniently forgetting that it was Christie's cuts in state aide to Paterson and other poor cities that forced the layoffs.

Just hang it up

As for Cichowski, his exaggerated Sunday column was full of sloppy reporting on a bill that would allow police to check a driver's cellphone after an accident, according to a concerned reader:

"In his June 23 column, the Road Warrior leads readers astray with false worries about a preliminary bill, laws and potential limitations for cellphone activities and voice-to-text technologies.

"Road Warrior is frequently unable to comprehend most state statutes since he provides information that contradicts, misrepresents, or exaggerates issues related to bills or approved laws. 

"He repeated these types of mistakes with a bill under preliminary consideration to allow police to review a driver's hand-held cellphone call records at the scene of an accident, if they have reasonable grounds to suspect a violation of cellphone law.

"He incorrectly reported that hand-held and hands-free cell phones could be subject to this bill. He reported new driving points and higher fines would be imposed on all cellphone violations when it would only be applicable for texting.

"He failed  to mention current law, which imposes imprisonment up to 10 years or fines up to $150,000, depending on whether it was a fatality or serious injury, due to a crash caused by a cellphone violation.

"That information could persuade drivers to restrict their cellphone use."

To read the full e-mail, go to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Does anyone check the Road Warrior?

Low-rise reporting

Basically repeating an earlier Road Warrior column quoting hysterical readers, a Star-Ledger story published on A-3 of The Record today exaggerates the impact of an apartment building going up near Route 495 to and from the Lincoln Tunnel.

The building will only partially block the Manhattan skyline, but leave plenty of unobstructed views. 

Most of the view is already blocked by rocks, trees and other natural phenomena. 

Long, involved stories that excite only the editors

A Juneteenth celebration on Saturday in the Ridgefield Park section of the new Overpeck Park, above, included a lot of great food, such as this fried whole red snapper prepared by the Church of God of Prophecy in Englewood, below.

Call them retrospectives or process stories, the three takeouts that start on Page 1 of The Record today excite only the editors and reporters who worked on them, and put the rest of us to sleep.

How can Staff Writer John Brennan go on and on about "equity," "tax abatements," "tax breaks" and "private financing," but never tell readers when that monstrosity called American Dreams Meadowlands is going to be repainted (A-1 and A-7)?

The ugly hulk visible to every driver on the turnpike has turned into a long-running Jersey joke.

One-track mind

Meanwhile, Staff Writer Karen Rouse continues to obsess over a safe haven for NJ Transit railcars and locomotives, ignoring the screams from rush-hour commuters who have to stand in the aisles (A-1 and A-6).

Check out the dated black-and-white photos and stale news in the Jersey mob story, which is linked to the death on Wednesday of actor James Gandolfini, who portrayed the boss in "The Sopranos," a TV fiction that ended 6 long years ago (A-1, A-6, L-1 and BL-1).

Those old photos remind readers of the dated thumbnails that run with columns by aging Staff Writers Mike Kelly and Virginia Rohan, and Travel Editor Jill Schensul.

Refreshing news

The only bright spot on the front page is the upbeat story on retiring Teaneck teacher Rosanne Ponchick, who used tea-bag tags as a teaching tool (A-1 and A-5).

More road error

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to ignore North Jersey's nightmarish traffic jams and related commuting issues to go on and on about driving and cellphones (L-1).

His last column was far from accurate, according to an e-mail to management from a concerned reader:

"The Road Warrior returns in his June 21 column [Friday] to one of his many fiascoes and piles on even more of his confusing mistakes and advice about when to call 911 or #77 while driving. He contradicts state laws, police guidelines and Web sites.

"He advises and reports that drivers should call 911, when they should call #77, and vice versa. He advises and reports that drivers can also call local police, which is impractical since most people do not have police numbers for every town they drive in.

"The Road Warrior continues to repeatedly quote officials, who make false statements, which also contradict state laws or guidelines, without any fact-checking or counterpoints.

 "How does The Record management allow dissemination to its readers of such grossly unsafe, mistaken reporting and confusing advice, which does not comply with state  statutes and guidelines, and then not insist the Road Warrior make needed corrections?"

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

Road Warrior is who ya not gonna call

Noisy bikers

Another driving-related issue Cichowski won't dare touch are all of those municipal anti-noise ordinances routinely violated by owners of Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

Those bikers modify their Harleys to make as much noise as possible, then thumb their noses at all of the people they disturb with their piggish behavior.

These menaces hoodwink The Record and other media with charity runs, such as the one reported today on L-1.

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.

Judge to Christie: Drop dead!

Cover of Ja Rule

North Jersey rapper Ja Rule owes $1.1 million to the IRS.

Let's hope the state Supreme Court backs Superior Court Judge Peter Doyne in Hackensack on the inequity of Governor Christie's cutting $1.6 billion in state aid to schools in the last two years, and orders him to find new sources of revenue, such as a millionaires tax (A-1).

Turn to Page L-2 to read about the guilty plea by one of the millionaires Christie is protecting -- rapper Ja Rule of Saddle River -- who failed to file tax returns on gross income of $4.38 million, and to L-3 to read about another man who obtained his millions through mortgage fraud.

Waiting for spin

You won't find an editorial today on Doyne's ruling, because Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin needs more time to consult Christie's spin doctors on how they are going to squirm out of this one.

Did head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, Projects Editor Tim Nostrand or other out-of-shape editors have something to do with the preposterous A-1 brief, "Sex, exercise could trigger heart attack"?

Someone should tell them sex also has been known to trigger an orgasm.

A front-page caption tells readers the photo of the former Freedom Tower in Manhattan was taken "from New Jersey," but not how many stories it will be when completed (104 stories).

Road to ruin

Why are the Borgs paying Road Warrior John Cichowski $70,000, $80,000 or whatever he makes a year for throwing together yet another column based on e-mails from readers (L-1)?

For that matter, why pay Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill anything, if she doesn't contribute much more than a single recipe a week to the paper's woefully inadequate food coverage (F-1)?

The dramatic story and photo in the center of L-1 demonstrates that enterprising Staff Writer Denisa R. Superville is everything the office-loving Cichowski isn't.

Health alert

You'll find two stories about River Edge in Sykes' Local section today (L-1 and L-2), but none about Hackensack from Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado, who is scooped consistently by Mark J. Bonamo of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle. 

Alvarado must be under the mistaken belief that covering Hackensack can trigger a heart attack.

Hackensack readers continue to get the shaft -- years after the spoiled Borg siblings moved the newsroom and headquarters of North Jersey Media Group to Woodland Park. 

Witness two long stories about the borough today (L-6 and L-8), and recall all the photos taken near the Garret Mountain building the paper now calls home.

Let's hope actor James Gandolfini's contract doesn't require him to actually eat at Cubby's barbecue restaurant in Hackensack, if he decides to portray owner and freelance diplomat Bobby Egan in a new HBO movie (L-1).

Otherwise, Tony Soprano and actor Robert De Niro, who supposedly would produce the film, are in for mega-doses of agita.

More forgettable news coverage

Image via Wikipedia

Where does actor James Gandolfini go to eat out?

Editors Francis Scandale and Deirdre Sykes are so bored with snowstorms, they dismissed a couple of recent ones with a single photo and caption. Today, this week's big storm is front-page news in The Record of Woodland Park, but the superficial story is another forgettable effort. 

There are six photos on A-1 and A-18, but you won't find any pedestrians forced to walk in the street or bus patrons separated from their ride by mounds of snow. The Page 1 shot is interesting, but why did the editors give such prominent play to a car dealer and advertiser?

Six reporters contacted officials in only a handful of towns on snow clearing, road-salt use and related information. The vast majority of communities in the circulation area aren't represented. Nor are the experience of drivers, who found four-lane streets reduced to two lanes and uncleared corners, especially in Hackensack.

The best the editors could do for the rest of A-1 are two political stories. The lead, by Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson, could have run anytime, but I guess Scandale was desperate.

Local yokels

The weekly Hackensack Chronicle continues to report residents' questions about budget transfers that were approved at a recent City Council meeting, but The Record's Hackensack reporter, Monsy Alvarado, hasn't covered a council meeting in many months and apparently doesn't have the word "budget" in her vocabulary.

Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais issues a "report card" on the German-owned Aldi supermarket, which opened recently in Clifton (L-7). It's hard to understand how he can rate the quality of the food B+, if there are no organic items offered.

I especially get a kick out of how he tested Aldi coffee and cookies on "newsroom colleagues, and all got a thumbs-up." What else does he expect from some of the biggest freeloaders in the world?

Under the continuation of DeMarrais' story on L-8, a brief on the sale of an Englewood liquor store is credited to Daniel "Dan" Sforza, who is second-in-command on the assignment desk under Sykes. That's sort of weird.

Bloody awful

Does Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung know anything more about steaks than "prime" and "aged"?

In Better Living today, she makes Del Monico in Cedar Grove sound awful -- especially the service, sanitation, burnt food and 30-page menu -- but still rates it Fair to Good (one and a half stars). 

Does that have anything to do with "Sopranos" actor James Gandolfini, an investor who knows enough not to eat there (at least during her three visits)? 

She never tell readers whether the $25.95 and $59.90 steaks she liked were raised naturally or given feed with antibiotics, growth hormones and bits of dead animals in it.