Editors finally acknowledge issues, not politics, matter most

Cartoons from John Cole on Meryl Streep's criticism of President-elect Donald J. Trump , above, and Rick McKee on President Obama's legacy, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Though many months too late, The Record deserves credit for launching a series on "15 issues important to North Jersey residents" that could be affected by the administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump.

No matter that "Trump Tracker" echoes "Christie Tracker." 

That was the Matt Katz series on our very own GOP bully, Governor Christie, that ran for a couple of years on WNYC-FM, the New York and New Jersey public radio station.

And readers also know that if the Woodland Park daily and all of the other news outlets across the country had been focusing on issues during the campaign, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election would have been far different.

Instead, the news media delighted in repeating every sensational, unsubstantiated charge against Democrat Hillary Clinton, and ignoring her decades-long service to families ad children.

Five-part series

Today's "Trump Tracker" installment focuses on immigration, train transportation and health care (1A, 8A and 9A).

Editor Rick Green doesn't explain why the transportation segment leaves hundreds of thousands of New Jersey bus commuters out in the cold (8A).

The other issues -- including homeland security, education, taxes, the environment, social-safety net and infrastructure -- are scheduled to run through Thursday, the day before the inauguration (8A).

Politics as usual

Sadly, it's politics as usual at the bottom of Page 1 today, with yet another Political Stile column on Christie:

"Christie leans left in N.J., 
but keeps door open on right"

Readers also are keeping their bathroom doors open, in case they get the sudden urge to throw up.

Local news?

On the Local front, Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski appears to be telling drivers they have two and a half months to "read, eat, drink, groom themselves and use hand-held devices to ... talk, text or find their way" before an April police crackdown (1L).

In Opinion, an editorial notes Paterson remains "among New Jersey's most violent places" despite an overall drop in crime (2O).

"Homicides held steady at 19, the same as in 2015, while the number of rapes increased" to 57 from 42, according to the editorial.  

The editorial is incorrect in saying rapes "increased from 42 to 57 percent." 

A year ago, another editorial on the overall drop in crime credited Police Director Jerry Speziale while letting him off the hook on curbing gun violence and the drug trade. 

Today's editorial doesn't even mention  Speziale or the undercover state police troopers who have been helping Paterson police.

Korean food crawl

The Better Living cover on a Korean food crawl in Palisades Park should have been labeled, "For carnivores only" (1BL and 3BL).

By using Robert Austin Cho, owner of a Korean barbecue restaurant, as her guide, Staff Writer Sophia Gottfried largely omitted all the great non-meat dishes -- heart-healthy seafood, tofu and vegetables -- served in Korean restaurant in Palisades Park and neighboring Fort Lee, which isn't even mentioned.

And with Cho in tow, Gottfried also managed to keep the secret of the vast majority of Korean restaurants -- they serve low-quality beef and pork raised on harmful antibiotics and growth hormones to boost their bottom lines.

Fewer stories?

Since the November redesign of The Record, many readers have complained there are fewer stories in the paper.

There was a good reason for that on Saturday, when an upbeat Page 1 story explained how teenagers are coping with life in crime-ridden Silk City:

"Paterson students
outsmart crime
through use of 
technology"

The story reported these geniuses developed "a cellphone application that would send an alert to school security staff if students diverted from their normal route home from school."

If readers turned to the continuation page (Saturday's 4A) and read the story to the end, they found the entire story was repeated -- all 23 paragraphs.

How's that?

On Saturday's Local front, this headline puzzled many readers:

"Hospital
manager
gets 6 
months"

But the story had nothing to do with the sentencing of a human to jail or prison.

"Manager" referred to a company that manages Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus, and the "6 months" is how long its contract has been extended.

This is high-school level journalism, plain and simple.

For that, you can thank the payroll-slashing Gannett Co. -- owner of seven New Jersey dailies -- and the morons employed in a centralized Neptune design center.

With cowardly reporters like Mike Kelly, Christie can't lose

A photo of Record Columnist Mike Kelly from his own Web site. The veteran reporter's introspection doesn't include why he is unable to state clearly and forcefully his opinion on the terrible job Governor Christie is doing in New Jersey while the GOP bully chases his White House dreams.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Page 1 of The Record and the important Opinion section carry columns from Mike Kelly on public officials who are or plan to divide their time between their New Jersey duties and other states.

But if you plow through several thousand words, you will come no closer to whether the veteran opinion columnist thinks Governor Christie and Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale really stink (O-1 and A-1).

Kelly has been writing a column for The Record for more than 20 years, but he is no Jimmy Breslin or Pete Hamill.

As the headline on the O-1 Christie column shows -- "Is Christie relevant to us anymore?" -- the reporter hides his opinions behind rhetorical questions, a device he has been using for decades.

And look at the lame headline on the front page:

"Top cop's new beat covers two states"

That's inaccurate -- it should be "two cities" -- but still is what copy editors try to avoid at all costs, a dull headline that is little more than a label.

Impeachable

Kelly just can't bring himself to state clearly and forcefully that all of the time Christie is spending campaigning for the GOP presidential nomination in New Hampshire, Iowa and other states is an impeachable offense.

Nor is he able to slam Speziale for wanting to take a part-time job in Hazleton, Pa., given all the gun violence, deaths of young people and drug dealing under his watch in Paterson, New Jersey's third-largest city.

Pure and simple, Speziale running a police department 115 miles away from Silk City is criminal and a dereliction of duty.

As a so-called journalist, Kelly has been guilty of dereliction for decades.

Governor Cuomo

Talking about officials who divide their time between two states, tens of thousands of readers are hoping New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo would do just that in New Jersey.

Cuomo's budget proposals include road, mass-transit and airport projects; a phased-in $15 minimum wage; and addressing corruption and homelessness (A-3).

Contrast those initiatives to Christie's war on the middle class, and his 430 vetoes (and counting) of any progressive legislation.

Hit-run death

In today's Local, I can't seem to find any word about the surrender on Saturday of Stalin Kappil of Teaneck in the Christmas Day hit-run death of a homeless man at Cedar Lane and Garrison Avenue in downtown Teaneck.

Hackensack.Daily.Voice.com says Kappil lives a dozen blocks away from where he allegedly ran down Steven J. Leitgeb, 59, who died later at a hospital. 

Jerry DeMarco reports Kappil, 62, is of Asian Indian ancestry, as is acting Bergen County Prosecutor Gurbir S. Grewal, who announced the arrest.

Oxymoron

On L-1 today, Road Warrior John Cichowski's first paragraph oxymoron has readers shaking their heads again.

Even at normal speeds, driving on unlit or poorly lit highways is challenging, and drivers regularly curse officials.

But Cichowski is desperate to get readers interested in a subject he's written about too many times before, so he exaggerates the danger by writing:

"Here's something to consider while you're hurtling home from work at night [italics added] ...." 

Which drivers are "hurtling" during the rush hour, when traffic congestion is at its worse?

An even bigger problem are poorly lit intersections in Hackensack and other towns where drivers have a hard time seeing pedestrians at night, such as the one at Passaic and First streets. 

Big portions

For some comic relief today, see Elisa Ung's Sunday column bemoaning large restaurant portions and penalties for sharing (BL-1).

The paper's chief restaurant critic is so obsessed with dessert and enormous steaks she could be a member of Overeaters Anonymous.

Innocents continue to die despite 'strict gun laws' in N.J.

Construction of a Bergen County Justice Center in Hackensack continues after completion of a second parking garage, right. The garage interior isn't completed. The county is leasing 540 parking spaces at 150 River St., The Record's old headquarters, but that deal was supposed to have ended this past July.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Page 1 today, The Record insists New Jersey has "strict gun laws," but the paper also continues to report on drive-by shootings and other gun violence in Paterson.

Maybe, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes should quote Governor Christie blowing smoke, as he vainly seeks the GOP presidential nomination, and saying he pardoned three men who supposedly violated those "strict" laws.

Or, the editors should stop reporting, as the Local section did on Sept. 19, that Silk City has seen 46 shootings this year, resulting in eight deaths and injuries to 50 other people.

Or Hayes could report New Jersey has strict gun laws except in minority communities where the police see their job as reducing gun violence, not ending it:

"Our numbers [of shootings] are significantly down from last year," Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale was quoted as saying on Sept. 19.

In April, a spray of bullets killed a rising 15-year-old basketball star, the third innocent young person killed by Paterson gunfire in less than a year.

Other news

Two non-stories appear on the front page today.

Political Columnist Charles Stile is boring us again with his weekly report on Christie's "image" (A-1)

And a Mahwah police officer -- who saved a college student struck by a pickup after he jaywalked across Route 17 -- is praised for doing his job (A-1).

At the news meeting, Editor Martin Gottlieb reasoned the officer deserves to be on Page 1 because he didn't shoot the student.

Crocodile tears

An editorial condemning NJ Transit for raising fares an average of 9 percent today doesn't even mention Christie's drastic cuts in state subsidies to the agency -- the latest in a series of blows against mass transit (A-18).

"Pay more for less -- not smart policy for a public transit system," the unidentified writer says. "Or, for that matter, for a state."

That editorial could have been referring to readers who subscribe to a daily newspaper that offers them less and less.

On Christie, Editor Gottlieb's head remains up his a-hole

This morning, Hackensack firefighters and police responded after a transformer exploded, knocking out power to homes on Euclid Avenue and other streets in the city's Fairmount section. Power was restored in about an hour.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's coverage of Governor Christie is more evidence that Editor Martin Gottlieb's New York Times state of mind is wrong for North Jersey readers.

Could today's front-page story be the first time in nearly five years The Record has reported the financial damage from Christie's cancellation of the Hudson River rail tunnels, ending what would have been the biggest expansion of mass transit in decades (A-1)?

And how did Columnist Charles Stile and his editors in Woodland Park miss Christie's serious misstatement of fact at Thursday night's GOP debate on when he was appointed U.S. attorney for New Jersey (Friday's A-1)?

This embarrassing oversight -- whether deliberate or not -- was repaired on Saturday's front page by Melissa Hayes, the reporter assigned to cover Christie and, seemingly, promote his presidential bid:

"Christie twice said during the televised debate Thursday night that he was 'appointed' U.S. attorney on Sept. 10, 2001, the day before the terrorist attacks [on America]," Hayes reported on Saturday, a day late.

"And when [U.S. Sen. Rand] Paul referred to the hug between Christie and President Obama following Superstorm Sandy, Christie retorted that 'the hugs I remember are the hugs that I gave to families who lost their people on Sept. 11.'"

In fact, Christie wasn't "formally nominated until Dec. 7," and didn't take over as U.S. attorney until January 2012 (Saturday's A-6).

2016 election

The Record and other media continue to promote Thursday night's GOP debate as a watershed moment, when, in fact, it will be a mere footnote when the Republicans name a candidate for president in 2016 (A-1).

Two headlines on Saturday's front page tried to minimize Christie's fading campaign while portraying the election against the presumptive Democrat candidate, Hillary Clinton, as a horse race:

"Christie
renews
shaping
of image"

"Why Trump's
vulnerability
should worry 
Democrats"

On A-1 today, Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson claims:

"Christie
performed
according
to plan"

Local news?

Today's thin local-news section includes a story promoting the dying sport of horse racing (L-1).

And Road Warrior John Cichowski presents another column on a woman who bought a house next to Route 17 in Waldwick, "where tractor-trailers barrel through at night" (L-1).

Paterson editorial

An editorial defends the performance of Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale despite the "apparent shooting deaths last year of two young girls -- 12-year-old Genesis Rincon and 14-year-old Nazerah Bugg" (O-2).

The editorial even credits Speziale with a "truce" between street gangs from the 1st and 4th Wards after the drive-by shooting death in April of Paterson basketball star Armoni Sexton, 15. 

Low-quality food

On Friday and Saturday, the Better Living section promoted Callahan's and Kimchi Smoke, two businesses that serve pork, beef and chicken raised on harmful antibiotics, growth hormones and other additives.

On Friday, restaurant critic Elisa Ung used a hard sell in her informal dining review of Callahan's in Norwood:

She called the pricey deep-fried pork-and-beef hot dogs "a must-try," and claimed the grilled chicken sandwich is "a surprise star" (Friday's BL-16).

And Food Editor Esther Davidowitz promoted Robert Cho's "Southern-style" Korean barbecue company (Saturday's BL-1).

Davidowitz says nothing about how the marinated beef or ribs are raised or what separates Cho from most Korean barbecue purveyors, who rely on cheap cuts to maximize profit.

Editors reward Jon Stewart for keeping his hands off press

This sign might give you hope, if you have a medical emergency while driving on Route 4 east in Paramus, but the urgent-care center itself isn't close to opening, below. Why would Paramus officials approve the sign weeks before the building is ready?

On Friday, you could still see the original entrance and exterior paint of the shuttered Dos Cubanos, a Cuban restaurant, which is being renovated for the CITYMD urgent-care center, part of a Manhattan-based chain. When the center finally opens, how many patients will be rushing over after an artery clogging meal at the fried-chicken restaurant next door?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You'll have to read between the lines of Virginia Rohan's front page tribute to Jon Stewart to realize his greatest failure is never lampooning newspapers -- large ones like The New York Times and small ones like The Record.

Martin Gottlieb, editor of The Record, is a veteran of The Times, and both newspapers have revealed deep flaws -- from scandals over fabricated quotes to lazy, irresponsible local editors who wink at official misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance.

Stewart, the stand-up comedian and actor, never even bothered looking across the Hudson at the state of print journalism in his native New Jersey.

No. For "The Daily Show" targets, all you have to do in look at the continuation page, which is peppered with familiar TV news acronyms: CNN, MSNBC and CNBC, as well as the infamously slanted Fox News (A-8).

A-1 photos

Poor Virginia Rohan, The Record's veteran TV writer, who gave us the Stewart appraisal. 

Isn't Production Editor Liz Houlton discriminating against her by running a contemporary thumbnail photo of Rohan (A-1) while using dated photos of Columnists Mike Kelly (O-1) and John Cichowski (L-1)?

Talking about front-page photos, check out the racy image of Emilee Carton, manager of the Lilly Pulitzer store in Hackensack, whose cleavage-baring low neckline is upstaging the racehorse behind her (A-1).

On the Web site of the store in The Shops at Riverside, Lilly Pulitzer is billed as "the unofficial uniform of the affluent at play."

That's appropriate considering the wealthy Borg family own the Woodland Park daily and (201) magazine, considered by some to be the bible of Bergen County's moneyed elite.

Stretching the definition of transportation, the editors assigned NJ Transit reporter Christopher Maag to cover the race at Monmouth Park, and he tries mightily to polish all of those horse turds (A-1, A-8). 

Zisa and Molinelli

Also on Page 1 today, the rare byline of Staff Writer Jean Rimbach appears over an "Analysis" prompted by an appeals court vacating the convictions and prison sentence hanging over the head of former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa. 

Rimbach claims that and other setbacks constitute "a bad run" for Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli (A-1).

Of course, you won't find any mention of Joseph S. Conte, the Zisa trial judge, who was harshly criticized by the appeals court.

"The judge [Conte] did not forcefully tell the jury that the prosecutor's remarks ... were improper, and he did not unequivocally tell them that the improper information must be disregarded," the ruling stated.

And The Record has never examined Conte's record on the bench -- and how many times he's been reversed by higher courts -- before he retired and joined a Hackensack law firm.

Local news?

There isn't much to read today in the local-news section, ostensibly edited by Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, unless you're a dog owner (L-1).

Nothing is changing with New Jersey's full-service gas stations, so why is the Road Warrior wasting our time with a long column on self-serve pumps (L-1)? 

Finally, an opinion

Mike Kelly finally manages to offer an opinion about something, the cancelled Hudson River tunnels project (O-1).

"This year, we have seen in graphic detail what happens when elected officials do not take care of important pieces of our transportation infrastructure" (O-1).

How's that for hard-hitting local journalism from the columnist with the shit-eating grin thumbnail photo?

Oh, by the way, "Hudson River tunnel," which appears in his first paragraph, is incorrect. Two tunnels were under construction.

On O-2, the Margulies cartoon about Governor Christie is a stretch.

But Opinion columnist Brigid Harrison, a professor, places the blame squarely on Christie for why a poll found our satisfaction with life in the Garden State hit a 35-year low.

Lions or humans?

On Friday's A-1 and A-4, The Record inadvertently published a condemnation of the media for their propensity to ignore human misery.

"It's so cruel," a woman in Harare, Zimbabwe, told The Associated Press, referring to the slaying of Cecil, a protected lion.

"But I don't understand the whole fuss, there are so many pressing issues in Zimbabwe -- we have water shortages, no electricity, no jobs -- yet people are making noise about a lion?"

You'd hear the same complaint from residents of Paterson, who live in fear of a drive-by shooting taking the life of another innocent victim, but who are saddled with a police director who has failed to attack the city's gun problem.

Yet, instead of questioning why Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale shouldn't be replaced, The Record spends more time reporting on his lawsuit against the Port Authority, where he once worked, and his problems clearing security at airports.

New Orleans

It's sad to see that Travel Editor Jill Schensul waited nearly 10 years after the devastation of Katrina to declare that New Orleans "is back" and "better than ever" (T-1 today and last Sunday).

That's the danger when journalists go on press trips arranged by hotel owners, chambers of commerce and mayors.

She could have visited New Orleans in 2010, and written about the renewal up to that point, helping to steer tourists to one of America's most distinctive cities.

I saw much of what she described this month on a visit in the summer of 2009, including jazz clubs along Frenchmen Street, restoration of the St. Charles Streetcar line and a French Quarter that was as vibrant as ever.

Editors, reporters hold themselves apart from you and me

The Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan on Friday. The Record today continues to play catch-up on the sad state of mass transit between northern New Jersey and New York City.

The Eighth Avenue entrance to the bus terminal.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The commute for North Jersey residents who work in Manhattan has been a "nightmare" for many years, not just the "week" you see on the front page of The Record today.

Even in the absence of electrical failures and equipment breakdowns, rush-hour seats on NJ Transit trains have been at a premium for years, and the packed Penn Station waiting room is standing room only and has inadequate air conditioning.

Today's Page 1 story on rail problems doesn't even mention the long list of grievances filed by NJ Transit bus riders stuck with the dysfunctional midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Fare hikes

"Some riders found the delays especially hard to take because NJ Transit's board members voted ... to increase fares by 9 percent and cut service ... to fill a $56 million hole in NJ Transit' budget," writes Christopher Maag, the paper's transportation reporter (A-6).

But Maag omits any mention of Governor Christie's annual cuts in state aid to NJ Transit.

Christie also issued a statement from Iowa "indirectly" blaming President Obama "for failing to bring congressional and state leaders to the table to hammer out financing for a new tunnel under the Hudson River" (A-6).

Of course, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, who is in Iowa covering the GOP bully's bid for the GOP presidential nomination, was too sheepish to ask him why he didn't call such a summit in 2010 instead of suddenly cancelling new Hudson River rail tunnels.

Instead, Maag again politicizes mass transit by noting, in one of the great understatements of the month, "Democrats and some transit riders found Christie's statement at odds with his own record" [unilateral cancellation of the tunnels in 2010, not 2011, as The Record reports].

No surprise. The reporter is at the beck and call of Editor Martin Gottlieb -- a Christie apologist from across the Hudson -- and assignment editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

SUV-loving editors

In decades of assigning reporters, Sykes and Sforza have insisted they cover every board meeting held by NJ Transit, but never to actually ride buses and trains, and assess the service.

Sforza himself covered transportation, but spent most of his time writing about "highways of the future" that will never get built, while ignoring defective NJ Transit buses with screeching rear brakes.

And when he became a local editor, Sforza assigned a reporter to write a number of long stories attacking NJ Transit's proposal to extend light-rail service to Englewood  and Tenafly.

Front-page news?

Is a new policy to close a 24-hour Walmart in Teterboro at midnight really Page 1 news or are the editors again merely pandering to a big advertiser?

Staff Writer Melanie Anzidei drew the short end of the stick, and actually was sent out to interview shoppers at 2 a.m. Friday.

This is a non-story, because the Garfield Walmart -- 4.5 miles away -- will continue to operate 24/7.

Poor George Nwokocha, a Hackensack man who bought bikes for his sons early Friday.

"It will be a longer trip for us," said Nwokocha, as the reporter, no doubt, pleaded for something more dramatic (A-6).

Poor example

Even before Christie set a poor example for a governor, he embodied an unhealthy lifestyle and terrible nutrition, all of which was ignored by the media as he blew up to 400 pounds, as estimated by late-night comedian David Letterman.

Today, Christie is shown in Iowa after trying a bacon-wrapped fried Oreo (A-3). Back in New Jersey, his aides issued a statement ordering residents to eat bread.

Gottlieb is covering the GOP presidential campaign better than he is the fallout from Christie's policies here in the Garden State.

On Friday, Gottlieb ran on A-3 what should have been A-1 news: 

A Senate panel approved a bill that would prohibit the governor from using taxpayer money to pay for his political activities outside New Jersey.

Speziale story

I got a kick out of the story on L-2 today about Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale being pulled off of a flight to Puerto Rico in a dispute "related to oversized carry-on luggage" at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Look at how much sympathetic ink Speziale gets here.

Yet, the editors have refused to comment on his running of the Police Department, which seems unable or unwilling to stop gun violence in Silk City.

How many innocent youngsters have to die in the streets before someone takes a hard look at the job Speziale isn't doing in Paterson?

At least seven stories in today's Local section, including the big photo package on the cover, are from outside Bergen County.

Black lives aren't worth much to Paterson police, editors

In the past two years, Main Street in Fort Lee has been closed for utility work and other projects more than any other two-lane road in Bergen County it seems, as it was Monday afternoon, when traffic was funneled into one lane at Anderson Avenue, above, and at Center Street.

Meanwhile, work continues on Hudson Lights, the huge retail and residential project near the George Washington Bridge. And across the street, an expanded Plaza Diner has reopened after renovations, offering free valet parking.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

"I've had enough of these killings. Enough is enough."

"Everyone says it has to get worse before it gets better. But we don't see any progression. It's only getting worse."

"I'm scared."

How many ways can Paterson residents and friends of slain basketball phenom Armoni Sexton say it (A-1 and A-7 in The Record today)? 

They are wondering when Police Director Jerry Speziale and his force are going to do something to prevent more killings of young people like Sexton, 15, who was slain by gunfire attributed to a gang rivalry city officials have known about for decades.

Today's Page 1 coverage of Armoni's funeral on Monday doesn't even raise the responsibility of police to prevent gun violence in Silk City's impoverished neighborhoods, even though the force has been depleted by Governor Christie's mean-spirited aid cuts.

The A-1 headline is predictable:

"Mourners seek meaning"

The line over the front-page photo of young mourners reads:

"HEARTBREAK OVER SLAIN TEENAGER"

Burying anger

Quotes from fed-up residents are buried deep on the continuation page, and reporters didn't even bother asking Speziale and Mayor Joey Torres for their reactions. 

If black lives are cheap in Paterson, they are even cheaper in the Woodland Park newsroom, which doesn't have a great record on minority employment or an editorial policy that holds cops' feet to the fire.

Armoni was the third innocent young person killed by gunfire in the past 10 months.

Typically, The Record's Monday edition carries a story on the latest weekend shooting in Paterson, the same kind of body count journalism the media practice in wartime.

'Best towns'?

Have you ever heard of New Jersey Family magazine? Neither have I.

But all over the Local front today is a story about four Bergen County towns the magazine calls "Best Towns for Families" in 2015.

What follows is more reporting about Oradell, Closter, Harrington Park and Demarest than readers have seen in the last five or 10 years (L-1 and L-3).

You know the assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, are lazy and incompetent when Palisades Park changing seven streets to one way makes the front of the Local news section.

Better to warn readers Pal Park is one of the few towns that keeps meters in effect until 9 p.m., as well as on Sundays, hoping to fleece customers of dozens of Korean restaurants.

Second look

In his column on the Local front a week ago, Road Warrior John Cichowski played dumb on the reasons pedestrian deaths are rising in New Jersey.

He only had to report a major development across the Hudson River, where New York City is now charging drivers with a crime if they injure or kill a pedestrian or bicyclist who has the right of way.

Cichowski knows most New Jersey drivers are treated far more leniently -- a major factor in the rising death toll.

And he has even quoted one of those morons saying he wanted to run down a pedestrian who didn't use the crosswalk.

Sloppy reporting

A week ago, Cichowski also listed some of the pedestrians who were killed in Bergen County, but didn't bother reporting the lenient treatment some of the drivers received.

He listed Hue Dang as one of the 17 "walking deaths" in March.

The veteran reporter noted the Hackensack woman, 64, was fatally injured crossing Jackson Avenue at Kennedy Street.

But the confused Cichowski forgot to say no charges of any kind were filed against a Bergen County Prosecutor's Office detective, John Straniero, who was driving the unmarked car that ran her down.

That accident is being reviewed by the Union County Prosecutor's Office.

Paterson police czar has more young blood on his hands

An art gallery on Palisade Avenue in Englewood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

At least Paterson Police Director Jerry Speziale has learned to talk the talk when another innocent young life is taken on the city's violent streets.

"We are not going to give up," Speziale told The Record, "we are going to do what we have to do to make a safe city."

You'll have to search for the interview, buried as it is on the continuation page of the A-1 story on the shooting death of Armoni Sexton, 15 (A-7).

The editors have been treating the police director gently -- Heaven forbid he is put on the spot -- even though the 6-foot-7 aspiring basketball star is the third young person killed by random gunshots in less than a year (A-1).

What exactly is Speziale waiting for before he asks for help from the state police or the Passaic County Sheriff's Office, which he once headed?

It's pretty obvious Paterson police are unable to control gun violence on city streets. How many more kids have to die?

Forget about appealing directly to Governor Christie, even if he can be found.

He's already screwed Paterson royally with state aid cuts that forced the layoff of 125 officers in 2011. Now, even with new hires, the force is 20% smaller than before the cut.

Rough editing

They've been at it for decades, but Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sfroza still can't handle breaking news.

The reporting and editing of the stories on Sexton's death are poor.

The main front-page headlines stink:

Death Avenue claims another

Paterson teen

is third fatally shot

in past 10 months

Why not use the word "gunman" or "gunmen" to indicate that it is uncontrolled gun ownership that claimed the boy's life, not a street called "Death Avenue"?

The photo caption on Page 1 shows Gloria Sexton, who is identified as "a family member of Armoni Sexton," apparently because the photographer didn't ask her relationship to the dead teen. 

Why didn't the editor who wrote that just say she is the teen's "relative"?

This same caption mentions "the street near Godwin Avenue and Rosa Parks Boulevard, where the 15-year-old was shot Saturday."

But the first paragraph of the lead news story reports Sexton was with a group of teenagers "on Rosa Parks Boulevard" when he was shot, not "near" the intersection of Godwin and Rosa Parks (A-1).

Finally, also in the lead paragraph, Sexton is called inappropriately one of the "children" who "have lost their lives in the violence that strangles every day life in city neighborhoods."

Later, Sexton and the two girls who were killed by gunshots in the past year, Nazerah Bugg, 14; and Genesis Rincon, 12, are referred to as "young people" (A-7).

Wasted space

Why is Editor Martin Gottlieb wasting precious Page 1 space on Matt Mowers and Matthew Moroney, two Christie aides in New Hampshire no one has ever heard of?

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes reports the margin of Christie's second-term victory was "impressive," but doesn't note voter turnout was the lowest for any New Jersey gubernatorial election in history (A-1).

Fewer than four out of 10 voters went to the polls for the November 2013 contest, signalling incredible apathy.

A real turkey

Today's Local section literally is a turkey.

The biggest local news is a wild turkey that is being fed in an A&P parking lot in Closter (L-1).

A caption for the photo on L-1 -- showing the 29th annual Lincoln Tunnel Challenge 5K -- doesn't note the race left hundreds of New Jersey motorists frozen in traffic jams at the tunnel's Manhattan entrances late Sunday afternoon.

Bergen's executive-elect can't get any respect from editors

I had an uneventful trip into the city on Veterans Day, boarding NJ Transit's No. 165 Local in Hackensack, above, and arriving at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan in under an hour.

The return trip on the 165 Turnpike Express to Hackensack and Westwood also went smoothly, but about 50 people lined up to board the bus, which left at 3:05 p.m., well before the rush hour started. The Record reported on Wednesday that lines at the antiquated terminal appear to be shorter.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's readers are witnessing a near-total breakdown in the checks and balances that produce an accurate and credible newspaper.

Today, Page A-2 carries the same correction it did on Tuesday -- a photo of Bergen County Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato was incorrectly identified as James Tedesco, the county's executive-elect.

This time, the photo of Stellato was a small thumbnail showing only his head -- apparently taken from the larger photo of the powerful pol that ran on Sunday -- but the double chin and glasses clearly set him apart from Tedesco.

The error likely was made by a lowly layout editor who was completely oblivious of the earlier embarrassing error with the larger Stellato photo in Sunday's Opinion section.

If you add these errors to the hundreds of uncorrected screw-ups in the Road Warrior column in recent years, it's a sad commentary on the editors' seeming inability to produce a reliable newspaper.

Forced busing

For example, on Wednesday, the front page carried a long story from transportation reporter Christopher Maag, heralding small changes that have eased afternoon rush-hour delays at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan.

For years, The Record's lazy transportation editor and reporters ignored those delays, but they were finally roused by angry letters from bus commuters at the end of last year.

Maag chose to observe at 5:30 p.m. Monday -- "the height of the rush hour" -- when, he says, "a few short lines formed and disappeared almost immediately into waiting buses."

Later in the story, he concedes "this week was an anomaly," given that some commuters may have stayed home for a four-day weekend that included Veterans Day on Tuesday.

So, can we rely on the story as an accurate reflection of improving bus terminal conditions?

The line for an express bus I took back to Hackensack on Tuesday at 3:05 p.m. had at least 50 people on it -- more passengers than seats. That's hardly "short."

Protecting Christie

In a front-page story today on the federal health insurance marketplace, there is absolutely no mention of how Governor Christie tried to sabotage the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act (A-1).

Instead of reporting Christie refused to set up a state exchange, as New York and Connecticut did, Staff Writer Lindy Washburn makes a vague reference to the "few state resources" that "are spent to encourage Obamacare signups" in New Jersey.

The GOP bully joined conservative governors in 35 other states in refusing to set up their own exchanges, overwhelming the federal exchange with millions of unanticipated applicants.

Genesis Rincon

A story on Paterson narcotics detectives confiscating 4,500 packets of heroin from two drug dealers reports they "were operating less than 200 feet from where 12-year-old Genesis Rincon was fatally shot riding her scooter last summer" (L-3).

Is there a connection?

Or is Police Director Jerry Speziale saying city police are doing a far better job confiscating heroin packets than they are preventing the murder of innocent young girls?

Why bother?

How many readers are going to try and get a reservation at Sergio's Missione, a shrine to Italian-American food in Lodi?

Today's lukewarm, 2-star review makes you wonder why The Record and Staff Writer Elisa Ung don't just cut their losses, and publish a few cautionary paragraphs?

The data box mentions a three-course early bird special for $15.95 that might be worth the detour, but there is nothing about it on the restaurant's Web site.

Ung, the paper's chief restaurant reviewer, doesn't say she sampled the meal, likely because the restaurant refused to serve her three dessert courses.

Second look

Last Sunday, Road Warrior John Cichowski tried to write a column correcting a previous report on the Graduated Driving License law (GDL), which requires red decals on the license plates of drivers 21 and younger.

But the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers says the befuddled reporter just made more mistakes:

"The Road Warrior continues to misreport that the estimated reductions in crashes were mainly due to red decal provisions.

"The study repeatedly indicated that while red decals could be an important component, the reductions were mainly due to multiple provisions in the 2010 GDL law, which also included the red decals.

"The Road Warrior reported the study indicated that the red decals yielded more safety advantages than disadvantages. This implies that the study mentioned a number of disadvantages.

"However, the study indicated there were no reported disadvantages due to the red decals."

See: Road Warrior's IQ continues to drop