Lazy editors praise lowly cold cuts, hide their real harm

An NJ Transit train passing Euclid Avenue in Hackensack on Tuesday. Today, The Record's front page carries more official jawboning on building new Hudson River rail tunnels to expand service to the city, but there is no telling how many months or years commuters will have to wait for an actual agreement on its financing by the two states and the federal government.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You'll find the biggest laugh line in today's paper on the front page of The Record's Better Living section, where some desperate reporter compares lowly cold cuts at a supermarket deli counter to "Starbucks, and its myriad coffees and lattes."

Not even close.

Nearly all of the cold cuts sold at deli counters come from animals raised on harmful antibiotics, growth hormones and animal by-products, though you won't find even a mention of that in Staff Writer John Petrick's long story (BL-1).

If you're not buying Applegate Farms cold cuts -- which are antibiotic- as well as preservative-free -- you're a lazy consumer who has been feeding your family crap (BL-8).

Petrick apparently was under orders not to alienate all of the supermarkets who rake in big profits from selling cheap lunch meat, because revenue from their advertising fliers props up North Jersey Media Group.

Consumer Reports

In recent years, Consumer Reports has linked the widespread use of human antibiotics to raise chickens and other animals on factory farms to a growing antibiotic resistance among humans.

In fact, the magazine launched a campaign to get Trader Joe's to pledge that the national chain wouldn't sell any meat or poultry raised on antibiotics.

Of course, you haven't seen that reported in The Record, where the chief restaurant critic, Elisa Ung, once referred to Consumer Reports "as the magazine many of us use to buy a washing machine."

More Page 1 B.S.

Today, Editor Martin Gottlieb publishes another long, tedious piece from opinion Columnist Mike Kelly that is completely devoid of any opinions (A-1).

As with so many Kelly columns, readers will find this one on U.S. Sen Robert Menendez indistinguishable from a news story -- except for the outdated, unflattering thumbnail photo of the veteran reporter flashing a shit-eating grin.

The "dual life" of Menendez as "statesman" and "defendant" is just more media bullshit.

The nuclear deal with Iran and the corruption charges against the senior U.S. senator from New Jersey have absolutely nothing to do with each other.

And the federal jury that may be asked to decide his guilt or innocence will do so based on the evidence and the law, not Menendez's record in the Senate.

In fact, President Obama has vowed to veto any bill that tries to kill the Iran deal, so why waste so much valuable space on the front page reporting congressional objections? 

GOP bully

Governor Christie has lost more ground as a Republican presidential candidate -- he's now in 11th place -- so why is the story on the front page today in place of more legitimate state news (A-1)? 

Another Page 1 story carries this headline:

"First step
on path
to a new 
rail tunnel" 

Of course, the "first step" comes nearly five years after Christie killed the last project to build new rail tunnels under the Hudson River and expand service to and from the city.

But it is only in the last 18 months or so that the editors, their so-called commuting columnist and other transportation reporters have paid any real attention to North Jersey's long-standing mass transit crisis.

Local news?

A meeting of the Hackensack City Council was scheduled for Tuesday night, but I don't see anything in Local today (L-1 to L-6).

On L-3 today, a story reports a non-fatal fire Monday night on Polify Road in Hackensack displaced six people and that five first-responders were treated.

Today's story describes "a garden apartment complex;" on Tuesday, a brief about the same fire said they were "town houses."

On L-2, businesses are offering discounts during Senior Citizen Appreciation Week in Passaic County.

There is no explanation of why the Allwood Diner, IHOP, Triangle Diner, McDonald's and Amor Cucina are offering free dessert or ice cream to seniors, many of whom are diabetic or simply watching their weight and cholesterol.

Columns, debates, what-ifs -- another boring front page

Gasoline is still under $2 a gallon at this station in Teaneck.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

BORING!!!!!

Despite all his accomplishments at The New York Times, Editor Martin Gottlieb continues to bore readers of The Record of Woodland Park.

I can't imagine a duller front page for a Sunday edition than the one I'm looking at today.

Not one, but two tedious columns. A news story about a U.S. senator I never heard of, a Republican named Corker. And a story on a Teaneck doctor who "interviews pilots about their health."

Corruption

If readers bother plowing through the lead Page 1 column on former Bergen County Democratic chief Joseph Ferriero and U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, they will search in vain for an opinion from the burned-out reporter who has been churning out this kind of crap since 1988 (A-1).

Gottlieb must think all you have to do to have a column is add a dated thumbnail photo of Mike Kelly's shit-eating grin.

But readers look to Kelly for an opinion about the corrupt campaign-finance system and whether he believes greed led Ferriero and Menendez to violate the public trust. (See editorial on O-2 today.)

You won't find any opinions in his overlong column, just a rewrite of all that has appeared so far on the corruption charges against the two men and the "profound questions" they raise.

Local news

At least today's Local section actually found municipal news to report: 

Three stories about Englewood -- two by a weekly reporter -- but only one each from Teaneck and Hackensack.

Hackensack Police Director Mike Mordaga told Staff Writer Todd South a police captain filed a lawsuit only after he was passed over for a promotion to top commander (L-1).

Commenting on the suit by Capt. Thomas Salcedo, Mordaga says "he's broken no laws and that the department has followed all rules and guidelines."

Mordaga also said Salcedo was named in several lawsuits filed by police officers who were under his command, and all were settled by the city.

Trucks, litter

Road Warrior John Cichowski once again explores the irrelevant with today's column on highway litter (L-1).

Most drivers are slobs. What can you do? 

His previous column was on tractor-trailers that used residential streets. Wow! 

Hey, Cichowski, there are way too many cars clogging our streets and highways. 

You should be writing about the sorry state of mass transit and other commuting topics, but you're too lazy for that, and your editors are too stupid to notice.

Healthy eating

John Petrick was a feature writer in the old Hackensack newsroom who got on somebody's shit list and was exiled to cover the Passaic County Courthouse in Paterson.

He worked there for several years, and did a terrific job covering trials and indictments in the busy courthouse.

Now, he's back writing features. Today, he has finally awakened to the trend of people trying to eat healthy when they go out to restaurants (BL-1).

But Petrick doesn't explain why Elisa Ung, the paper's chief restaurant critic, is always making a pig of herself, gorging on enormous cuts of questionable beef and artery clogging desserts.

As for Ung, her column today again takes the focus off of restaurants serving low-quality food at high prices, such as those steakhouses she loves (BL-1).

What revolution?

Sadly, the "retail revolution" reported on today's Business section cover has nothing to do with the return of real customer service (B-1).

Today's paper ranges from the boring to the scandalous

What's the explanation for this complaining sign from riders of NJ Transit's No. 165 bus in view of a recent story in The Record, reporting that rush-hour delays have eased for commuters leaving the Port Authority Bus Terminal for Bergen County? I saw the sign on Tuesday afternoon on Platform 232, where I caught the 165 Turnpike Express back to Hackensack.

Earlier Tuesday, while I was waiting for the 165 Turnpike Express to the city, I saw this SUV leave the parking lot of the 7-Eleven on Main Street in Hackensack and drive through the red light. The intersection doesn't have a red-light camera.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The most important story on Page 1 of The Record today carries a headline that is an instant turn-off to many readers:

Assessing the damage

to Berry's Creek

How boring. The real news is in the smaller sub-headline: 

Chemical, oil and other companies "will be asked to pay" for restoration of habit and replacement of lost natural resources (A-1 and A-4).

Still, that's not very riveting for the front page, but the rest of the A-1 stories aren't much better.

The off-lead is about Medicare penalizing Hackensack University Medical Center and other hospitals "for hospital errors and infections" (A-1).

Shame on Staff Writer Lindy Washburn for using "Obamacare," which has become a conservative curse word for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Are readers worried about the free-speech implications of threats that prompted Sony to pull some goofy movie with a sinister message from theaters (A-1)?

And check out the story's bewildering introduction under the byline of Jim Beckerman. What is he trying to say, with a reference to Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., and blah, blah, blah?

Cuba coverage

Everyone except Staff Writer John Petrick knows Cuban cigars, especially those made totally by hand, are the world standard.

So, what is the explanation for the scandalous story leading the Local front today, quoting a Ridgewood cigar salesman who offers mere imitations (L-1)?

Gary Kolesaire claims the only reason Cuban cigars are desirable is that they're illegal in the United States. That's just sour grapes.

Until 2004, when U.S. regulations changed, American journalists were among the privileged few who were allowed to bring home those forbidden Cuban cigars.

Little crime, drugs

A package of Cuba stories from the wire services appears on A-11 today as part of the follow-up to President Obama's announcement that the U.S. will resume diplomatic relations with the island.

"Some fear ... that crime and drugs, both rare in Cuba, will become common along with visitors from the United States," according to The Associated Press story from Havana.

What a condemnation of America's gun- and drug-loving society. 

For decades, Cuban music, food and art, along with mile after mile of beaches and the charms of Old Havana, have lured tens of thousands of tourists from Canada, Europe and Japan, without affecting crime and drug use.

Cuban restaurant

Better Living would seem to have a timely review of Rebecca's, a Cuban restaurant in Edgewater that has a new owner (BL-18).

But Staff Writer Elisa Ung makes absolutely no reference to the easing of relations with Cuba.

I ate at the original Rebecca's many years ago, but won't be returning for the privilege of paying $30 for a red snapper special that Ung liked.

Another dish she liked was guacamole, which is Mexican, with plantain chips!

I'll stick with Casual Habana Cafe on Main Street in Hackensack for Cuban fare, and if I want guacamole, I'll head for Rosa Mexicano.

Deceptive advertising

I rarely look at the Open House real estate advertising section that is inserted in The Record on Fridays, but the lead promotion on an Englewood development caught my eye today.

The headline:

Homebuyers drawn to city centers 

-- The M measures up in Englewood

The text and photo captions actually claim the condo building "borders" the small city's downtown or is located downtown.

But the buildings are only a couple of blocks from Route 4 and more than a half-mile from Palisade Avenue, the main shopping street.

North Jerseyans are beached by all that shore news

A homeless woman stopping to do a little housekeeping on West 34th Street, near Sixth Avenue, in Manhattan on Friday night.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Page 1 of The Record's Sunday edition delivers a shore outlook story like every one I've read or edited in the past 30 years.

Even Staff Writer Christopher Maag was pulled off his Hackensack beat to write a sidebar on how beach communities hit hard by Superstorm Sandy in late 2012 seem different now.

"Drive nearly any street from Sea Bright to Beach Haven," Maag reports, "and you're likely to see streets still ripped apart, houses jacked into the sky, and contractors' dented and oversized pickups that seem to occupy every bare piece of ground." 

Those sound like some jacks. And hundreds of pickups.

More on the shore

There is more shore news in Travel today (T-1).

Feature writer John Petrick recently returned from several years of exile covering trials and suits at the Passaic County Courthouse in Paterson -- and he's rusty, as you can see by the wordy, poorly edited lead paragraph of his piece on working at the shore as a teen.

That one paragraph has a "speeding car," "Garden State Parkway," "steamy Friday afternoon," "every Memorial Day weekend" and "another subsequent summer in my now grown-up life."

I stuck with it, and enjoyed his insider's look at "the endless bore" of a low-paying job running a wheel of chance during the day, which he refers to as "dayside," a newspaper term.

Payback for advertisers

Today's Local news section is from hunger.

In return for hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising revenue, The Record continues its intense coverage of malls and its neglect of Main Street (B-1).

At Westfield Garden State Plaza, Staff Writer Joan Verdon reports, a new wing has "double-height store facades" to resemble "a downtown street."

Isn't that rich?

And God forbid the editors suggest owners of the Paramus mall spend more money on security after crowds were panicked by gunshots and the fear of gunshots in the past six months.

Boring Kelly is back

A desperate Mike Kelly tries to wring meaning from the dinky Anderson Street Bridge, which was reduced to one lane in each direction from two a couple of years ago because of structural problems (O-1).

The biggest disruption has been experienced by low-wage workers and others who use hundreds of buses that were rerouted, but The Record has never interviewed any of those riders.

I drive over the bridge linking Hackensack and Teaneck a few times a week, and one lane in each direction is enough -- I've never seen a traffic jam there. 

But the stupid headline tries to give readers the impression this is big local news: "Hackensack's bridge going nowhere."

Is it really "Hackensack's bridge"? And it wasn't "going" anywhere before the lane closures.

Look at the shit-eating grin in Kelly's photo. He's pulled another fast one on his editors and readers.

Calling all fat readers

The Better Living cover promises "foodie news" on BL-2.

OK. But with three of the five items devoted to artery clogging ice cream, gelato, chocolate-covered frozen bananas and frozen shakes, this feature should be labeled "fattie news."

A Pulitzer finalist emerges from the mediocrity

At CNBC headquarters in Englewood Cliffs this morning, Porsche Cars North America introduced the 918 Spyder, a plug-in hybrid sports car with 887 horsepower and a base price of $845,000, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A photo on Page A-3 of The Record today shows Staff Writer Rebecca O'Brien being congratulated by Editor Marty Gottlieb and colleagues on Monday -- a rare glimpse inside a newsroom that fosters mediocrity.

The paper's series on the North Jersey heroin epidemic by O'Brien and Tom Mashberg was named a Pulitzer Prize "finalist" in the local news category.

But the actual prize was given to the Tampa Bay Times for  a probe of housing for the homeless that led "to swift reforms" (A-3).

Laggards

Meanwhile, the hard-working O'Brien is surrounded by mediocre colleagues, as columns on A-1 and L-1, and a health story on the Better Living cover demonstrate today.

The Record is no different than other media in being unable to resist anniversaries.

Today, burned-out Columnist Mike Kelly rehashes last year's Boston Marathon Bombing, which readers are already sick and tired of (A-1).

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski claims police are pulling over "a record number of motorists as if they were stray cattle at a roundup" (L-1).

What an odd phrase to describe drivers using cellphones in North Jersey. 

And I haven't noticed any unusual enforcement of distracted driving, just as I hardly ever see drivers stopped for speeding or blowing through stop signs, far more dangerous behavior.

No local news

There is so little local news today, L-6 carries four obituaries of obscure people most readers have never heard of.

The really bad news today is on Page 1.

The state budget gap keeps growing -- $145 million for March -- and The Record still has not reported what programs were cut by Governor Christie, who claims to have trimmed $700 million in spending (A-1).

The lead story today adds a great deal of detail to Christie's "intertwined government and political operations," which led to the George Washington Bridge scandal, among other things (A-1). 

Crappy reporting

The Better Living editors debut Your Health, a "new weekly health page," but the first major story is disappointing (BL-1).

The reporter, John Petrick, says "organic," "natural" and "free-range" are "seemingly healthy buzz terms" that don't mean "much." 

Yet on the continuation page, he concedes "organic at least has meaning, if not proven benefits" (BL-2).

What crappy reporting and editing. 

In  fact, organic food is grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are banned.

Organic meat and poultry are grass fed or raised on a vegetarian diet without harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones.

Back from exile?

A decade ago, Petrick became a features writer at The Record, beating out at least one reporter who sought the promotion from then-Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale.

Then, another editor decided to exile Petrick to covering criminal and civil trials at the Passaic County Courthouse in Paterson. Is he back in features now?

He did a great job as a courthouse reporter, but this first health story isn't up to that standard.

NJMG fires reporter over story on bullying

Image via Wikipedia

The Record of Woodland Park on Wednesday started a three-part series on bullying even though some believe there is at least one bully on the North Jersey Media Group payroll.

North Jersey Media Group fired a freelance reporter after she wrote about cyberbullying for one of its weekly newspapers, AIM Vernon in Sussex County.

On Wednesday, The Record of Woodland Park started a three-part series on bullying, and the focus of Thursday's Page 1 piece is cyberbullying. The first part drew this comment on northjersey.com, the publishing company's Web site:

Wednesday March 30, 2011, 3:19 PM - RosieLee says:
"North Jersey Media Group fired a reporter two weeks ago after they published her article on bullying and the bullies called and threatened to sue the newspaper. Now they are doing a series on bullying? Seems ironic and hypocritical in my opinion."

A source familiar with the firing told Eye on The Record: 

"Jessica Zummo, a wonderful reporter for one of their weekly publications, did an article on cyberbullying by adults. She named two people in her article and had a significant amount of documentation to back up her article. The people she named in the article called [NJMG Corporate Attorney] Dina Sforza repeatedly and threatened to sue the paper, if they [NJMG] didn’t fire the reporter. Even though the editor approved the article and even helped the reporter with it, Sforza berated the reporter terribly. NJMG then fired the reporter. This happened about two weeks ago."

Zummo worked as a freelance reporter for AIM Vernon for about four years, and was paid $50 a story. I was told she was the weekly paper's only reporter.


Here are links to a Facebook page and a Web site:


Inside Vernon

 www.insidevernon.com

Today's paper 

The move of The Record's newsroom to Woodland Park from Hackensack -- along with all the employees who spurn a healthy lifestyle -- hurt Passaic County in a survey of the healthiest counties in New Jersey (A-1).

Deirdre, Tim, Liz, Elisa -- you know who you are. Key factors in the rankings include obesity, binge drinking and access to healthy foods.

Even though she ignores virtually all other news about Hackensack, reporter Monsy Alvarado is a day late on a ruling by a federal judge who dismissed claims in a lawsuit filed by two police officers (A-11).

Resident kvetch

In a letter to the editor on A-12, Mickey Applebaum of Cliffside Park complains about the increasing number of Korean signs in neighboring Fort Lee on "establishments ... that exclude most of the public."

Hey, Mickey, many of those "private, money making operations" are restaurants and catering stores that would welcome you with open arms.

Fashionista

You can just guess at the sad state of local news by the daily coverage of a woman's lawsuit against her plastic surgeon, and the huge photo of the plaintiff on the front of Local, the section that is head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' pride and joy.

The well-groomed woman, who lives in Bloomingdale and apparently shops at Bloomingdale's, could serve as an example to Sykes, Liz Houlton and other fashion-challenged editors who have bad-hair days every day.

Unfortunately, Staff Writer John Petrick reports the $115,000 jury award without telling readers the plaintiff will be lucky if she sees half of that -- once her lawyer deducts his 33% contingent fee, plus expenses for any investigation, expert witnesses, exhibits and so forth.