Editors miss the mark on home-rule reporting

Jitneys such as this one heading to Manhattan relieve the pressure on NJ Transit, which doesn't provide enough rush-hour bus or rail seats for North Jersey commuters.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor


Mike Kelly pushes a lot of words around on The Record's front page today without coming close to answering some of the biggest questions about local police departments:

What exactly does the chief of a small department do, and why do we need nearly 70 of them in Bergen County alone (A-1)?

When The Record's Local section runs stories about a string of house burglaries, readers in such wealthy towns as Tenafly know what the chiefs don't do.

So, isn't it a good idea to empty the office of police brass and get them out on the street in Englewood Cliffs and other towns, where they can try to stop burglaries and enforce speeding laws?

But Kelly, aka "The Shit-Eating Grin," beats the subject to death, relying on one of the silliest comparisons I have ever seen:

"Think of this as the law enforcement equivalent of a restaurant with too many cooks and not enough waiters to serve the food."

No. Think of this as a columnist who long ago ran out of steam, and has been reduced to rewriting news stories.

Elderly and dead

Another front-page story today continues The Record's portrayal of the elderly as so demented they wander off for days -- or end up confined to a long-term care facility (A-1 and A-9).

The Record often ignores vibrant seniors who are living full lives until they die.

Still, I searched Local in vain today for an expanded obituary of a noteworthy North Jersey resident. In fact, I haven't seen one in several days.

Assuming Staff Writer Jay Levin is on vacation, why do the editors simply sit on their hands instead of assigning another reporter to write a local obit?

God knows, readers can't figure out why the Borgs are paying some reporters whose bylines are as rare as blue moons or why head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes keeps making excuses for them.

Help for obesity

The Better Living section today picks up more of Local's slack with a cover story on where families can get help for their obese children (BL-1).

Now, the paper should publish a story on where its obese editors can go for help.

The section also appears to have ended "STARTERS" -- a feature on new restaurants -- and substituted a streamlined column called "NOW OPEN" (BL-1)

Today's piece on Fiona's Restaurant in Midland Park is by Staff Writer Sachi Fujimori, whose straightforward reporting is far better than the hard sell of free-lancer Joyce Venezia Suss.

Will River Street be vacant for 2 more years?

Since The Record left 150 River St. in Hackensack, this marker has resembled a tombstone for local journalism. Now, Bergen County is leasing 540 parking spaces in the old Record lot from the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group.

This is one of the trucks and other pieces of equipment parked in the NJMG-owned lot near the U.S.S. Ling, generating more income for the Borgs.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

After Publisher Stephen A. Borg abandoned the Hackensack headquarters of The Record and North Jersey Media Group in 2009, city officials anxiously awaited word of redevelopment.

The Borgs were rumored to be flirting with Wal-Mart for one of its super-duper stores peddling low-quality food and other goods, and paying its workers slave wages.

But that fell through and, in June, NJMG announced that about 20 acres along River Street would be sold to a developer who promises to build hundreds of luxury apartments, retail and even a hotel.

A bad deal

However, nothing apparently will change until at least July 2015 and expiration of a $777,660 lease for 540 parking spaces at 150 River St.

Bergen County will use those spaces to provide free parking for jurors, attorneys and others during construction of a Justice Center and parking deck on the old parking lot opposite Pep Boys (Sunday's L-2).

But this is a bad deal for taxpayers in Hackensack and the county:

Besides paying NJMG more than three-quarters of a million dollars for the spaces, the county will give up tens of thousands of dollars in parking fees generated by the old lot.

In 2010, the publishing company -- which prints The Record of Woodland Park, Herald News, weeklies, (201) magazine and other publications -- paid these property taxes to the city of Hackensack: 

• 150 River St. -- $628,560 

• 80 River St. -- $36,084 

• 76 Bridge St. -- $12,238

The 2-year delay might give Hackensack officials time to figure out where to put schoolchildren from hundreds of new apartments on River Street, as well as a new residential building on State Street that is under construction.

Chris and Sandy

The lead story in The Record today reports that Governor Christie is funneling more Sandy aid to lower-income residents (A-1).

That's a real slap in the face to other low- and moderate-income residents in New Jersey, where Christie has tried and failed to abolish the state Council on Affordable Housing, and use $142 million in housing funds to balance his mean-spirited budget.

Leave it to readers

The GOP bully can do no wrong, according to The Record's editors, but readers like Bruce de Lyon of Dumont know better:

In a letter to the editor (A-11), De Lyon notes Christie has presidential aspirations and is "looking to firm up his standing with the extreme right of the Republican Party."

Contrary to being able "to work with adversaries," Christie cut state education aid "across the board" and "vilified teachers as 'drug mules' and public workers as the reason for the state's problems," says De Lyon, a retired superintendent of schools.

Readers in a funk

Editor Marty Gottlieb waste a huge amount of front-page space today on another silly piece from sports Columnist Tara Sullivan, the paper's own vagina monologue.

The sub-headline notes a "homer helps lift Yankees out of their funk."

Who will lift readers out of their funk?

Junk food on wheels

Certainly not the paper's food writers, who have been pulling out all the stops to promote a conclave of food trucks at Overpeck Park on Wednesday afternoon (Better Living cover).

Lots of unhealthy food will be offered -- strange, considering the main sponsor is Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck.

One of the trucks, Bacon on Wheels, appears to be offering fatty pork filled with harmful preservatives, antibiotics and growth hormones.

Maybe the hospital is trying to fill empty beds by luring unsuspecting people to the food trucks in the park. The trucks are  barred by many towns.

Fine food?

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz wrote today's cover story, claiming the mobil food vendors serve "fine food" and are "the rage ... in the new-rage-every-minute foodie world."

And that's just the first paragraph. 

Davidowitz, whose online photos appear to show a fit woman in her 60s, actually uses the phrase "like, duh," in her article.

More sloppy editing

Another food article -- the STARTERS feature on Pier 115 Bar & Grill in Edgewater -- was poorly edited.

Freelancer Joyce Venezia Suss describes a "miso Chilean sea bass featuring beer-battered cod fillet" (BL-3).

That's two fish in one dish, but the restaurant said today the specialty contains only oven-roasted Chilean sea bass -- which experts say is overfished and high in mercury.

Is cod on the menu?

Second look

Road Warrior John Cichowski appeared to be promoting NY Waterway ferry service in his column on Sunday.

But in his first paragraph, he associates the ferry with a sinking ship by comparing commuter Holly Wilson of Cresskill to actress Kate Winslet in "Titanic."

LOL.

Ung is back

Elisa Ung, The Record's restaurant reviewer, has ended an extended leave with a post on the Second Helpings blog about a new Italian restaurant in Midland Park.

Readers should brace for Ung's multiple orgasms over all of those artery clogging desserts she loves to sample at restaurants.

Columnist emerges from journalism's sub-basement

One of the reflecting pools at the site of the original World Trade Center in Manhattan.

Staff Writer Mike Kelly was given access to the top of the new World Trade Center, and flaunts it in the face of readers on Page 1 today.

Why did Editor Marty Gottlieb waste so much space on The Record's front page for a column that has so little news value?

Kelly, who has been writing his column for more than 20 years, has been stuck in the fourth sub-basement of journalism for years, and is unable to write a coherent sentence.

He refers to "12 unenclosed flights of stairs into crisp air" as a "ladder on steroids." 

If readers have the stomach, they can find their own example of Kelly's unfocused news writing, and a complete lack of editing.

Glorious greed

Why is The Record giving a million dollars worth of free advertising to a couple who are flipping Englewood's Gloria Crest mansion, which they bought in 2000 for $4.7 million (A-1 and L-7)?

Who is foolish enough to throw away $39 million on this glorious pile of stone on 5 acres, and who cares where owners Edward and Jan Turen will live next?

Maybe Publisher Stephen A. Borg is finding his $3.65 million McMansion in Tenafly a little cramped, and will buy Gloria Crest as a family homestead and retirement home for his father, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, who lives nearby on Englewood's East Hill. 

They could call it Borg Crest or Crested Borg or Stephen Gloria. 

More fluff as news 

This story and Kelly's column are examples of the gee-whiz journalism the editors rely on in the absence of local news.

Kudos to Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi for the terrific photo of a 74-year-old woman holding a small dog after their car rolled over in Fair Lawn (L-3).

But this is yet another gee-whiz filler photo from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who day after day seems unable to find enough news for Local.

Grazing in Ridgewood

On the Better Living cover, freelancer Joyce Venezia Suss quotes the owners of Raymond's in Ridgewood as saying "we grind and blend our own meat for the burgers" (BL-1).

Suss is silent on whether the restaurant owners actually raise cattle, and doesn't say if the meat contains antibiotics and growth hormones or if the place serves any organic produce.

Monday's paper

I didn't get to Monday's paper until this morning, but I'm relieved the book drive for Paterson children finally ended on Sunday after four weeks of daily coverage (Monday's A-1).

The drive was sponsored by North Jersey Media Group and its two daily papers, The Record and Herald News.

Overreacting? 

The big Hackensack news on Monday was a fire that destroyed two homes on Park Street.

Residents who see their property taxes rise every year wonder why 55 city firefighters -- plus an unknown number of others from three neighboring towns -- were needed to put out the wind-whipped blaze at around 5 in the morning?     

 

Editors at The Record are barking up the wrong tree

On Monday, when City Hall was closed for Presidents Day, Hackensack sent a private contractor to cut down city owned trees on Euclid Avenue without notice to residents. No one answered the phones at the Department of Public Works or other offices.

The top half of the tree was fed directly into a chipping machine called the "Beever," which helps explain why so many reporters at The Record never learned how to spell.

This tree and two others on the block were damaged by Superstorm Sandy. The trees could have been more than 160 years old, dating to the development of Fairmount in the 1850s.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR


The only bright spot on Page 1 today is the upbeat story about how the Ridgewood and Fair Lawn libraries are helping impoverished Paterson give every child a book to take home and keep.

But readers soon learn North Jersey Media Group, The Record and the Herald News are involved -- so this is just another public-relations ploy to cover up the irresponsible decline in coverage of Hackensack and so many other towns.

Afternoon naps have become a fixture on the local-news assignment desk of head Editor Deirdre Sykes and her snoring deputy, Dan Sforza.

More Paterson crime

Typical of The Record's coverage of Silk City is the story below the fold on a black pastor who is on trial in the apparently premeditated attempted murder of his "longtime mistress" (A-1).

Meanwhile, Editor Marty Gottlieb keeps hitting readers over the head with yet another story about the investigation of Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J. (A-1).

Is there an explanation in the lead A-1 story -- on the $3.9 billion PSE&G is spending to get systems ready for the next superstorm -- why this wasn't launched after the devastating pre-Halloween storm in 2011?
 
Sykes' and Sforza's Local news section is silent again on Hackesack municipal affairs.

Selling out readers

In Better Living, the Starters piece on Ridgewood Fare is so promotional readers wonder whether the pricey restaurant had to agree to a display advertising contract in return (BL-1).

Joyce Venezia Suss, the writer, quotes Ridgewood Fare's general manager praising the place to the sky, but she is getting paid to say all of that, so what are readers to think.

Why is this so long? Is Suss getting paid by the inch?

The clueless Suss even quotes the restaurant's flunky as saying "all proteins" are "slow-growth and hormone-free," but that could mean they are filled with harmful animal antibiotics.

What a disgrace.     

See how far this paper has fallen

Image via Wikipedia
A Fort Lee bribe scheme in 1974 is front-page news today.

From today's huge front-page play in The Record to Columnist Mike Kelly's overwriting to the wildly exaggerated headline, you'd think Burt Ross was the only honest politician in New Jersey.


Is this headline deserved or even accurate?

N.J. icon moving on 

Of course, we should respect Ross, who turned down a $500,000 bribe offer when he was mayor of Fort Lee and then informed the FBI, but that was 37 years ago, for crying out loud. Is he really an "icon"?


The untold story, which Kelly only hints at, is the incompetency of Fort Lee officials, who in all of that time haven't been able to develop the forlorn expanse of empty land at the center of the bribery scheme.


And while Kelly blames resentful politicians for Ross being unable to win higher office, he completely ignores voter apathy. Finally, is it really Page 1 news that Ross and his wife are moving to Malibu from Englewood to live near their daughters?


Failed columnist


If you want to know how far The Record has fallen in recent years, consider that Kelly is the Woodland Park daily's lead columnist, even though he gives the impression he is just pushing words around.


Look at the writing in today's column: Referring to the California move, Kelly says Ross "faces the consequences of a new decision."


Does Kelly mean earthquakes or the Golden State's horrendous traffic jams, worse than anything we have in the Garden State?


Later, Kelly says the land at the center of the bribe scheme "now seems to be home to more broken concrete slabs than broken dreams." Huh? 


At Ross' Englewood home, Kelly notes, "Cardboard boxes lined a wall in one room. A computer screen blinked in another." This is truly great journalism. Kelly has incredible powers of observation.


Judging from the level of editing, Kelly's column once again put his assignment editor to sleep -- as well as his readers. 


Lifer news


Interim Editor Douglas Clancy and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes have been around so long, they've worn ruts in the newsroom floor.


So, it's no surprise the biggest news on the front of Sykes' Local section is the swearing in of Gerald Calabrese, 86, for yet another term as mayor of Cliffside Park, where his son, Thomas, is a councilman (L-1).


Of course, there's no discussion in this upbeat account of whether Cliffside or any other town deserves the dubious distinction of having any one official in office for more than 48 years.


Fish stories


In Better Living, the owner of a seafood restaurant apparently duped the writer of the Starters feature on F-1, Joyce Suss.


She quotes Alfred Ianniello of Brigantine Seafood Eatery and Market in Hawthorne as saying he is "promoting sustainable, organic fish" (F-4), but that's impossible, because there are no organic standards for seafood.


Suss also doesn't say whether the salmon he serves is artificially colored farmed fillets or wild-caught, nor does she identify the fish used in the fish and chips or fish tacos.


Since the clueless Suss was assigned to Starters, the feature has been expanded, with more text and more photos, so now this first, non-critical look at new restaurants resembles free advertising.


After praising Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill for publishing a healthy recipe for vegetable soup on Wednesday, I actually looked closely at the ingredients, only to discover a full stick of artery clogging butter and a recommended garnish of crumbled bacon.


Sherill continues to show how out of touch she is with readers who take healthy eating seriously, and may be inadvertently contributing to poor eating habits and all the subsequent heart disease.

Sending mixed messages on Wayne thugs

U.S. Census Bureau map of Hackensack.

For the third day in a row, Interim Editor Doug Clancy continues to devote precious Page 1 space to those nine thuggish Wayne football players -- directly contradicting an editorial blasting the Board of Education and the coach for ignoring the victims (A-11):

"In Wayne, nine criminally charged high school students took the field, their football coach took control of the Board of Education, and residents, so far, have taken it on the chin.

"All the while, the two assaulted students are forgotten...."

Putting aside the editorial's awkward language, readers also are getting the shaft, with more A-1 space devoted to Wayne football than to the deficit-reduction talks in Congress -- an issue that affects just about everyone in North Jersey.


Doesn't Clancy live in Wayne? What kind of news judgment is that?


And why did Clancy think a training exercise for police is worthy of the front page, unless he didn't have anything better from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes?


Blinded by editor


The biggest news on the front of Sykes' Local section is the installation of solar panels on the roof of the Ice House in Hackensack -- as the assignment desk tries to chronicle every solar project in North Jersey with its own story and photo.


Of course, residents still are in the dark on the progress of the city's solar-panel installations, potential savings and whether they will help trim property taxes.


In utility pole news, a large photo on L-3 documents how a truck demolished one in Teaneck.


Selling out


Even though the space devoted to news has shrunk in recent years, Better Living continues to run stories promoting a wide variety of businesses, including today's shameless piece on Black Friday sales, complete with 13 store or mall logos (F-1).


Food writer Joyce Venezia Suss apparently doesn't know the difference between mostly organic food and a crappy McDonald's hamburger (F-1).


In a Starters column on Nanoosh, a new restaurant at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, she says of the salads, organic chickpeas and other healthy items: "The proprietors insist that it's not fast food."


Does Features Director Stephanie Rivers really expect readers to take Suss seriously? "Shush" would be more like it.