Chrisitie scams us once again

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will impose higher taxes on the wealthiest residents and cut taxes on the middle class.

On Page 1 today, Staff Writer Juliet Fletcher has finally exposed how little money is being saved by Governor Christie's so-called reform of state workers' health benefits. 


The GOP bully has done wonders distracting The Record and other media from his refusal to tax millionaires, while he demonizes unions and penalizes other members of the middle class.


Now, it seems, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is revising his own stance on not taxing the wealthy, saying he wants to reform his state's tax code "in a way that creates jobs and grows our economy."


Christie, on the other hand, has been a job killer, principally by pulling the plug on the Hudson River rail tunnels. Now, he supports millions of dollars in tax breaks to get businesses to hire more people.


Bloody Tuesday


Factory farms kill millions of animals every year -- and millions of unwanted pets are destroyed, as well -- so why is the black-bear hunt front-page news today? 


One hunter is actually quoted as saying part of the allure of hunting is "not hearing any horns honking," but apparently frequent gunshots are music to hos ears (A-6).


More ageism


An editorial on A-18 says a proposal requiring more driver training for teens with learner's permits "goes too far." But I haven't seen an editorial calling for retesting older drivers behind the wheel to cut down the number of people they kill.


A local obituary makes a rare appearance on the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section today -- about a Fort Lee teen who died of diabetes -- while the obituaries of older, far more prominent residents are buried on the obit page. 


Isn't that more ageism by The Record's editors, already famous for helping Publisher Stephen A. Borg treat older newsroom workers like shit?


Free advertising


There is no Hackensack news in the section today, but a developer must have slipped Sykes or her assignment minions a few thousand dollars to publish the lavishly promotional story about "luxury manor homes" in Saddle River (L-3).


Call it a free advertisement with headlines, and a royal F.U. to all those readers who face foreclosure.


In fact, Sykes managed to come up with so little local news, layout editors were forced to run two wire-service obituaries of obscure people on L-6.

Cats, dogs and just plain animals

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The Penn State Lion Shrine. Students who rioted did a good imitation of wild animals.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With dogs and cats on the front page today, cows on A-2 and a bunch of animals from Penn State on A-5, you could argue The Record's editors are inhuman.

You wouldn't get any push back from former newsroom employees whose lives were ruined by the mercurial Stephen A. Borg, Barbara Jaeger, Deirdre Sykes and  Francis "Frank" Scandale.

The Page 1 story on how "pets suffer in hard times" may pull many readers' heart strings, but others will wonder why the paper writes so little about how humans and Main Street businesses have fared during the recession.

Dog eat dog

Anyway, interim Editor Doug Clancy, aren't millions of unwanted pets destroyed every year in good times and bad? Why is this Page 1 news -- outside of you didn't have anything else?

The lead story today is another speculative one from Staff Writer Juliet Fletcher on how much money the state will save from high-deductible health plans for public workers.

But Clancy and the assignment desk should have known this story sounds just like the four or five earlier accounts she wrote about health-care and pension savings. 

Why not wait until the savings are realized and then report them?

For development

As usual, Staff Writer John Brennan comes down on the developer's side in another A-1 story today, this one about an expansion of the former Xanadu project into 5 acres of sensitive wetlands.

The Penn State story completely omits how a student protest turned into a riot after head coach Joe Paterno was fired last week in a child sex-abuse scandal. Who knows whether any of the students shown in an A-5 photo took part in the rock-throwing and other violence.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section is filled with soft weekend news. 

Hackensack residents, among others, continue to wait for the end of a news drought.

Food fight

On the front of Better Living today, the highly promotional Starters column on recently opened restaurants is unusually long and carries a new byline, Joyce Venezia Suss (F-1).

It's hard to tell whether Suss knows anything about the origin of food from this sentence about an Irish pub:

"Ingredients are a particular source of pride and include certified Angus beef, hormone-free poultry and seasonal sustainable seafood ...."

Certified Angus Beef is nothing special; it is raised conventionally, with antibiotics and growth hormones. 

Federal law prohibits hormones in poultry, so it's possible the chicken and other poultry served at this pub were raised on antibiotics and animal byproducts. 

That doesn't sound like anything a restaurant owner would be proud of.

Journalism waters are getting murkier

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Michael Jackson's July 2009 death certificate.

Who is more disappointed in Governor Christie's continued denial of White House ambitions?


Is it the fat-cat donors he addressed at the Reagan Library on Tuesday or Editor Francis Scandale, who pulls out all the stops on Page 1 of The Record today to make the GOP bully look presidential?

Candidate in looks only 

That Christie headline reminds me of this: "Newspaper in looks only." 

One example is the A-1 caption under the flag-waving Christie photo, noting he spoke to "supporters that want him to run for president," rather than the grammatical "supporters who want him to run ...." 


Big Christie fan

You can't tell whether the reporter, Juliet Fletcher of the State House Bureau (a former Trenton reporter for The Press of Atlantic City), works for a newspaper or the Christie administration. Here's her lead paragraph:

"Governor Christie, himself the center of a fever pitch of presidential hype, delivered his version of American leadership Tuesday before a well-heeled conservative crowd at the home of one of the most powerful Republican symbols."

Boy, that's a lot to digest -- "fever pitch," "leadership" and "powerful" all in one graph. 


What does she mean by the awkward "delivered his version of American leadership"? And the Reagan Library is referred to as a "home."


Isn't the "fever pitch of presidential hype" manufactured by The Record and other media?

At the end of her second graph, she writes: "His out-of-state fund-raising tour this week helped push the Christie-for-president rumors to their greatest heights so far."

How high would that be? As high as 1 Garret Mountain Plaza in Woodland Park? As high as the new World Trade Center, being built with some of the toll hikes the governor approved recently?

In a video on northjersey.com, Christie becomes the latest Republican to blame President Obama for the "class warfare" the GOP has been waging on unions and the middle class in a concerted effort to preserve low tax rates for the rich.


Water everywhere

The A-1 off-lead today is a story reporting three more salaried Paterson officials -- for a total of seven -- got overtime checks after Irene's floods.

Editor Deirdre Sykes' assignment desk has been reporting these revelations in dribs and drabs, like a difficult bowel movement. Is that deliberate -- in an effort to keep the story on Page 1 -- or is the desk just lazy and incompetent?

The lead paragraph notes "the political water surrounding Mayor Jeffrey Jones got rougher Tuesday night ...."

Flood waters and "political water." That's the height of Woodland Park journalism today. Shouldn't it be "waters"? Why not try "political urine" while you're at it? That would be a real pisser.


Black men are bad

I guess it's just coincidence today's front page features at least three black men who are in trouble -- Mayor Jones of Paterson; George Wright, a convicted killer from New Jersey captured in Portugal; and Dr. Conrad Murphy, on trial in Michael Jackson's death -- under a large photo of Christie as the Great White Hope. LOL.


Scandale's clumsy manipulation of the news is so apparent, it's an insult to readers. Again today, the paper is black, white and red all over.


On A-3 today, a story reports AAA is suing "to stop recent toll hikes on Hudson River crossings." How do you "stop" toll hikes that went into effect 10 days ago?


Unsuitable headline


A story on a lawsuit filed by 587 employees against Nextel is called "Nextel suit" in the headline on A-6 today -- about as wrong as Liz Houlton's news copy desk can get it.

There is so little local news in Sykes' Local section today, a business seminar on the 2014 Meadowlands Super Bowl was needed to plug a hole on the front (L-1).


Too lazy to report on commuting problems, Road Warrior John Cichowski writes his umpteenth L-1 column on tailgaters. 


Cichowski's major flaw as a reporter is looking to readers for column ideas, instead of doing basic legwork and trusting his instincts as a journalist.


Instead of Hackensack news, city residents are given a full-blown story on another routine motion in the criminal case against suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa.


Second look


One of Sykes' assignment minions apparently has barred transportation reporter Karen Rouse from reporting complaints from commuters about having to stand on rush-hour buses and trains into the city or being forced to ride decrepit local buses that are 30 years old.


On Tuesday, Rouse did report on a complaint from a bus rider, but only because his foot was run over by a bus and he lost several toes (L-3).