Christie's frequent hand jobs are the only 'job' he is doing

A smaller number of homes on Clinton Place in Hackensack have been decorated for Halloween than in past years. Does the addition of a lawn sign suggest that this candidate's campaign is dead or that he wants the dead to vote for him?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record keeps on quoting Governor Christie as saying he is doing his job, but his constituents are baffled by the claim.

On Wednesday, Christie bullied a former Asbury Park councilman who protested the glacial pace of Sandy recovery two years after the superstorm hit New Jersey.

On Thursday, the GOP bully said, "It's just another day at the ranch, the Rancho Christie, and so we'll keep doing our jobs" (A-3).

"Rancho Christie"? Is that the governor's way of trying to appeal to Hispanics in his quixotic bid for the White House?

Sloppy reporting

The Record's story on Thursday didn't mention that protester Jim Keady is a former councilman and part of a Sandy victims advocacy group called Finish the Job.

Nor did Staff Writer Melissa Hayes report how angry and unpresidential Christie was when Keady stood up and kept talking over the politician, as you could clearly see if you watched TV news on Thursday.

The Record's Christie-friendly filter is evident again today in an editorial noting that only half of the 8,800 homeowners approved for relief money have received it (A-20).

The editorial doesn't even come close to saying Christie bears some of the responsibility.

One of the trainers at 24 Hour Fitness in Paramus this morning.

How is Christie doing?

Shouldn't the taxpayers dock Christie for the more than 65 days he has spent out of state this year to raise funds as head of the Republican Governors Association?

He's visited 36 states and Washington, D.C., according to what reads like one of the governor's press releases on The Record's A-3 today.

Besides hand jobs, has Christie done the job of expanding mass transit in one of the nation's most traffic-choked regions or cleaning up the environment?

Christie can't even figure out how to fix the bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund for infrastructure and mass-transit improvements.

What else has he accomplished besides vetoing numerous initiatives from the Democratic-controlled state Legislature -- from raising the minimum wage to open space preservation? 

Election coverage

For the second day in a row, The Record questions the viability of a candidate based on how much he or she has raised in contributions (L-1).

The story makes no mention of the many Democrats who voted for Kathleen Donovan, a Republican who is seeking a second term as county executive on Nov. 4.

I am among those Democrats who split their vote and chose Donovan then and again on my mail-in ballot for this election, because I am repelled by the practices of the county and local Democratic organizations.

Are polls reliable?

Another story on the election appears on L-3, a poll that purports to show that Rep. Scott Garrett, the Tea Party icon from Wantage, is leading challenger Roy Cho by a wider margin than before.

With about 70 percent of the voters living in Bergen County, only widespread voter apathy could derail Cho's momentum in the 5th Congressional District.

Recall the polls that said the race between President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney was too close to call. 

If fact, the president's resounding victory embarrassed the candidate of the 1 percent.

The rest of Local today is filled with an inordinate amount of Law & Order news.

Too sheepish

Despite the poor preparation of entrees and a dessert, Staff Writer Elisa Ung gives a rave, 3-star review to The Plum & Pear in Wyckoff (BL-1).

She again touts the "quality of the ingredients" and praises the restaurant's global focus, but doesn't say why the owner chose domestic chops over naturally raised Australian lamb in a $34 special.

And she was bowled over by three desserts, which many health conscious customers never eat.

Why didn't she report on the taste of the house-made whole wheat linguine or a popular "greens and grains" salad? 

A single, nasty lawsuit won't derail reform in Hackensack

Hackensack residents lining up to question city officials during the public-comment portion of Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Tuesday night, more North Jersey Media Group staffers gathered in one place in Hackensack than at any time since 2009, when the Borg family's flagship newspaper abruptly abandoned the city.

Four reporters and a photographer covered the City Council, which met on the third floor of City Hall, several blocks from The Record's old headquarters at 150 River Street.

Bombshells

The day before, acting City Manager Anthony Rottino hit city officials with "a bombshell lawsuit alleging that he was the target of a smear campaign designed to run him out of his $176,000 position," according to The Record's lead Page 1 story today.

Rottino, of Franklin Lakes, actually holds two positions, acting city manager and economic development director.

That "bombshell" is getting blanket coverage in The Record, unlike the "bombshell" decision to pull out of Hackensack, where the Borg family prospered for more than 110 years, about a year after the biggest downsizing in the company's history.

The negative impact on Hackensack's downtown was ignored as the Borgs shifted coverage to big mall retailers, whose advertising revenue keeps the Woodland Park daily afloat.

Reforms advance

Despite major missteps by the Citizens for Change slate that was swept into office in 2013, the Rottino suit is not expected to stop the drive to reform a city that withered and nearly died under decades of rule by the Zisa family.

In fact, as shown by the $94.46 million budget approved on Tuesday night, CFO Jim Mangin has earned praise for cleaning up the financial mess left by the previous administration.

Of course, the four reporters from The Record and Hackensack Chronicle weren't there on Tuesday night to report positive news.

Today's paper leads with the firing of former campaign official Thom Ammirato, a Rottino ally, from his $78,000-a-year position as city spokesman, but says nothing about the new spending plan (A-1).

Staff Writer Hannan Adely also reported the council summoned Rottino to "a hearing about his job" on Thursday morning. 

Word pushers

Columnist Mike Kelly, the burned-out reporter who helped cover the official corruption and insurance fraud trial of former Police Chief Ken Zisa in 2012, smelled blood, prompting him to make a rare trip to the city.

Don't look for any insights. Kelly is probably writing his column today and filling it with the same tired phrases he has used hundreds of times before.

The first paragraph of a second story on A-1 today, under the rare byline of veteran reporter Jean Rimbach, refers incorrectly to Rottino as "Hackensack's city manager."

Legal lesson

Rimbach reports "whistle-blower actions" like the suit filed by Rottino "are tough to win" (A-1).

The complaint claims Rottino opposed raising police salaries more than 2%, tried to protect Ammirato's job and raised questions about the allegedly "widespread use of steroids by members of the Police Department" (A-6).

Rottino also claims city officials violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination by "choosing a white candidate for a municipal judgeship over a qualified black candidate."

Acting City Manager Anthony Rottino didn't attend Tuesday night's City Council meeting. Sitting in was Art Koster, executive assistant to the city manager and city personnel director, left front. CFO Jim Mangin is seated at right. Mayor John Labrosse is seated on the dais flanked on each side by the four other members of the City Council.

'Costly legal disputes'

The Record's lead front-page story on Tuesday reported the Rottino suit and seemed to blame the City Council for failing in its goal of putting an "end to costly legal disputes."

Of course, this is the kind of simplistic nonsense reporters try to peddle all the time.

To put an end to "costly" legal disputes, you'd have to upend the entire system of lawyers charging whatever the traffic will bear, backed up by judges, who were, after all, onetime lawyers who tested the limits on hourly rates.

A lawyer who charges $400 to $500 an hour effectively denies many people access to the courts.

Still, this is a system supported by many, including The Record and Jennifer A. Borg, NJMG's vice president and general counsel, because it limits the ability of employees to file suits over working conditions, age discrimination, severance and other issues.

Second look

On Monday, the lead story in Local on the proposed county budget contained several reporting and editing problems, as listed by a reader of Eye on The Record:

"Today's L-1 article on [Bergen County Executive Kathleen] Donovan and the budget contains very confusing and mistaken information.

In the 2nd paragraph, it states:

The budget "will deliver real relief in the form of a slightly less than zero tax increase."

If the net difference is slightly "less" than zero, it is a tax decrease. It would have to be slightly "more" than zero, for it to be tax increase.

In the 4th paragraph, it states:

"Donovan, a Republican running for a second term, contends that in order to slice $6.8 million from the budget she proposed in March, the freeholders are tapping into funds that can't be replenished next year."

Based on further details in the article, they would not slice [cut] the budget by $6.8 million. They would increase the funding for the proposed budget based on using $6.8 million from motor vehicle fines instead of Donovan's proposed $4.8 million.

In subsequent paragraphs, it states:

"They're raiding all the funds and taking the money out, which is very imprudent because next year, even if you've got the money in, you can't spend it," Donovan said during a Record Talk Radio interview on Friday."

"She said she proposed spending $4.8 million from a fund for motor vehicle fines, about the same amount the county has spent in previous years. But Donovan said the freeholders have called for spending $6.8 million of that revenue, leaving about $450,000 in the fund."

"Donovan said state spending rules require local governments to anticipate receiving no more than they already have in the fund. Even if the fund took in $2 million in fines in 2015, the county would be able to spend only $450,000 of that amount, she said."

"So you've got a built-in, we think, over $3 million deficit on Day One in January 2015. That's totally irresponsible of them to do that, she added."

"The last paragraph is in the wrong order since it makes no sense on how there can be a $3 million deficit based on not being able to spend the freeholder's proposed $6.8 million vs. Donovan's proposed $4.8 million, which is only a net difference of $2 million.  

"It should have followed the first paragraph." 

Eye on The Record will return

 after the Fourth of July

That's titillating, but how does it affect me?

This sign, seen across the roof of a van, is a touch of civility at a Manhattan entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. Fortunately or unfortunately, congestion usually slows drivers to a crawl, giving them time to read the sign and yield to other drivers -- in marked contrast to what happens on New Jersey highways.

By Victor E. Sasson

Editor

An extra-marital affair, an angry husband, pay-to-play and a prominent Republican who has grown fat on his New Jersey connections.

You'd think today's Page 1 expose in The Record has everything a reader could want. But you'd be wrong.

The avalanche of words and titillating e-mails never explain why any of this is relevant to my life or the lives of thousands of other readers.

'Me news'?

Will the split between Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan and public relations guru Alan C. Marcus slow or end the reforms Donovan is known for?

Are my property taxes going up? Will this brouhaha lessen or increase the crushing burden of the county's tax-exempt property on Hackensack residents?

As far as I know, county sherriff's officers will continue to help Hackensack police officers fight crime under an initiative started by Police Director Michael Mordaga.

I have a lot of respect for the reporters who worked on the expose, but this is the kind of  story Editors Marty Gottlieb and Deirdre Sykes love to waste time and money chasing to bring a little excitement into their dull, newsroom-centered lives.

Stephen Borg speaks

Turn to A-7 for comment from Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who claims staffers "teach" at Bergen Community College.

Borg is referring to "In The Record," a class given by the college's Institute for Learning in Retirement for seniors citizens.

Road Warrior John Cichowski, Staff Writer Lindy Washburn and other staffers speak to the class about their jobs and their beats, and answer questions.

Calling it teaching, as Borg does, is a stretch. 

The front-page has another political "thriller" from Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson, who again fails to explain why readers should care about anything he reports in his column (A-1).

Downplaying protests

The outrage over the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case is demoted to A-3 to make room for all the tripe about politics.

I have yet to see an explanation from any media why the corrupt state of Florida allows 6-member juries to hear criminal cases.

In most states, including New Jersey, 12 people hear criminal cases and 6-member juries are reserved for civil lawsuits.

Local yokels

Today's Local section has Sykes' stamp on it: 

Two more filler accident photos without a word in the captions about what might have caused them (L-1 and L-3).

Was the SUV driver who ran off a curve of the Garden State Parkway speeding or texting? 

Did the 77-year-old man killed in a one-car crash on Route 46 in Lodi have a heart attack or some other health-related problem?

Readers don't have a clue.

More road noise

The Road Warrior column makes more noise about gaps in noise walls, but as in a previous highly exaggerated column, never explains why anyone would buy a house next to a highway and why readers should care when they do (L-1).

In his column on Friday, Cichowski answered readers' questions with a mixture of "clueless, unsafe, and false information" that conflicts with state statutes, according to a concerned reader.

See the full e-mail to management on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers: 

90th column with reporting problems 

The obituary of athlete, accountant and actor Dick Wieczezak of Wallington is good reading, but I'd like to see more of these local deaths on Page 1 in place of endlessly boring politics (L-1).

Not much else

The Sunday paper has 4 more sections, but I couldn't find much in them.

Today's consumer column from Staff Writer Kevin DeMarrais is a silly comparison of flying and driving to Disney World in Orlando, Fla. (B-1).

I really was on the edge of my seat reading about Jackie Zeman, a soap actress I've never heard of, and her problems sleeping anywhere but in her sister's house in Upper Saddle River (BL-1).

I kept wondering if she is related to John Zeaman, a former Record staffer and author of "Dog Walks Man."

Stephen Borg finally comes clean

Image via Wikipedia

The indoor ski slope at American Dream Meadowlands.

A day after Publisher Stephen A. Borg was accused of blocking stories about his wealthy friends, one of those stories appeared in The Record. Is that merely a coincidence?


Now, readers surely are wondering why the story ended up at the bottom of Local, while an issue few people care about -- sports betting -- is on Page 1. Is that Borg's doing, too?


The story traces the relationship among public relations wizard Alan C. Marcus, Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan; Triple Five LLC, developer of the retail-entertainment mega project once called Xanadu; and the Borg family, owners of The Record and North Jersey Media Group.


Three paragraphs at the end of the story, on L-6, discuss the Marcus-Borg ties:

"He [Marcus] said he remains an informal adviser to many prominent people and companies, including The Record and its owners, the Borg family. 

"I may converse with the Borgs some weeks more than I do Kathe [the county executive]," he said.

"Alan and I talk often," said Borg, who didn't say what they discuss. "Usually, he's not telling me what a great job I am doing."

Actually, few people are telling Borg what a great job he's doing with the exception of his bitch of a big sister, Jennifer A. Borg, vice president and general counsel.


When Marcus says he talks with the "Borgs," is Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg included?

Related post

• Younger Borg makes a pitch to the rich (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

See previous post, Is PSE&G responsible for two deaths?

When editors lose their courage

Image via Wikipedia

What secrets are hidden by Orthodox Jews in Borough Park?

You know the editors of a local newspaper have lost their way when letters from readers and OpEd pieces expose official incompetence or corruption more than the paper's own editorials and columnists.


Three letters to The Record's editor today blast Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan for giving a $53,000 raise to a "crony," who is already making $121,350 (A-18).


His job is to head an office that fights waste. What a farce.


D.C. gridlock


Four other letters comment on the sickening partisan gridlock over extending the nation's debt ceiling. 


The Record has printed one story after another filled with Republican he said and Democratic she said, but Herbert Jacobs of Teaneck says, " ... Republicans are ready to plunge the world into another Great Depression unless they get their way."


Hear Scott W. Stahlmann of Ramsey: "House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio; House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., the tea partiers and the right-wing fringe are trying to sell America with another 'big lie' ...."


It's time for President Obama, Stahlmann continues, "to stop negotiating and come out swinging. Raise revenue [by] taxing the wealthiest, close the corporate loopholes, reduce military spending and foreign aid, and leave Social Security and Medicare alone."


Rupert's cube


Another letter, this one from J. Andrew Smith of Bloomfield, calls Rupert Murdoch's empire a "God-awful propaganda machine that redefines bottom-feeding for conservatives."


An OpEd piece exposes Governor Christie's attempts "to allow municipalities where the wealthiest New Jerseyans live to continue to keep out working families" by imposing large minimum lot sizes (A-19).


Stuffed shirt


Compare all this compelling reading to what Editor Francis Scandale had to say at the screening of an HBO documentary, "Mann v. Ford" on the decades-long struggle of the Ramapough Mountain People against Ford Motor Co.


Scandale took a break from golfing to moderate a panel discussion with the filmmakers and said not a single quotable word (L-1, L-6).


In fact, the cowardly editor left it to one of the filmmakers, Micah Fink, to put the saga in perspective: "It's a very powerful story. There are basic themes of injustice, racism, poverty ...."


How could Scandale be at a loss for words? He spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in staff salaries on The Record's "Toxic Legacy" series in pursuit of a Pulitzer Prize, but failed to win one.


There's also no mention today of how The Record's editorial page quickly abandoned the community when the largest civil suit in New Jersey history was settled -- netting Ringwood residents a maximum of $34,500 a person -- and urged them to take it and move on.


Today's front page


The newspaper's tarring and feathering of BCC President G. Jeremiah Ryan may lead to his firing, even though he spent "significantly less" than his annual $50,000 expense account and raised $3.8 million last year for the community college (A-1).


What the paper calls an "investigation" included a scurrilous attack on Ryan for buying "top-shelf liquor" for himself and donors. 


This from editors who once labored under a now-reformed drunk, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, and who now work for his spoiled children, investors in an Englewood wine bar. How rich.


Orthodox Jews


The grisly A-1 story on the murder and dismembering of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky by a member of his ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, delicately avoids any discussion of homosexuality among unmarried Hasidic men.


On A-4, a photo caption doesn't say whether the giant sand dragon shown won the contest in Belmar on Wednesday.


Go fish


In Better Living, the owner of Pearl Restaurant in Ridgewood doesn't explain why he serves artificially colored farmed Atlantic salmon when wild-caught salmon is abundant and cheap this summer (Starters, F-1 and F-8).

Where money is the root of all news

Image by Public Domain Photos via Flickr

"Follow the money."


That was the advice for two intrepid reporters trying to unravel the Watergate conspiracy way back when, and it soon became the first rule of investigative journalism.


But what gives with The Record's front page? Does Editor Francis Scandale and his minions save up stories so they can publish themed editions?


Today's theme is our broken budget and debt systems in New Jersey and the nation, and the politics they are mired in.


Too much politics


Readers' eyes are glazing over. They are sick and tired of reading about politics, but it seems to be the only way Scandale and his Trenton and Washington writers know how to tell a story.


Why doesn't The Record and other media recommend an independent panel on reducing the federal government's long-term deficit?


Why not report on how Governor Christie and Republicans in other states are behind an unprecedented shift of wealth to their rich supporters, while squeezing seniors and middle- and working-class families for all they've got?


Why not ask Republican leaders in Washington to document their oft-repeated, sound-bite claim that tax cuts for the wealthy create jobs or that closing tax loopholes will be a "job killer"?


Missing gonads


Where are your balls, Scandale and Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin? What does "P" stand for, putz? Are you taking your cues from your greedy publisher, Stephen A. Borg? 


Most of A-1 is taken up with another tale of malfeasance by members of an independent authority, this time lavish travel spending by the Bergen County agency that treats everybody's crap.


Does the story say why County Executive Kathleen Donovan can't do something to stop this or why she doesn't sue these bozos to recoup some of the $170,000 they blew over six years?


Haves and have-nots


As if the front-page stories aren't enough, a blurb on A-1 refers to the Local front and a story on Englewood's fiscal mess.


Mayor Frank Huttle III created a Commission on Budget and Finance, but why did he appoint members who are hedge-fund managers and insurance executives -- didn't they bring the nation's economy to the brink of disaster a few years ago?


Englewood's  haves and have-nots live on opposite sides of the tracks. It has hundreds of mansions on the East Hill, a small industrial section and new residential developments along Route 4.


Millions in debt


But the city has rolled up $55 million in debt, its downtown is struggling and its elementary and middles schools are segregated.


Maybe Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg and other wealthy residents, as well as the owners of commercial and industrial property, aren't being taxed enough.


Although Teaneck and Hackensack don't have the same extremes of wealth and poverty, they are similar demographically. Why are their finances in better shape?


I guess we can't expect the editors to connect the dots for readers.


Hey, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, thanks for another great section.


Belated nod


Travel Editor Jill Schensul is at her best when she isn't taking free trips and writing lavishly promotional stories for cruise lines and private-jet tours.


Witness her charming Travel section cover story and photos on Sunday about hidden treasures of the Garden State.


Now, if she just got rid of the idiotic photos of readers holding up the section on their trips, she'd have more room for such stories. As it is, she seems to be writing for an audience that is overwhelmingly white.

Errors, omissions and arrogance

Image via Wikipedia

Governor Christie told reporters to "take the bat" to Sen. Lorette Weinberg, above.

Staff Writer Elisa Ung's review of a Turkish restaurant in the South Paterson section of Paterson today is a painful reminder of the serious error she made when she reviewed another Turkish place nearly two years ago and called the ethnic enclave "Little Istanbul." 

For many Syrian merchants -- who settled the neighborhood decades before and whose ancestors lived under the heel of Turkish rule -- Ung's July 2009 whopper was a big slap in the face.

In her ignorance and arrogance, she never ran an A-2 correction in The Record, but two months later, wrote a corrective article featuring Syrian and Palestinian food places in the same neighborhood -- one dating to 1968 -- long before the Turks arrived. 

Even the September 2009 article didn't acknowledge her original error.

Defending women 

In today's review in Better Living, she seems shocked that Sahara Restaurant is across the street from "a gentlemen's club," and takes pain to tell readers the Turkish place is "less appropriate" for those who would "feel uncomfortable" in such a neighborhood.

How prudish. But she doesn't know or say the surrounding Paterson Farmers' Market has just about the lowest produce prices in North Jersey.

Dissing readers

You'll find more arrogance today from Road Warrior John Cichowski, who seems to think his readers are home-bound and clueless about New Jersey and recreation.
 

Desperate to avoid writing about commuters who use mass transit, he sails off in a new direction with a column on boats and seems to think it necessary to treat readers like morons:

"Boating? In April? Yes, the Garden State, after all, is a peninsula state." Duh.

On A-1 today, Editor Francis Scandale had so little legitimate news to work with, he ran a big photo of people lining up in Newark to audition for a TV show. No one is lining up to work for the editor of the Woodland Park daily.

Dissing women 

Scandale was careful to push below the fold on Page 1 criticism of Governor Christie by state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, who said the Republican bully continues "to show the level of insensitivity and poor judgment ... on women's issues since getting elected."

Frankly, I was surprised at Staff Writer Elise Young's clunky introduction to the story.

But the low page position was no surprise, given how poorly women have fared under Scandale and Features Director Barbara Jaeger, who seems to hold real disdain for other women, with the exception of lunch pal Liz Houlton, who has been promoted repeatedly despite her poor job performance. 

Jaeger forced long-time Food Editor Patricia Mack into retirement in 2006, replacing her with an unqualified man half her age; made life miserable for onetime Go! Editor Trudy Walz; and stripped Virginia Rohan and Colleen Diskin of their column-writing duties -- presumably all with Scandale's backing.

An embarrassing correction and clarification appear on A-2 today.   

War on residents

In the last paragraph of an A-3 story, Christie is warning middle- and working-class residents he will cut health care and other services, if the state Supreme Court rules his education cuts were unconstitutional. Why isn't this on Page 1?

The governor is essentially saying he will obey the high court, but screw the majority of state residents to do it -- not find such new sources of revenue as taxing the Borgs and other millionaires.

Another error

The lead story in head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section is Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan's first State of the County address, which took place on Thursday, according to the A-1 refer and L-1 story, or on Wednesday, according to the L-1 photo caption.

Sykes couldn't fill the space in her section without a large, gee-whiz photo of a non-fatal accident on L-1.

There's no truth to the rumor the photo shows her car, which was involved in a collision on her way back from the mall, where she was shopping for something more flattering than her usual tent dresses.