Showing posts with label Legislature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Legislature. Show all posts

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Christie to reporter: 'Are you stupid?'

The Record's editors have egg on their face for not pointing out a man who annoys neighbors by keeping chickens can buy free-range eggs in any supermarket.



It's hard work, but you''ll find amazing stuff buried deep in at least one of the front-page stories in The Record today.

Governor Christie appeared at a news conference in Monmouth County to address a water-service disruption, but refused to answer questions about his demand for a legislative session on Monday (A-10).

The story, "Christie orders special session," goes on:

"When Record reporter Chris Harris asked whether Christie would address the Legislature ... , he said, 'Did I say on topic? Are you stupid? On topic, on topic. Next question.'"

This explains why The Record's editors have never asked Christie about his weight or what the state is doing about childhood obesity. 

They don't want to be called stupid.


Tax-cut mirage


Another nugget you'll find deep in the story:

Under Christie's income-tax cut, "the benefit would not be seen until April 2013, and amount to about $50 for most filers in the first year (A-10)."

$50? That figure is different than what has appeared before. 

In February, The Record reported Christie's plan to cut income taxes will benefit the wealthy far more than the middle class, yielding only an $80 savings for someone earning $50,000 a year. 

No yolk

Also on A-1 today, Editor Marty Gottlieb devotes a lot of room to neighbors' complaints about a Fair Lawn man who keeps roosters and chickens in his backyard.

On A-10, the offending homeowner is quoted as saying the crowers and cluckers ensure his family eats eggs from free-range chickens that are treated humanely.

But the story fails to note he can find those eggs in any supermarket. And an editorial on O-2 about a Wayne man who keeps chickens makes no reference to the Page 1 story.

Fake estate

The main element on the front page today, "Bergen home prices come down to earth," doesn't discuss  the greed of bankers and real estate agents (A-1).

A Tenafly couple crow about locking in an interest rate just below 4%, but the story doesn't reveal the astounding amount of interest they will pay over 30 years: It will approach the price of the house.

Locals are yokels

Another Sunday Local section from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza contains no Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news nor anything from other large communities.

But a big part of L-1 is devoted to planned road work for Super Bowl fans in 2014 -- that's right, 2014 ; and L-3 has a story on college baseball. 

I guess there was no other local news, judging from the filler photo of a no-injury, car-engine fire on L-7.

Christie's fibs

On the front of Business today, BIZBLOG reports Christie's job-growth claim for New Jersey, made earlier this month, was wildly exaggerated, but that his deputy governor continues to use it. 

Maybe Gottlieb should be ordering an A-1 take-out on all of Christie's big and small lies since January 2010, and not laying an egg with Page 1 news on backyard chickens.


Friday, October 14, 2011

Flood victims continue to get the shaft

NJ Transit Multilevel train 6651, led by #7014...Image via Wikipedia
NJ Transit admits the safety of rail crossings and tracks can be improved.




Editor Francis Scandale has finally pulled his swelled head out of you-know-where and produced a strong North Jersey front page for a change.


But what didn't change today is how officials continue to give flood victims the shaft, and how Staff Writer John Brennan manages to get his Meadowlands stories on Page 1 -- for the third time this week -- no matter how exaggerated or insubstantial.


Flood of excuses



The lead A-1 story reports that no action will be taken on two flood-aid bills until after the Nov. 8 election, because all 120 members of the Legislature will be out campaigning.


Brennan, a small-brained former sports reporter, is known to obsessively talk up his business stories with top editors until the only way to shut him up is to agree to put his highly promotional pieces out front.


In contrast to Brennan's fluff, the best story on A-1 today is an apparent change of heart by NJ Transit toward pedestrians who get mowed down by trains at unmanned crossings or along unfenced tracks.


Those victims, including three teenagers killed on Oct. 2-3 in Wayne and Garfield, are called "trespassers" -- a label the agency uses liberally in an apparent attempt to limit its liability.


But Jim Simpson, the state transportation czar who heads NJ Transit's board, said "a joint task force" will study adding transit police to guard some crossings, in addition to new signs, warnings, lights and fences.


New attitude


Unfortunately, the assignment desk turns out an upbeat story that puts the agency in the best light, failing to tell readers what a big change in attitude this is on the part of a normally inflexible NJ Transit. 


For decades, the state agency has maintained a hard line against victims, aided and abetted in recent years by a scolding John Cichowski, the inept Road Warrior columnist.


Also on A-1 today, the Paterson City Council is weighing whether to hold Mayor Jeffrey Jones in contempt for refusing to answer questions about Hurricane Irene overtime.


But shouldn't the story tell readers whether residents have the power to remove Jones from office? And why does the editorial on A-22 stop short of calling for his ouster?


Deadline dilemma


Scandale has been ignoring the occupy Wall Street protesters as best he could, but by putting a photo of them on A-1 today, he got screwed by his own early deadlines.


Just after midnight -- long after he went to sleep and the paper was put to bed -- the park's owner told the city it was postponing a cleanup scheduled for this morning.


After such a strong Page 1, the Local front is even more disappointing than usual, with a huge, space-filling photo of a gee-whiz traffic accident that injured a 17-year-old girl. 


Unable to generate local news, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes specializes in berating her staff photographers to produce many similar photos, reducing them to ambulance chasers.


Check his cavity


Cichowski continues to stray far from his L-1 commuting column, reporting today on the strip-search case involving a Burlington County driver that has reached the U.S. Supreme Court.


The editors should conduct a cavity search on Cichowski in an effort to find his brain.


Pages L-2 to L-5 are devoted to higher education news.


Chief sponge


In Better Living, Staff Writer Elisa Ung gives an Ethiopian restaurant a good-to-excellent rating. Unfortunately, Mesob is in Montclair, and like me, many readers won't drive that far for dinner out.


Where are the new, interesting restaurants in Bergen and Passaic counties?Mesob has been open since 2003.


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Tuesday, February 22, 2011

'It's downhill from here'

SkislopeImage via Wikipedia
Compare reading The Record with the exhiliration of skiing.

It's downhill from here

That headline on the weather-skiing package on Page L-1 today could easily describe the state of local news in The Record of Woodland Park. 

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes gives readers quite a ride around North Jersey, but Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and other major communities are deemed not worth the municipal-news detour.

The arrest of a Clifton councilwoman on an assault charge is the off-lead on Page 1 today, but  Editor Francis Scandale still hasn't provided readers with a preview of cuts Governor Christie will reveal in his budget address today.

That pre-budget address story has been a mainstay in past years. Sunday's piece was long on conflict between Christie and the Democratic-controlled Legislature, and short on specifics. 

A Star-Ledger story on A-3 today reports the governor's staff refused to release details -- yet another sign of Christie's success in managing the news since he took office 13 months ago.

Three embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today.

Travelogue of local news

On Sykes' Local front, you'll find stories from several towns, including West Milford, and inside, you can take your pick of police news on almost every page.

The section specializes in long stories previewing future events, such as an April referendum on how to fund a regional school district (L-1) and possible expansion of a school to accommodate preschool classes (L-3).

Englewood reporter Giovanna Fabiano and Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado manage to come up with a single story each -- the former reports a drug arrest from Saturday, the latter car break-ins in Maywood (L-2).

Alvarado hasn't had a single story on the budget process in Hackensack, a subject she completely ignored last year, although Fabiano and other municipal reporters have written about it in their towns in recent weeks.

 
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