Production editor misses bad headline, reporting errors

Utility work, such as this project at Passaic and Main streets in Hackensack on Nov. 24, has kept residents guessing which streets will be closed next. Meanwhile, after the work is finished, most of the streets are crudely patched, ensuring a rough ride for drivers.

Editor's note: This post has been revised to reflect yet another major error on Page 1, this one in a sports brief. As a reader in Hackensack notes, Rutgers University's football team lost to Maryland, not Nebraska. See comments section at end of post.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today explores how special interests have made a mockery of efforts to control guns and provide more mass transit in North Jersey.

But all of the jawboning from lawmakers and experts assembled by Staff Writer Christopher Maag and Columnist Mike Kelly will do little to advance those goals (A-1).

Meanwhile, below the fold, so-called commuting Columnist John Cichowski continues to ignore the lack of rush-hour seats on trains and buses, and Governor Christie's state-aid cuts, which forced NJ Transit to raise fares and cut service (A-1).

Those three stories or columns are simply way too long for time-pressed readers, and seem intended to fill space more than anything else.

Errors mount

Glaring errors in Maag's lead story today (A-1), and a bad headline on Saturday's front page have readers wondering how six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, and the supervisors of the copy desk keep their jobs.

In Maag's first two paragraphs today, meetings in May 1928 and November 2015 are said to be "86 years" apart, but if anyone bothered to do the arithmetic, they are actually 87.5 years apart.

Also on the front page, a photo caption is wrong in saying the tracks in Englewood shown in the photo are "unused." 

On the continuation page (A-12), Maag is incorrect is calling one line the New York Susquehanna & Erie railroad.

As readers can see from the graphic on the same page, it's the New York Susquehannah & Western.

And at one point, Maag says NJ Transit trains run "as far east" as Lake Hopatcong when he should have written "as far west."

The many errors in Maag's story also were apparent to reader Michael Keen, who commented on North Jersey.com:

"So many errors in this article. Tracks in Englewood are not unused, just not used for passenger service. The 1928 plan "envisioned trains running from Englewood to Jersey City?" Like they had already been doing for decades? The New York, Susquehanna and Erie? Not Western? Today, NJ Transit runs trains "as far east as Lake Hopatcong?" That's how far west they run. The "section" of the NYS&W between Paterson and Hackensack has no electricity? Neither does any other section of that line."

Bad headline

On Saturday's front page, The Record's annual story on Black Friday shopping appeared under a puzzling headline:

Spreading the wealth

The word "wealth" doesn't appear anywhere in the story, and readers must have been puzzled over just whose "wealth" was being spread and to whom.

North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, certainly hasn't been spreading any "wealth," judging from a freeze on newsroom raises that has been effect for several years.

Political appointee

On the Local front today, a story on Joanne M. Cimiluca doesn't explore how Bergen County's acting director of economic development was able to move with ease between a government job and private industry (Montvale-based Mercedes-Benz), and back (L-1).

Can taxpayers really afford to pay this political appointee $121,182 a year, with little or no evidence in the story that she succeeded in advancing economic development when she first held the job from November 2006 to July 2010?

That is especially galling in Hackensack, where hundreds of millions of dollars in untaxed Bergen County property unfairly shifts the burden onto homeowners.

Drivers took commuting columnist hostage 12 years ago

An NJ Transit bus on Main Street in Hackensack. In a dozen years of writing the Road Warrior column for The Record, Staff Writer John Cichowski has largely ignored bus and train riders, and in the process, racked up more errors than any reporter past or present at the Woodland Park daily.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In a front-page headline today, The Record's editors admit that drivers have been allowed to hijack a column that was aimed at all commuters when it was launched 25 years ago:

"Keeping drivers in the loop"

And John Cichowski, the reporter who turned his back on bus and rail users, is still writing the column today, a dozen years after he took over from the original Road Warrior, Jeffrey Page.

This Page 1 anniversary column also is flawed by the photo of a highway project that was completed about 15 years ago, and an awkward sub-headline.

I'm sure the drowsy copy editor who write the sub-headline was looking for "delays" instead of "holdups," which was two meanings (A-1).

Dissing seniors

Besides ignoring mass-transit users, Cichowski has spent little time reporting on the challenges facing his contemporaries, older drivers who mistake the gas pedal for the brake pedal with often fatal consequences.

If there is retraining available to seniors or other programs to improve their driving skills, readers haven't seen it in the Road Warrior column.

Shaky reporting

Chichowski made so many errors he inspired one Record reader to set up a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers in an attempt to correct what the newspaper refused to set right.

And because Cichowski's reporting has been so shaky readers are questioning some of what he says today:

"It took nearly a decade to get E-ZPass to work correctly," the reporter claims, without ever elaborating anywhere in his overlong column (A-1 and A-10).

He also takes credit for a column that stopped "four mornings of horrific traffic jams" at the George Washington Bridge in September 2013 (A-10).

But Cichowski, a lazy reporter who rarely leaves the office, doesn't tell readers that he was tipped off by Publisher Stephen A. Borg, whose friend called from the bridge to complain about being stuck in traffic.

Shortcuts

Cichowski's chief weakness is relying on the eyes and ears of his readers, and publishing hundreds of their emails as the basis for many of his columns.

Their only motive is to see their names in print, and their observations and knowledge of driving laws and regulations are even shakier than Cichowski's.

Among his other failures as a journalist is his refusal to embrace mass transit as a way of cutting traffic congestion and reducing air pollution.

EV charging

A story on the Local front today doesn't tell owners of plug-in hybrids and pure electric cars how much they will have to pay to gain access to chargers in Englewood's municipal garage (L-1).

Nor does the story report on the rate of charge or whether the electricity is free. 

With employees of a Mercedes-Benz dealer using the spaces from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, public access will be limited.

Guessing game

A caption on L-1 identifies only one of the four people whose faces are clearly visible in the photo, which runs with a story on Englewood's hometown sports heroes.

Stories or photos from Closter, Mahwah, Tenafly, Maywood, Clifton and Woodland Park also appear today.

But there is nothing from two of the biggest towns in the circulation area, Hackensack and Teaneck.

Christie ignores Silk City slaughter, editors fail old drivers

On a day like today -- when The Record doesn't call for the impeachment of Governor Christie for sending state troopers to Baltimore, while continuing to ignore the gun violence in Paterson -- the only good that can come of the newspaper is to recycle it.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Riots in Baltimore and the slaughter of innocent teens in Paterson are front-page news in The Record again today, with the stories played side by side.

But clueless Editor Martin Gottlieb fails to connect the dots and put Governor Christie on the spot for sending New Jersey troopers to the Maryland city and once again screwing Paterson.

On A-6, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes' story on state troopers helping to restore order in Baltimore notes they have been sent to Camden in the past.

But Hayes and an editorial on A-10 today don't put Christie on the spot for failing to send state police to help Paterson's dysfunctional Police Department.

Under the direction of Police Director Jerry Speziale, they seem unable or unwilling to stop the drive-by shootings of innocent young people, three of whom have died in the past 10 months.

The text of Hayes' story is partially covered by an advertisement, in another production screw-up courtesy of six-figure Editor Liz Houlton, who is laughing all the way to the bank (A-6).

No taxes

In the name of "no new taxes," the GOP bully cut state aid to Paterson, Newark and other poor cities in late 2011, resulting in the layoffs of many hundreds of police officers.

Silk City's force still hasn't recovered, despite new hires, and basketball star Armoni Sexton, 15, is the latest victim of Christie's mean-spirited policies. 

It's time to impeach Christie for this and all of his other transgressions.

Raise gas tax

We should also get rid of Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, and other members of the state Legislature who refuse to enact a gas-tax hike to fix our roads and bridges, and then override Christie's veto (A-1).

This is just more of the editors exploiting politics and ignoring what is good for state residents.

No one has been able to shake the irrefutable logic that drivers are the ones who should pay -- through higher taxes on fuel -- for fixing the roads and bridges they use.

Dissing elderly

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza -- and Road Warrior John Cichowski -- continue to treat older drivers who crash their cars as so much chopped liver.

In desperation, Sykes and Sforza again ordered layout editors to blow up as big as possible two gee-whiz photos of mishaps blamed on older drivers to fill huge holes in their local-news report today (L-1 and L-3).

As usual, the 85-year-old driver who probably got sick and crashed into a truck on South Summit Avenue in Hackensack, killing himself, isn't identified (L-1).

Was he a grandfather or father? No one in the Woodland Park newsroom cares, because his only value to the laziest of lazy editors is as a space filler.

Pedal error

Nor do they care why a confused driver ignored barriers and drove his Mercedes-Benz into a large hole in Westwood, becoming the laughing stock of first responders visible in the photo (L-3).

Cliffview Pilot.com reported the Mahwah man, 67, was issued summonses for careless driving and driving on a closed road.

Even more egregious, the Road Warrior column has ignored the challenges faced by older drivers in the decade or more The Record has published photo after photo of the mayhem caused when they mistake the gas pedal for the brake pedal. 

Readers are desperate for anything that would cut down on the endless stream of court, police, fire and accident news the incompetent local editors so desperately need to fill their pages today and every day.

A strong week with a hiccup or two

Image via Wikipedia
An NJ Transit hybrid bus leaving a Newark garage. Have you seen any hybrid buses plying North Jersey streets? 

Today's all-North Jersey front page ends a week of similarly focused editions, though missteps were glaring.


On Page 1, interim Editor Douglas Clancy's relied much too heavily on crime news and ran a dude-ranch fire photo from Parksville, wherever the hell that is in New York State.


Focus on dead


And the A-1 story localizing the end of America's war in Iraq saw the assignment desk inexplicably focusing on the parents of dead soldiers, not on the relatives of those who are coming home for the holidays.


Poor editing by assignment and Editor Liz Houlton's news copy desk continues, even for front-page stories.


Just look at today's account of a star-crossed cop who acted out a classroom lesson; got arrested for overturning an all-terrain vehicle, allegedly while driving drunk; and was seriously injured (A-1).


The Gaeta family


Why in God's name wait until the last paragraph to tell readers Midland Park Police Officer Joseph B. Gaeta, 31, is the son of Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Gaeta, who was crippled in an automobile accident at 20 (A-6)?


The elder Gaeta, now deceased, was a passenger in a car that hit a utility pole.


The younger Gaeta also crashed into a pole in 2006 while answering an armed-robbery call, "leaving him with a gash in his head that required 60 stitches," the Woodland Park daily reports (A-6).


God bless the artist


The Record's layout rules lock in every editor to running a big color photo with the most prominent A-1 story, and the actual placement of stories and designation of headline sizes are decided by a graphic artist.


So that's how you get Page 1 stories that should be running in the Local news section, like today's judicial reprieve for a congregation that had been barred from its church (A-1).


And that's why another embarrassing loss of millions in federal education money gets shoved back to A-4. It seems the Christie administration was denied $60 million in early childhood program funds; last year, it blew $400 million in the same contest.


God bless, Chris


It's hard to know why Clancy didn't think this was a front-page news, though he may be trying not to embarrass Governor Christie, who has slashed state aid to public schools and favored the opening of more charter schools.


The A-10 photo of a double-decker hybrid bus in London might have North Jersey readers wondering whether NJ Transit has any hybrid buses -- a question that hasn't occurred to the paper's transportation and environment assignment editors.


News of advertiser


Why run a nearly 10-inch story on a new CEO for Montvale-based Mercedes-Benz USA on the Business page (A-12) -- unless Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg is trying to cut a deal for his next Merc? 


The executive, Stephen Cannon, was a member of the Mercedes team in Stuttgart that developed the gas-guzzling M-Class SUV.


Nothing happened


A story on sleepy Northvale appears on the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local, though you won't find any Hackensack news anywhere in the section.


Nothing actually happened in Northvale -- unless you count the mayor asking the borough engineering firm "to analyze ongoing remediation efforts at the former TECT/Danzig site on Livingston Street for a report to be prepared before the council meets next month," according to the lead paragraph.


Sykes and her minions were so desperate for local news they had to run not one but two big photos of a Little Ferry fire captain being sworn in on L-3. 


A story about contract negotiations between Mahwah and its teachers reports "progress," but no actual settlement (L-3).


This is really scraping the bottom of the news barrel, but it's what we've come to expect from the supremely lazy Sykes and her sub-editors, all of whom appear to be asleep at their computers.

Can it get any more boring than this?

Image by Jean-François Chénier via Flickr

The Page 1 lead story in The Record of Woodland Park today is about weatherizing homes, red tape and delay. This is news? Do readers really need a Washington correspondent who turns in such tripe? (Photo: Wrap this fish with The Record.)

The "it doesn't affect us" mantra of the editors has demoted the European air paralysis story to inside pages. But I'm wondering about its impact on such international companies as the U.S. headquarters of Mercedes-Benz in Bergen County, and on imports of food, fish and flowers that usually arrive daily at Newark airport.

If you live in Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood or anywhere else in Bergen, don't bother with Local today. You won't find any news about your town there.

Not much to read

Image via Wikipedia

I was up about 7:30 this morning, had some juice and, while my coffee brewed, went out in my bath robe to fetch The Record of Woodland Park. By 8, I had finished "reading" the former Hackensack daily.

OK. It took a little longer to leaf through the paper, scan the headlines and mutter, Who cares?

The Local section, as usual, was devoid of any education or other news about the core Bergen towns of Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood, highly diverse communities where readership is high. (Circulation figures for The Record now include the Herald News, dubbed an "edition" of the larger paper, to hide from advertisers how many readers have abandoned The Record.)

True, as a former employee, I get a preferential subscription rate, but as a resident of Hackensack, even the 13 to 14 cents a copy I pay may not be worth it. And the shift away from covering the core Bergen towns began long before the newspaper moved its newsroom this year from Hackensack to Woodland Park, now also the home of North Jersey Media Group, which publishes the two daily newspapers.

Has anyone calculated the added pollution and the fuel wasted by the gas guzzlers driven by Stephen and Jennifer Borg, the siblings who now run NJMG, as they commute to Woodland Park, or by the fleet of Mercedes-Benz delivery trucks tearing up Route 80 between Rockaway Township, where the papers are printed, and Bergen County? The young Borgs certainly earn enough to trade in their SUVs for far more efficient hybrids, but do they care enough about the planet?

The rest of The Record today includes a lot of political news, including a bewildering, information-less story on Page A-4 supplied by the Star-Ledger on the change of guard in the state Senate and Assembly. I read the story, but understand nothing about what this means to me and others. What a waste of space.

Short on Bergen County news

The Record today is the usual disappointment, short on local news and food coverage, but with a large patch of the front page devoted to the first game of the World Series.

A Page 1 tease, "Doc says defendant was too fat to kill," is the paper's way of addressing the obesity epidemic, which it has avoided reporting for years outside of an annual story saying it is getting worse all the time.

On A-4, a story carries a headline, "Number of trucks expected to soar on roads in Morris County," but the story doesn't mention The Record's Mercedes-Benz delivery trucks have been wearing ruts in Route 80 for a few years now, picking up the freshly printed edition at its Rockaway Township plant and returning to Hackensack, the newspaper's former home.

On A-10, a number of letters to the editor condemn the decision to endorse John Corzine for another term as governor, and readers point out the editorial seemed back-handed, because it omitted his accomplishments in office. On at least a couple of occasions recently, Record stories have reported that the governor raised taxes, but left out an important distinction: the higher levies are only on the rich.

The Local section has another story about Eastside High in Paterson, but I have read nothing about Hackensack High School in the more than two years I have lived in River City. The section has seven stories about Passaic County towns, only five about Bergen towns, plus a murder trial, political column, an expanded obituary and a story about Xanadu.

The local staff has struggled for years to fill the paper with Bergen news, especially when there were two separate editions: one for Bergen County, the other for Passaic and Morris counties. Now, there seems to be only one edition and the lack of local Bergen news is pathetic and a slap in the face to readers.

In Better Living, there is no food news, with the exception of an Atlantic City feature about a celebrity chef   judging a cooking competition and a promotion for Friday's restaurant review.