Editors ignore Christie role in housing and health-care woes

A Christmas Tree went up in the lobby of Englewood Hospital and Medical Center the day after Thanksgiving.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Staff Writers Lindy Washburn and Salvador Rizzo of The Record continue to give Governor Christie a pass on his bid to sabotage both President Obama's health-care initiative and landmark court rulings on affordable housing.

In fact, the conservative Republican governor's name is completely missing in Washburn's upbeat story on the Affordable Care Act (3A).

Nor does the GOP thug's name appear in Rizzo's piece on skeptical state Supreme Court justices hearing a plea from towns to forgive their affordable housing obligations in the past 17 years (4A).

Gee, it isn't news that Christie takes credit for an expansion of Medicaid in New Jersey -- thanks to an infusion of federal funds -- but refused to set up a state marketplace residents could use to buy health policies under the Affordable Care Act.

That has thrown New Jerseyans onto the overburdened federal marketplace, and reduced their choice to two insurers in 2017, compared with five this year.

Nor is it a secret Christie tried to abolish the Council on Affordable Housing, the state agency that is responsible for ensuring that all 566 municipalities in New Jersey provide their share of low- and moderate-cost housing.

Many of Christie's supporters live in largely white suburban towns that have refused to accommodate affordable housing and an influx of minorities.

Water on brain

The Record's so-called commuting columnist continues to diss long-suffering NJ Transit bus and rail riders to lavish praise on NY Waterway, a trans-Hudson ferry company that celebrated its 30th anniversary this week (1A).

Taking the ferry is the most expensive way to commute to the city with the exception of driving there yourself and paying exorbitant parking rates.

Page 1 today also appeals to high rollers who are willing to pay $10 for a reserved parking space at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus.

Gannett editors put this story on the front page to please one of the paper's biggest advertisers.

More Bridgegate

The story that belonged on Page 1 today is Superior Court Judge Bonnie Mizdol in Hackensack saying she will release a Bridgegate-related decision on Friday (1L)

Bill Brennan, a former Teaneck firefighter with a law degree, is asking her to appoint a special prosecutor in the 2013 George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal (1L).

Brennan wants Christie prosecuted for doing nothing when he learned about the Fort Lee traffic jams in September 2013.

Christie wasn't named in a federal indictment, but three of his former aides or associates have been convicted of conspiracy and other charges.

All said he knew about the lane closings while they were happening.

Still, the governor has somehow managed to avoid testifying under oath and in public on what he knew and when he knew it.

EPA mileage rule

An Associated Press story on a proposal to boost average fuel economy and emissions targets in the U.S. also appears to be slanted toward other big advertisers -- automakers and auto dealers (16A).

The U.S. Environmental Agency proposal is a victory for the environment, but the story doesn't discuss the impact of auto emissions on climate change or their role in the deaths of 53,000 people every year.

The EPA is standing by an Obama administration proposal for an average fuel economy of 50.8 mpg by 2025, compared to 35.3 now.

Each automaker would be required to hit that average across its entire model line -- including hybrids and EVs -- not for individual vehicles (the acronym CAFE stands for corporate average fuel economy).

Manufacturers are upset that to meet the targets, they would have to reduce the number of highly profitable but gas-guzzling pickups and SUVs they sell.

This year, both Ford and Nissan have ramped up production of big SUVs and pickups to take advantage of low gas prices.

Second look: Pedestrian fatals, corrections, more stale news

You know your vacation is over when you're stuck in traffic on the Route 4 east exit ramp to Jones Road in Englewood, above, instead of driving through the scenic Adirondack Mountains in New York State, below.

Editor's note: I have the time but not the inclination to read all of the papers I missed while on vacation. Here are impressions of editions dating to June 29.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The editors of The Record still have not provided a clear explanation of why a driver hasn't been charged in the death of two pedestrians last month.

About two weeks ago, Editor Deirdre Sykes led the front page with a detailed story on the deaths of Ioannis Kapantais, 69, of Park Ridge and Mao-Chia Hu, 64, of Montvale.

Kapantais was a baker at the Pompton Queen Diner in Pequannock who "was taking an evening stroll in Park Ridge" in walking shoes he had received for Father's Day, The Record reported.

Hu, a former IBM computer engineer, was "holding hands with his wife" when he was struck in a crosswalk by an out of control car, the newspaper said.

But the story didn't appear until June 29 -- 10 days after the accident and Kapantais' death, and two days after Hu died at Hackensack University Medical Center.

And the report, which carried the bylines of rewrite man Abbott Koloff and police reporter Stefanie Dazio, was the first time The Record told readers who the men were and identified the driver, James Duncan, 61, a Park Ridge resident and police reserve volunteer.

Conflicting probes

The story makes a big deal of conflicting statements, news releases and reports from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, Bergen County Sheriff's Office and Park Ridge police.

Duncan, the driver, "had suffered an unspecified 'medical episode'" that "led to the vehicle leaving the roadway," according to the prosecutor's Fatal Accident Unit.

Still, prosecutors said, "no determination has been made relative to any potential criminal or motor vehicle charges."

Slighting locals

Sykes still doesn't get that she is the editor of a newspaper that made its reputation covering local news.

On the same front page as the long-overdue story on the pedestrian fatalities, Sykes ran a column on the death of a woman who coached college basketball in Tennessee, and who the vast majority of readers never heard of.

A few days later, the obituary for Martha Kerge -- a former Tenafly councilwoman, business owner, real estate broker and teacher -- was literally buried on L-5 in Local.

More corrections

Corrections continue to pile up on A-2.

They range from the Better Living cover misidentifying "the most common treatment for advanced macular degeneration" to misspelling names in stories or photo captions to reporting the wrong country where Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel was born.

This week, an A-2 correction ran on Tuesday to fix a quote from Leonard Zax of the Hamilton Partnership.

On Wednesday, A-2 corrected Staff Writer Christopher Maag, who was wrong when he reported in a splashy Page 1 story that the Gateway Tunnel environmental review had been suspended by Governor Christie.

Putting us to sleep

A columnist shoots himself in the foot and instantly puts readers to sleep when his second sentence begins: "It was 1958."

But on July 6, that didn't stop Mike Kelly from bemoaning the end of the factory system many decades ago, and relating in excruciating detail on A-1 how that affected an elderly Garfield couple.

Crime 24/7

You can't blame readers for being anxious for their safety when Sykes leads Local sections day after day with murder and mayhem.

The banner headlines on the local-news section on July 7 blared:

Woman shot dead in Carlstadt

SWAT team surrounds man inside home

And the bottom of the same page reported more mayhem:

7 towns, 3 crashes, 1 arrest

Elmwood Park man

chased for 12 miles

Screwing commuters

If you ride locally or commute to Manhattan on a bus or train, you've never found a friend in The Record's supremely lazy transportation reporters.

Last Friday on the Local front, so-called Road Warrior John Cichowski published an elaborate argument for the government to subsidize a real estate mogul's expensive Hudson River ferry service. 

At an average round-trip fare of $18, it's no surprise NY Waterway ferries run about 25 percent to 30 percent capacity while bus and rail riders fight over seats.

The Record's other reporters, meanwhile, quake in their shoes at the prospect of asking Port Authority officials why they don't expand service by adding more exclusive bus lanes to and from the Lincoln Tunnel.

Today's paper

Today, as in the past, Sykes and the morons she employs to lay out the paper continue to give a cold shoulder to prominent local residents.

The Record has published story after story about the Just Pups store chain, including today's Page 1 account.

But the obituary for Vaughn Harper of Teaneck, the "soothing and inimitable baritone" voice of WBLS radio's late-night "Quiet Storm" show is relegated to the Local front (L-1).

A Sunday paper full of more niche reporting

Answering the prayers of New Jersey commuters, Starbucks has opened a cafe on the ground level of the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. Now, they won't fall asleep waiting on long lines to board NJ Transit buses.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The Record should cast a wider net and run stories of general interest or even report on the issues in the New Jersey gubernatorial race.

Instead, Editor Marty Gottlieb fills today's front page with stories of limited interest to most readers.

Parents of young athletes, political junkies and commuters who use jitneys are well-served, but the majority of readers have far more pressing issues to deal with.

For example, the success of what many call "the Spanish bus" is directly related to NJ Transit's inability to provide enough bus seats for commuters.

When is The Record going to cover that story?

Real legwork

It's good to see Staff Writer John Cichowski is actually leaving the office to do reporting for his Road Warrior column (A-1).

This cuts down on his frequent misquoting of driving rules and regulation; statistics and other data; inaccurate advice to readers who send in questions and general incompetence as he approaches the 10th anniversary of taking over the column from Jeff Page.

Of course, he also left the office recently to report on the NY Waterway Ferry, but still managed to make so many mistakes in describing the service, fares and other details.


Horses and football
 
The front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section is dominated today by two Meadowlands stories, not local news.

Sykes must think readers have been on the edge of their seats in anticipation of the Feb. 2, 2014, Super Toilet Bowl at MetLife Stadium (L-1).

Baby stroller news

Staff Writer Elisa Ung has returned from her second maternity leave with a fresh perspective on what she calls good service at "burger joints, diners or order-at-the-counter eateries" (The Corner Table, BL-1).

Although the majority of her readers are in their 50s or older and can no longer relate to dining with kids, at least her column today has a strong focus on customers -- not restaurant owners and chefs.

Prickly commentary

One prick writes about another.

That was my first thought when I saw that Staff Writer Mike Kelly is devoting his first column after a break to sex-addicted candidate Anthony Weiner -- a story that has been totally over-reported by the bored media (O-4).

But then it occurred to me that Kelly on Weiner is appropriate in another way: 

Both men need to find something else to do.

Meanwhile, why does The Record continue to use an outdated thumbnail photo of the columnist, complete with his shit-eating grin?

Travel New Jersey

Congrats to Travel Editor Jill Schensul, whose cover story on short trips today describes 3 great New Jersey towns (T-1).

Last week, readers searched in vain for information about New Jersey rest stops.
 

Columnists Kelly, Cichowski are readers' real enemies

Commuting by car into Manhattan or around North Jersey has become a daily nightmare, above and below, yet Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to ignore the need for an expanded mass-transit system.

The headlights stretch for as far as you can see on antiquated, two-lane Passaic Street in Rochelle Park during a recent commute.

Columnist Mike Kelly still hasn't recovered from the heart surgery he had 7 months ago -- as his Father's Day confessional clearly shows.

On Sunday's Opinion front in The Record, Kelly appears so ashamed of the ridiculously unhealthy diet that led to his heart problems that he wrote his column in the third person (O-1).

Kelly was completely clueless about the harm of hamburgers, butter, bacon, ice cream, cake and lots of pizza before he went under the knife, and now his grown daughter is telling him what to eat.

Maybe his wife was trying to kill him.

His column could have served as a more powerful lesson to readers, if he wrote it in the first person and leveled with them about whether he had coronary bypass surgery to clear blockages from harmful animal fats.

Bridge to the truth

Sunday's paper also carried the second Road Warrior column on a new footbridge over Port Imperial Boulevard in Weehawken that Staff Writer John Cichowski is begging commuters to use.

NJ Transit told Eye on The Record today the footbridge was built to provide a "safer crossing" for users of its Bergen-Hudson light-rail line, as well as to provide handicap access to the NY Waterway ferry.

But there has always been a light to stop traffic and a crosswalk there, so most people simply cross the street -- information Cichowski deliberately omitted -- and not a single pedestrian has ever been injured or killed.

No need to cross

And many commuters park in a lot east of Port Imperial Boulevard and don't have to cross the street to reach the ferry -- likely a major reason the footbridge isn't getting a lot of use.

Below is an excerpt from an e-mail to The Record, exposing the many errors in Cichowski's Sunday and Wednesday columns.

It was sent by an anonymous reader who set up a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers after his complaints about inaccurate columns fell on deaf ears at The Record -- from Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg down to Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, who supposedly edits Cichowski.

"These columns falsely promoted and over-hyped the newly opened pedestrian footbridge over Port Imperial Boulevard, which is near the Weehawken ferry terminal on the Hudson River.

"He simply ignored the most obvious fact, which is that there already is a convenient, safe crosswalk at an intersection with a traffic light.

"It is one of the undisputed reasons that most pedestrians will NOT need to use this footbridge."

For a blow-by-blow listing of all of the errors in the two columns, see:

Road Warrior shows more contempt for the truth