The news gang that can't write straight

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The State House in Trenton. Is Governor Christie packing up already?

It's good to see most of The Record's front page devoted to the budget drama in Trenton -- finally -- but what do you make of that confusing off-lead story on the Teaneck police contract?


Governor Christie's 2% cap on arbitration awards applies only to contracts that expire after Dec. 31, 2010, so why is the Teaneck contract -- which expired in 2007 -- being used as an example of failure?


Christie boo-boo


Did Christie deliberately or mistakenly include the Teaneck contract in the cap and misspeak, as he has done often on subjects ranging from education to transportation? 


The story reports the police contract in Spotswood was settled under the new rules, so the main headline must be wrong: "No cap on new police salaries."


Is this mildly critical, A-1 story Editor Francis Scandale's best shot at Christie, who seems intent on destroying the middle-class way of life in New Jersey?


Isn't the real mystery why Christie hasn't capped the salaries of hundreds of police chiefs, as he did for school superintendents? Where are The Record stories about that?


Bad sub-head, photo


Another headline on Page 1 is wrong. The sub-headline on the Democrats'  budget and the millionaires tax reads "millionaire's tax." 


No. The tax doesn't belong to a single millionaire.


Scandale specializes in scintillating Page 1 art -- as readers can see from the photo of a nearly empty NJN newsroom on the front page today.


Fat of the land


If you want a good laugh, see the OpEd piece on A-21, claiming Christie should run for president now.


Can't you just see the cross-gender, Laurel and Hardy-like team of Christie and Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann trying to seize the White House?


The first thing Christie would dump is first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign against obesity.


"If you want to move, move your bowels," Christie would tell critics. "I like my beer and pizza sitting down."


Sun in her eyes


Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes uses a good chunk of her Local front today on a non-news story -- the installation of solar panels on the roof of the Bergen County parking garage.


The weekly Hackensack Chronicle wrote about this same county solar project nearly three months ago. 


In the past decade, Englewood has focused development along Route 4 (L-1), but why has The Record neglected to report on the hard times that have befallen the Palisade Avenue business district?


No Hackensack news appears in the paper today.

Reading between the lines

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Why devote the top of Page 1 in The Record of Woodland Park today, an entire inside page, and a rambling, question-filled, who cares Mike Kelly column on the Opinion front to the week-old arrests of two would-be terrorists from North Jersey? One of the stories was written by two Star-Ledger staffers. What did Record staffers write and why isn't it in the paper?

I'll bet many more readers are interested in seeing front-page coverage of the BP oil catastrophe in the Gulf, even though it isn't a local local story. (And in knowing what is going through Kelly's head when he turns out such drivel. Memo to Mike: Readers want your opinions based on solid reporting, not a bunch of rhetorical questions.)


The bigger story on the front page is the future of New Jersey Network, the Jersey-oriented TV station the state sorely needs in the absence of any real coverage by New York and Philadelphia stations. Governor Christie is so intent on preserving the wealth of the Borgs and his other rich friends -- and not raising the low gasoline tax to help mass transit -- he's cutting aid to NJN, too.


The Local section is a joke, especially for a Sunday paper. The big L-1 photo shows readers all the newspaper is good for -- building a miniature swing.

There's no Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news, but head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes felt it was essential to cover some Harrington Park kids doing good in Newark (L-3). Did you know Mother Hen Deirdre lives in tiny Harrington Park? Great news judgment.

The obituary on Mark Howat, longtime Record writer and editor (L-6), delicately avoids anything negative about the man, even though his activities were well-known in the Hackensack newsroom.


In Opinion, a letter to the editor today questions the motives of The Record in endorsing the expansion of The Valley Hospital, and asks how much advertising revenue North Jersey Media Group publications receive from the Ridgewood hospital and its affiliates. Hey, Publisher Stephen A. Borg, it's your turn to be candid in this situation. What will you do? Can you tear yourself away from counting your money?


In Business today, Columnist Kevin DeMarrais writes about the proliferation of online complaint sites, without mentioning their rise coincides with the decline of consumer-oriented reporting in Business, Travel and other sections of The Record and other newspapers.


In Better Living, another profile of a local who hit the big time helps distract readers from the lack of local food news today.