Editors finally acknowledge issues, not politics, matter most

Cartoons from John Cole on Meryl Streep's criticism of President-elect Donald J. Trump , above, and Rick McKee on President Obama's legacy, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Though many months too late, The Record deserves credit for launching a series on "15 issues important to North Jersey residents" that could be affected by the administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump.

No matter that "Trump Tracker" echoes "Christie Tracker." 

That was the Matt Katz series on our very own GOP bully, Governor Christie, that ran for a couple of years on WNYC-FM, the New York and New Jersey public radio station.

And readers also know that if the Woodland Park daily and all of the other news outlets across the country had been focusing on issues during the campaign, the outcome of the 2016 presidential election would have been far different.

Instead, the news media delighted in repeating every sensational, unsubstantiated charge against Democrat Hillary Clinton, and ignoring her decades-long service to families ad children.

Five-part series

Today's "Trump Tracker" installment focuses on immigration, train transportation and health care (1A, 8A and 9A).

Editor Rick Green doesn't explain why the transportation segment leaves hundreds of thousands of New Jersey bus commuters out in the cold (8A).

The other issues -- including homeland security, education, taxes, the environment, social-safety net and infrastructure -- are scheduled to run through Thursday, the day before the inauguration (8A).

Politics as usual

Sadly, it's politics as usual at the bottom of Page 1 today, with yet another Political Stile column on Christie:

"Christie leans left in N.J., 
but keeps door open on right"

Readers also are keeping their bathroom doors open, in case they get the sudden urge to throw up.

Local news?

On the Local front, Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski appears to be telling drivers they have two and a half months to "read, eat, drink, groom themselves and use hand-held devices to ... talk, text or find their way" before an April police crackdown (1L).

In Opinion, an editorial notes Paterson remains "among New Jersey's most violent places" despite an overall drop in crime (2O).

"Homicides held steady at 19, the same as in 2015, while the number of rapes increased" to 57 from 42, according to the editorial.  

The editorial is incorrect in saying rapes "increased from 42 to 57 percent." 

A year ago, another editorial on the overall drop in crime credited Police Director Jerry Speziale while letting him off the hook on curbing gun violence and the drug trade. 

Today's editorial doesn't even mention  Speziale or the undercover state police troopers who have been helping Paterson police.

Korean food crawl

The Better Living cover on a Korean food crawl in Palisades Park should have been labeled, "For carnivores only" (1BL and 3BL).

By using Robert Austin Cho, owner of a Korean barbecue restaurant, as her guide, Staff Writer Sophia Gottfried largely omitted all the great non-meat dishes -- heart-healthy seafood, tofu and vegetables -- served in Korean restaurant in Palisades Park and neighboring Fort Lee, which isn't even mentioned.

And with Cho in tow, Gottfried also managed to keep the secret of the vast majority of Korean restaurants -- they serve low-quality beef and pork raised on harmful antibiotics and growth hormones to boost their bottom lines.

Fewer stories?

Since the November redesign of The Record, many readers have complained there are fewer stories in the paper.

There was a good reason for that on Saturday, when an upbeat Page 1 story explained how teenagers are coping with life in crime-ridden Silk City:

"Paterson students
outsmart crime
through use of 
technology"

The story reported these geniuses developed "a cellphone application that would send an alert to school security staff if students diverted from their normal route home from school."

If readers turned to the continuation page (Saturday's 4A) and read the story to the end, they found the entire story was repeated -- all 23 paragraphs.

How's that?

On Saturday's Local front, this headline puzzled many readers:

"Hospital
manager
gets 6 
months"

But the story had nothing to do with the sentencing of a human to jail or prison.

"Manager" referred to a company that manages Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus, and the "6 months" is how long its contract has been extended.

This is high-school level journalism, plain and simple.

For that, you can thank the payroll-slashing Gannett Co. -- owner of seven New Jersey dailies -- and the morons employed in a centralized Neptune design center.

Dems do end run round Christie on pensions and gas tax

The reconstruction of the Route 46 bridge in Little Ferry drags on, and drivers still have only one narrow lane in each direction, above. Meanwhile, at the former Little Ferry Circle, below, cars back up in a single left-turn lane onto Route 46 from Bergen Turnpike.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With conservative Republicans refusing to override Governor Christie's mean-spirited barrage of vetoes, Democrats are asking voters to approve dedicated funding of pensions, and road-and-bridge repairs.

And given its anti-union history, The Record of Woodland Park has already come out against a constitutional amendment requiring quarterly payments to the public employees pension fund, as has the state's biggest business group.

Three other amendments to be submitted to voters would require that all gas tax revenue go into the state Transportation Trust Fund, overhaul the redistricting process and add two casinos to North Jersey, which we need like a hole in the head (A-3).

Voters already have approved two other constitutional amendments to trump Christie vetoes and break the Trenton logjam -- an increase in the minimum wage and dedicated funding of open-space preservation.

Gottlieb curse

Editor Martin Gottlieb could care less about New Jerseyans, and he demoted this important news to an A-1 brief and a full story on A-3.

But Marty reserved space on Page 1 for another exceedingly boring political column by Staff Writer Charles Stile on Christie's "greatest vulnerabilities" after Tuesday's GOP debate.

Tax on wealthy

In the A-3 story, readers have to work hard to separate partisan rhetoric from Republicans' real objections to dedicated funding of the state pension system.

Republicans called the plan "fiscally reckless," because it relies on economic growth and "a tax on the state's highest earners" (A-3).

Christie has vetoed a tax surcharge on millionaires several times among a total of 430 vetoes since he took office in early 2010, cementing his reputation as the worst governor in state history.

Hackensack news

With the Hackensack reporter assigned to the "Star Wars" premiere, municipal news from Bergen County's biggest town goes missing for another day today (L-1).

This week, readers have been hurling over every headline with a play on words off of the title of the movie, "The Force Awakens."

Mystery beef

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung thinks nothing of driving 10 miles or more to rate a restaurant, but today, she discusses "east" and "central" Bergen County as if they are separated by a mountain range (BL-19).

That's how she ended up doing a lukewarm 2-star review of Seoul Galbi in Paramus, the successor to Pine Hill, a Korean restaurant near Bergen Community College that never achieved the A-list status of those in Palisades Park.

As usual, Ung ignores the cheap, mystery beef served at many barbecue places, and doesn't sound that knowledgeable about Korean food or restaurants.

She calls the complimentary panchan or side dishes that come with every Korean meal "snacks," and knocks a special of one free order of barbecue when you order two ($24.95 to $32.95).

Minimum of two

But most Korean barbecue restaurants in Pal Park and nearby towns require customers who want to cook their food on the table to buy at least two orders of beef, chicken or seafood.

Otherwise, a single order is prepared in the kitchen.

Ung also doesn't discuss the appeal of a Korean restaurant, where servers willingly replenish free side dishes of kimchi, seaweed and other items at least once.

Nor does she convey the fun of wrapping your barbecue in lettuce leaves along with rice, garlic and other items, and trying to stuff the entire package into your mouth at one time.

And near the end of her appraisal, what's with the highly unusual plug for two Korean soft-tofu restaurants in Ridgewood ?

Black lives aren't worth much to Paterson police, editors

In the past two years, Main Street in Fort Lee has been closed for utility work and other projects more than any other two-lane road in Bergen County it seems, as it was Monday afternoon, when traffic was funneled into one lane at Anderson Avenue, above, and at Center Street.

Meanwhile, work continues on Hudson Lights, the huge retail and residential project near the George Washington Bridge. And across the street, an expanded Plaza Diner has reopened after renovations, offering free valet parking.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

"I've had enough of these killings. Enough is enough."

"Everyone says it has to get worse before it gets better. But we don't see any progression. It's only getting worse."

"I'm scared."

How many ways can Paterson residents and friends of slain basketball phenom Armoni Sexton say it (A-1 and A-7 in The Record today)? 

They are wondering when Police Director Jerry Speziale and his force are going to do something to prevent more killings of young people like Sexton, 15, who was slain by gunfire attributed to a gang rivalry city officials have known about for decades.

Today's Page 1 coverage of Armoni's funeral on Monday doesn't even raise the responsibility of police to prevent gun violence in Silk City's impoverished neighborhoods, even though the force has been depleted by Governor Christie's mean-spirited aid cuts.

The A-1 headline is predictable:

"Mourners seek meaning"

The line over the front-page photo of young mourners reads:

"HEARTBREAK OVER SLAIN TEENAGER"

Burying anger

Quotes from fed-up residents are buried deep on the continuation page, and reporters didn't even bother asking Speziale and Mayor Joey Torres for their reactions. 

If black lives are cheap in Paterson, they are even cheaper in the Woodland Park newsroom, which doesn't have a great record on minority employment or an editorial policy that holds cops' feet to the fire.

Armoni was the third innocent young person killed by gunfire in the past 10 months.

Typically, The Record's Monday edition carries a story on the latest weekend shooting in Paterson, the same kind of body count journalism the media practice in wartime.

'Best towns'?

Have you ever heard of New Jersey Family magazine? Neither have I.

But all over the Local front today is a story about four Bergen County towns the magazine calls "Best Towns for Families" in 2015.

What follows is more reporting about Oradell, Closter, Harrington Park and Demarest than readers have seen in the last five or 10 years (L-1 and L-3).

You know the assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, are lazy and incompetent when Palisades Park changing seven streets to one way makes the front of the Local news section.

Better to warn readers Pal Park is one of the few towns that keeps meters in effect until 9 p.m., as well as on Sundays, hoping to fleece customers of dozens of Korean restaurants.

Second look

In his column on the Local front a week ago, Road Warrior John Cichowski played dumb on the reasons pedestrian deaths are rising in New Jersey.

He only had to report a major development across the Hudson River, where New York City is now charging drivers with a crime if they injure or kill a pedestrian or bicyclist who has the right of way.

Cichowski knows most New Jersey drivers are treated far more leniently -- a major factor in the rising death toll.

And he has even quoted one of those morons saying he wanted to run down a pedestrian who didn't use the crosswalk.

Sloppy reporting

A week ago, Cichowski also listed some of the pedestrians who were killed in Bergen County, but didn't bother reporting the lenient treatment some of the drivers received.

He listed Hue Dang as one of the 17 "walking deaths" in March.

The veteran reporter noted the Hackensack woman, 64, was fatally injured crossing Jackson Avenue at Kennedy Street.

But the confused Cichowski forgot to say no charges of any kind were filed against a Bergen County Prosecutor's Office detective, John Straniero, who was driving the unmarked car that ran her down.

That accident is being reviewed by the Union County Prosecutor's Office.