Publisher backs use of accident photos to fill gaps in news

Pat Kinney, a freelancer who wrote the Neighbors from Japan column that appeared in The Record, is offering her services as an English teacher. This notice is on a bulletin board at Mitsuwa Marketplace, the Japanese supermarket and food court in Edgewater.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's lazy local-news editors continue to fill gaps in coverage with non-fatal accidents and other minor incidents on North Jersey's highways and byways.

Today, none other than Publisher Stephen A. Borg contributed a photo of a humdrum van fire on Route 80 east on Friday afternoon, and earned a credit line: "STEPHEN A. BORG/STAFF" (L-3).

Of course, the big news on Routes 80 east, 46 east and 4 east on Friday afternoon was massive traffic congestion approaching the George Washington Bridge, partly due to the lack of mass-transit alternatives.

In fact, the lead story in today's Local section reports Democratic lawmakers are urging the $1 billion extension of NJ Transit's electrified light-rail system to downtown Englewood and Englewood Hospital and Medical Center (L-1).

Federal officials quoted in the story estimate that every $1 billion spent on infrastructure creates 35,000 jobs.

But non-polluting light rail also takes cars off the road, a benefit lost on Tenafly officials who opposed extending the service to their town.

The Record ran stories quoting borough officials who demonized light rail, and never published an editorial criticizing those officials for their opposition.

At least when it comes to mass transit, Borg, who lives in a Tenafly McMansion, is following in the footsteps of his father, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg of Englewood, in not bothering to be a force for positive change in his community. 

Living v. dead

We get it. It's a miracle that two young women survived on Feb. 13, when their Toyota RAV4 left a Route 80 bridge over the Hackensack River and fell 60 feet, landing on a tree (A-1).

But why is their reunion with the firefighters who rescued them on the front page today? 

On Wednesday, a story reported that on Monday, a 64-year-old pedestrian was fatally injured by a car turning onto Kennedy Street in Hackensack, near Route 80, and except for her name and age, The Record didn't bother finding out anything about her.

Did Hue Dang live in the neighborhood? Was she a mother and grandmother? Was she treated like chopped liver because she was a senior?

Is her family planning to sue the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and John Straniero of Wayne, the detective sergeant behind the wheel of the unmarked Ford Crown Victoria that struck her?

Sewage v. taxes

Whose decision was it to run a story on higher sewer-connection fees for Hackensack developers on Thursday?

That was a day before belatedly informing residents a budget the City Council introduced on Tuesday night would hike property taxes by $115 for the average homeowner (Friday's L-2).

Editors surrender to Christie on taxing the wealthy

The Engine 5 Firehouse on Main Street in Hackensack is one of the most distinctive around.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Democratic lawmakers are renewing the debate over taxing wealthy residents and corporations to balance the state budget at the end of the month, but The Record's editors have already made up their minds.

How can Editor Marty Gottlieb run today's front-page story on a plan to avoid Governor Christie's drastic cuts in the state contribution to the pension system (A-1)?

Only six days ago, an editorial called a millionaires tax "a political non-starter" (A-18 on June 13).

Is this objective journalism or are the editors just taking their marching orders  from the GOP bully and the wealthy Borg publishing family?

Don't expect Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin to revisit the viability of higher taxes on the wealthy, especially if he can't find a Broadway show, book or song to compare them to.

Christie-proofing budget

Today's Page 1 story reports the proposal by Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg would generate $1.6 billion, "which is the same amount Christie has proposed cutting the planned state pension contribution for the fiscal year that begins July 1" (A-4).

A Christie spokesman referred to millionaires as "overburdened New Jersey taxpayers," and said "raising taxes drives businesses and citizens out of New Jersey and makes our problems worse."

Who in their right mind would move out of New Jersey, which is just across the river from the financial and cultural capital of the United States?

Animal farm

Today's edition is dominated by animal news -- on Page 1 and L-3 in Local.

The A-1 story reports the suspension of mail delivery for more than a month to four homes in Rochelle Park after a dog attacked a mail carrier, "leaving six severe bite wounds up the man's arms."

Why not put down the dog and fine the owners so it doesn't happen again?

Roast duck

Good luck trying to follow the story on "a mama duck and her four ducklings" in Ridgewood (L-3).

A big photo shows four ducklings, and the smaller photo shows a large duck, presumably the mother, and only three ducklings.

But the text says "the mama ... couldn't be found."

This is typical of the sloppy editing under six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton and her sleep-deprived staff.

The village could have saved taxpayers money by alerting the many downtown restaurant chefs and letting them take care of the ducks.  

Another story on the same page reports a house fire in Saddle Brook killed seven cats and an eighth cat is missing.

Pat who?

Meanwhile, more poor editing on the Local front likely puzzled tens of thousands of readers (L-1).

A photo caption reads, "June Nakayama wiping away a tear after Pat Kinney presented her with a bouquet on Wednesday."

Readers learn Nakayama was being thanked for starting a "Pre-Mom Club for young Japanese women who move to North Jersey with their businessmen-husbands."

But Kinney is never identified.

Of course, newsroom veterans know Kinney as a freelancer who once wrote the "Neighbors from Japan" column for The Record.

Consumers lose

Staff Writer Elisa Ung does a poor job representing consumers in her fine-dining restaurant reviews.

So why did the editors think she would do any better on supermarket purchases (BL-1)?

Today, she touts pricey bottled pasta sauce made by Jon Bon Jovi's father, but doesn't mention that you get only 24 ounces for $5.99 or barely enough for a half-pound of dried pasta.

I found the same bottled Bongiovi Marinara, Garden-style and Arrabiata on sale today at the Paramus ShopRite for a more palatable $2.99. 

Road Warrior screws up in Page 1 column

Image via Wikipedia

A correction on an A-1 Road Warrior column highlights an ongoing problem with accuracy.

Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski's biggest failure as a journalist is ignoring the plight of tens of thousands of North Jersey commuters who use crowded buses and trains -- while churning out a mind-numbing series of stories on the problems of drivers.

You'd think he is in the pocket of all of the automobile dealers who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on advertising in The Record of Woodland Park, including the many pages that made today's paper so fat.

A correction on A-2 today throws a spotlight on his accuracy:

Correction

The Road Warrior column on Page A-1 on Friday about motor coach safety incorrectly identified a Haledon company that had an alert placed on its record by the federal government. The name of the company is Charter Coach & Travel LLC.

I can't stand reading most of Cichowski's tortured prose, so had to go looking for how the company name was rendered in the paper on Friday. I finally found it, on the continuation page (A-10): "Carter's Coach."

Carter's Coach isn't even close to the correct name. How many other errors has Cichowski made over the years that were never corrected?

Judging from what I hear from readers and from my own experience in editing his columns for many years, Cichowski makes quite a few errors that are either caught on the news copy desk or get into the paper and are never corrected.

Even today's correction is flawed. The word "alert" should have been written "ALERT," as it was in Friday's story, signifying "warning evaluations" for "unsatisfactory performance" from the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration.

Disaster in Japan

Editor Francis Scandale keeps on squeezing as much as possible out of the sister-city relationship between Glen Rock, where he lives, and Onomachi, Japan (A-1). 

Today, free-lance Columnist Pat Kinney was taken out of mothballs for the second time since the quake hit a week ago Friday (L-3). 

Among the many angles Scandale has overlooked is publishing a profile of the Japanese community in North Jersey. 

Right now, all readers might know from reading Kinney is her oft-repeated statement that most Japanese families live here temporarily during the husband's job posting.

An enduring mystery is why head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes hasn't asked the only  Japanese staffer in the newsroom, feature writer Sachi Fujimori -- who can do it all -- to help out  or even why Fujimori wasn't sent to Japan to cover the big story.

The assignment wouldn't be that expensive for the paper, especially if she can hitch a ride on Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg's private jet.