Stupid headline hides truth about GOP-led Congress

A sign in the unisex bathroom at Pushcart Coffee on Ninth Avenue and 25th Street in Manhattan.

Shivering tourists on a walking tour of Manhattan's Theater District on Saturday, another frigid, sunless day.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A headline declaring "deep divide in D.C." certainly is familiar to anyone who has read a newspaper in the last few years.

But after months of hysteria in The Record and other media about Tea Party radicals and other Republicans taking full control of Congress and dismantling President Obama's health care law and other initiatives, reality has set in.

On Monday's front page, more than two months after the 2014 election, Columnist Herb Jackson reports voter turnout was pushed down "nationally to its lowest point since World War II," and ending gridlock is "overly optimistic, to say the least."

Jackson blames voter apathy on a "bitter election," but the media also are at fault for ignoring issues in favor of conflict and sound bites, and failing to reveal the lies in GOP attack ads.

However, the main headline on his column used the old "deep divide in D.C." and ignored the real truth -- no end to gridlock in the new Congress, despite Republican majorities.

Monday's A-2 carried another long correction of a story in the Local news section, the one on Sunday about Brendan Jordan, 7, the New Milford boy who died in a school accident.

Today's paper

Page 1 today is dominated by Staff Writer John Cichowski's Road Warrior column -- based on press releases, phone interviews and fatal accident reports (A-1).

If the past is any guide, Cichowski likely has committed a number of errors in citing state police data, and he continues to refer to pedestrian deaths as "crashes."

Weak laws

Cichowski should be calling for stronger laws to hold drivers criminally responsible for killing a pedestrian.

Now, drivers can use the excuse that they "didn't see" the pedestrian as a get-out-of jail card.

Older drivers

The challenges facing older drivers is another issue the lazy, demented reporter has neglected in the more than 11 years he has been writing the column.

That can be plainly seen today in the two photos that run in Local, where head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, hold up another older driver to ridicule.

Look at the helpless expression on the white-haired woman's face -- as captured by an ambulance-chasing freelancer -- after she drove her 2009 Honda Civic "over a guardrail and retaining wall and down an embankment at a condominium complex" in Ridgewood (L-3).

Of course, the woman didn't "drive" her car through the guardrail on Monday afternoon.

She likely mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal, a common error for elderly drivers.

Is driver retraining available for older drivers such as this woman? 

Cichowski could care less, and Sykes and Sforza fear any such public service stories would deprive them of the filler accident photos they so desperately need to complete their weak local news report.  

Second look

On Sunday, Columnist Mike Kelly criticized Governor Christie for not attending the funeral of another pedestrian, Cliffside Park Special Police Officer Stephen Petruzzello, who was killed by a driver who claimed she didn't see him (Opinion front).

But Kelly gets absolutely no editing, and thinks readers have nothing better to do than plow through a dozen long introductory paragraphs about Christie the football fan and a gubernatorial vacation.

The criticism appears on the continuation page, and many readers may have been so bored by all the background they never saw it.

It seems silly to tell someone who has been a columnist for more than 20 years: Put your criticism in the first paragraph and leave the background for later.

But it's necessary with Kelly, one of the paper's chief word pushers.

Will we get rid of Christie in November or 2016?

Last Monday morning, only one window was open at the Hackensack Post Office on State Street, above and below.

Customers made sure they fed the parking meters outside.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The fawning editors of The Record seem intent on being the first to report that Republican Chris Christie will run for president in 2016.

The latest in a series of speculative stories appears on Page 1 today.

The Record long ago wrote off the challenge of Democrat Barbara Buono, who will stop Christie from getting a second term if she can overcome the apathy of her party's voters in November.

I see an upset, but if the fat, mean-spirited slob does beat Buono, at least we can count on him going down in flames in 2016 in a race against Hillary Clinton.

In one way or another, a woman will deal Christie the huge political humiliation he so richly deserves.

Today's story is written by reporter Melissa Hayes, who is trying her hardest to scoop the national media or at least earn a job in the next Christie administration.

Arabs step in

The second paragraph notes in passing that Christie accepted a $4.5 million donation from the United Arab Emirates to the Superstorm Sandy relief charity.

That's great. New Jersey prostrates itself before Arab oil billionaires. 

What's next? Arab oil money flowing into his campaign? What would that mean to the drive to develop alternative forms of energy?

Cops sit on hands

The major story on A-1 today bemoans the lack of progress in creating bike lanes on Route 9w, but the entire focus seems to be on what state officials are or aren't doing (A-1 and A-6).

The editors never question whether more police enforcement of traffic laws or of bicyclists blowing through red lights would improve the situation.

Or why the mayors interviewed aren't getting their towns to improve safety on the heavily trafficked road.

Fat chances

Check out the editorial hailing a slight decline in obesity among low-income preschoolers in New Jersey (A-9).

There is not a single mention of what Christie or other state officials might have done to lower the incidence of obesity among 2 to 4 year olds -- except for a campaign to make adults "more aware of the dangers of childhood obesity."

More on the layoffs at The Record of Woodland Park

Louis Street in Hackensack's Fairmount section, above and below, is one of many city streets that have fallen into disrepair, and it's far from the worst. As property taxes continue to rise, residents are asking city officials where is all the money going?

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

At least two newsroom employees at The Record of Woodland Park have taken the buyout offered to staffers over 60 years of age, and five others were laid off to cut expenses.

Justo Bautista, a police reporter; and Charles Saydah, editor of letters to the editor, accepted the buyout, with severance capped at 12 weeks of salary.

Many companies pay one or two weeks of salary for each year of service, meaning a 20-year employee would receive 20 weeks to 40 weeks of salary, far above the ceiling at North Jersey Media Group.

The newsroom includes employees of the Herald News, which long ago was designated as an "edition" of The Record to allow NJMG to report a combined circulation that props up advertising rates.

Editor is 'sincere' 

In addition to award-winning Cartoonist Jimmy Margulies, layoffs include Staff Artist Lance Theroux, who is 59, and three sports reporters, who are in their 30s and 40s, according to an Anonymous comment received by Eye on The Record. 

This same source also said:

"I heard that Editor Marty Gottlieb held a staff meeting this past Tuesday, and talked about the layoffs.

"People felt he was sincere in regretting having to let some people go whose work was of good quality and made The Record a better paper."

Readers' reaction

Here is reaction to the forced departure of Margulies on HackensackNow.org, a community message board:

"That is a real loss. He was one of a dying breed," said Homer Jones.

"I agree about Margulies, he's great," Regina chimed in. 

The Editor of HackensackNow said:

"Jimmy was doing caricatures of children at a county fair at Overpeck Park last summer in a booth for The Record.  He did one of our daughter and captured her smile just right. He seemed like a focused, caring sort of person.  I wish him all the best."

A contributor -- who calls himself or herself  "just watching" -- recalled:

"Part of my daily routine every morning was to log on to The Record's Web site, and look at the political cartoon of the day.  I often disagreed with his slant on things, but I always enjoyed them."

Today's paper

The obstinately conservative Republicans in Congress and Governor Christie, New Jersey's own GOP bully, are making a mess of the cleanup from Superstorm Sandy (A-1).

Did anyone besides me awake this morning and wonder how North Jersey survived the "budget sequestration" -- given the end-of-the-world hype by The Record and other media?

Four stories about Englewood or Englewood Cliffs appear in Local today, but there is nothing from Hackensack, Teaneck and many other towns.

Law & Order stories take up much of L-1 and L-3. 
     

Coverage of black community ends today

An abandoned home is framed by Overlook Avenue high-rises in Hackensack. Residents have a bird's-eye view of noisy business jets that skim rooftops on the way to Teterboro Airport. Is there any reason they can't approach at a much higher altitude? 

With the end of Black History Month today, head Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, breathe a sigh of relief, knowing they can turn their backs on North Jersey's African-American community for another year.

Now, they'll only have to run stories about black people who get in trouble with the law, sue or get sued, or die in one of those drive-by shootings in Paterson.

Sykes has consumed enormous quantities of Jamaican black-rum cake in recent years, but has completely ignored the hard-working, God-fearing Jamaican-American enclaves in Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood.

If I didn't know better, I'd guess Sykes and Sforza had something to do with assigning black history to the shortest month of the year.

Even the Woodland Park newsroom mirrors the lack of coverage. There are no black editors with any authority and only a couple of black reporters.

More bad writing 

More bad news writing appears on the front page today, this time in the photo caption for Pope Benedict XVI (A-1).

We know the pope has great spiritual powers, but the caption informs readers he can travel "through" 150,000 people without harming them.

Is it too much to ask six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton to read every headline and caption that appears on the paper's premier page or at least to have them read to her?

With her proofers' eyes riveted on the TV screen during the David Letterman show, how else is she going to prevent such embarrassing errors from appearing on Page 1?

After Mike Kelly's latest flop appeared on Wednesday's A-1, the long-winded columnist was taken to the hospital with a case of bad writing.

Bad reporting 

The Record and other media continue to cover the battle to avoid the sequester as if President Obama and his policies didn't win a decisive victory over the Republicans in November (A-1, A-10, A-20). 

The big Hackensack news today appears on L-3 -- a non-fatal, two-vehicle accident near ShopRite, in another brilliant photo from chief ambulance chaser Tariq Zehawi.

The is clearly filler. As usual, no attempt is made to report the possible cause of the accident or whether any of the drivers received a summons.

And God forbid the paper actually identifies the drivers.  

Obesity is ugly

Look at the two beautiful, "plus-size" women on the Better Living cover today -- the latest attempt by The Record's editors to hide the ugly obesity epidemic in New Jersey, as epitomized by Governor Christie. 


 

Where have the editors been hiding?

Image via Wikipedia
How much of his huge fortune will Republican Mitt Romney squander on his bid to unseat President Barack Obama?

Tensions

rising over

inequality

of wealth

Study reveals shift in

middle-class attitudes

I almost spit out my coffee when I saw these headlines on Page 1 of The Record today and wondered what the editors have been doing during the last two years of partisan warfare between the rich and everyone else.

It's just like interim Editor Douglas Clancy to wait for a survey to confirm what readers knew long ago.

The Record does its best to ignore Governor Christie's refusal since he took office two years ago to raise taxes on millionaires or hike the levy on fuel for their gas-guzzling limousines. 

And Republicans in Congress are doing their best to keep taxes on the rich at a 50-year low as a result of the Bush tax cuts. 

Mitt Romney, leading in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, estimates his net worth at $190 million to $250 million.

You'd have to be a fool to believe they care anything about unemployment, foreclosures and all the other shocks destroying the middle class.

Chickening out

It's not just the news editors who are out of touch.

Years after antibiotic-free chicken showed up in supermarkets, Better Living today publishes a cover story on how to read poultry labels (F-1). 

The story would be a lot more useful to readers if it listed brands that are drug-free, such as Readington Farms (ShopRite) and Murray's (Fairway Market), and those that are raised with lots of antibiotics, including Perdue and Tyson.

Little real insight

The major element on Page 1 today reports on the latest desecration of a synagogue, which involved a Molotov cocktail tossed into the bedroom of a Rutherford rabbi and his wife.

The A-1 sidebar by Staff Writer Deena Yellin reports the rabbi was injured, but the main story doesn't. 

The caption for the photo, which shows the rabbi and his wife, says the gasoline bomb was thrown into "his bedroom" when it should have been "their bedroom."

Neither story attempts to explain why there have been four attacks on Bergen County synagogues since Dec. 10.

And where has head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes been, covering most of the front of the Local news section with a fire in North Bergen that killed no one?

More stale news on the front page

Image via Wikipedia

The Record finds a treasure trove of ready made stories in census data.

The Record of Woodland Park continues to mine Census 2010 data for Page 1 stories that confirm what readers have known for months, if not years.

Incomes fall for N.J. families

Today's lead headline comes from the flagship publication of North Jersey Media Group, which went on a firing spree, consolidated its two daily newspapers and totally abandoned Hackensack.

The most important local news is pushed down below the fold. Readers learn Republicans in Congress are playing politics with disaster relief for storm- and flood-ravaged New Jersey (A-1).

Below that, a refer to an A-17 story reports young American soldiers in Afghanistan ask doctors not to save them if their sexual organs get blown off.

That's curious, because Editor Francis Scandale seems to be doing just fine years after he was castrated by the real power in the newsroom, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes.

On A-2 today, a correction notes the Hackensack police union president was misidentified in an L-3 story on Wednesday, but a second error on the location of the Social Security office in Hackensack wasn't corrected.

Rich list

Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg apparently is no longer on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans (A-8). How could he be -- with a spoiled son who sucked out $3.65 million of the company's money to buy a bigger house?

Today's Local news section is a yawner, what we've come to expect from Sykes' desk.

Last Friday's paper

Why is it lead-the-paper news that a Garfield neighborhood contaminated for nearly 30 years is now on the Superfund list -- when that might mean another 20 to 30 years will pass before it's cleaned up?

Staff Writer Mary Jo Layton refers to "Hackensack officlals" and "Hackensack" several times in her A-1 scoop about doctors lured to Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.


But she's not referring to the city; she's talking about Hackensack University Medical Center. She loads her poorly written lead paragraph with so much information,  "Hackensack" appears in it three times.


Readers would be stunned if Liz Houlton's news copy desk actually did some editing.

On the Local front, why is the Road Warrior writing about the sale of flood-damaged cars, in place of the consumer columnist, Kevin DeMarrais?

By limiting the back story, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung is able to report Khole Bistrot in Fort Lee serves only organic meat, but she runs into trouble describing the whole fish she sampled, using "bronzini," the plural (Better Living centerfold).

In the data box, she tells readers "prices are quite high for many items," so the restaurant isn't appropriate for "those on a budget." Duh.

Christie helps rich wage open warfare

Image via Wikipedia

Will too much 9/11 anniversary coverage turn off readers?

Governor Christie has been waging open warfare for the rich against the rest of us since he took office, but now he's upped the ante considerably.


The Record reports he addressed hundreds of wealthy donors at a secret June meeting in Vail, Colo., sponsored by a pair of right-wing billionaires.

On Page 1 today, Columnist Charles Stile describes how the Koch brothers' network of "foundations, think tanks and front groups ... promote drastically lower personal and corporate taxes, fewer social services for the poor and less government regulation."


That sounds like the Republican bully's agenda in cutting the state budget this year and in 2010, but he also mounted an assault on the benefits of unionized state workers, teachers, cops and firefighters. 


The state teachers union says Christie's net worth is $3 million.


Borg way or highway


So, it's no surprise Publisher Stephen A. Borg has editors of the Woodland Park daily marching in lockstep with Christie.


Not content with the $2 million house he lived in, the wealthy scion waged his own war on the less fortunate -- his much poorer employees -- by grabbing a $3.65 million company mortgage to buy a McMansion in late 2007, followed several months later by record layoffs.


In the second part of Rich v. Poor, Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson reports congressional Republicans are fighting to preserve a corrupt system of political contributions -- one that ensures only the wealthy can run for state or national office (A-1).


On A-2, two of the three corrections are attributed to sloppy reporting or copy editing.


Bad English, home version


On A-21, Editor Francis Scandale publishes a full page of 9/11 remembrances from foreign writers, including journalists and students.


I can understand awkward writing from those whose native language isn't English, but what's Scandale's excuse? Here are two excerpts from his introduction:


First, take a deep breath. 


"As we explored going outside the United States to hear what citizens of other countries took away from the attacks of Sept. 11, we came across a small town in Italy that had planned to teach the event in school."


"Many residents work in the near town of Siena ...." 


In head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, the only Hackensack news is a burglary arrest (L-2). 


More red-light-running news appears on L-3, but do readers really need a 12- to 14-inch story each time a town decides to install cameras?


9/11 anniversary


Scandale began coverage of 9/11 in earnest on Sept. 1, with the first in a series of front-page stories that presumably will culminate this Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the attack on America.


I'm already sick of reading about 9/11, including the pieces from abroad, all of which sound the same. 


The only A-1 stories I read through were Staff Writer Leslie Brody's piece on the memorial to New Jersey victims and Thomas E. Franklin's account of the 9/11 photographers.


None of the coverage has mentioned U.S. support for Israel, which Al-Qaida cited originally as the reason it wants to destroy America.


More rich news


Donald Trump sued for defamation and lost, at least as far as the Appellate Division of state Superior Court is concerned. 


A brief on the case appears on L-8 today. The Record carried a glowing account about Trump the other day.


Here is the link to the full written decision, which contains a lot of information about his real and imagined net worth:


http://www.judiciary.state.nj.us/opinions/a6141-08.pdf 

'The day the middle class died'

Image via Wikipedia


Filmmaker Michael Moore has posted a video as a chilling reminder of the destructive presidency of Ronald Reagan, right.


You can see how Governor Christie, congressional Republicans and rabid Tea Party loyalists are carrying on the work of our first and hopefully last company spokesman-actor-president.


You remember "trickle-down economics," don't you?


In retrospect, that theory could have been called "tepid discharges from a douche bag."


I was part of a team of reporters at The Record that documented the cuts to social programs during the Reagan presidency.


As today, all those holier-than-thou Republicans loved to cut Head Start and other programs for minority children.


Here is a link to the YouTube video:


4-minute video of Ronald Reagan puppet

Bear editor attacks readers

Image via Wikipedia

A black bear yearling in Alaska.

At times, The Record has covered bears, bear hunts and related stories better than it has covered Hackensack, Englewood, Teaneck and a lot of other towns.


So, Editor Francis Scandale, if you're going to lead the paper with a sensational bear story, as you do today, make it a good one.


The story by Staff Writer James M. O'Neill is OK, but not as good as the report I saw on the TV news last night (A-1).


The Record story is missing a crucial detail, which was contained in the TV report:  The bear tried to drag at least one of the boys out of his tent. 


And when will the editors stop running a photo of two officers who are standing around and bullshitting, and write a caption saying they are "patrolling"? Here, the officers are called "officials" (A-6).


The other stories on Page 1 today are only there because Scandale didn't have anything better from the crack assignment desk under Editor Deirdre Sykes.


Weighing in


Six days after suffering a Big Mac attack, Governor Christie made a delayed appearance in Somerset County to sign three bills funding open-space preservation (A-3).


Christie singled out U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., for criticizing the debt-ceiling compromise. "I don't know why he's so angry. He's in his 80s and in good health."


If Christie doesn't lose weight, he isn't going to make it to his 80s.


Instead of running story after story on the partisan gridlock in Washington (A-13), please tell readers whether President Obama has executive powers to end the FAA shutdown and if he does, why doesn't he use them?


Amid letters blasting the Repubicans on A-18 is a nonsensical one on budgeting from Mark Kalinowski of Clifton. He's "associated" with "The North New Jersey Tea Party Group."


Unstoppable


Sykes appears unable or unwilling to stop Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski (L-1) from writing about everything but commuting, his original mission.


Here's a question for Sykes' assignment minions:


Why doesn't the L-1 story on Cross River Bank donating $85,000 to restore private-school bus stops in Teaneck -- but nothing for reduced public-school busing -- tell readers whether bank officers live in town and send their kids to private schools?


And while you're at it, are there any ties between the bank and Councilmen Yitz Stern and Elie Katz, who sought its assistance, as reported on L-6?


Although the assignment desk appears to be generating more local news, much of it is inconsequential and reads like the weekly paper Sykes came from. She also continues to rely on photos of non-fatal accidents to fill the section (L-3).


Food snob


As the Second Helpings blog on northjersey.com reports, Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill spends more time hobnobbing with celebrity chefs in Atlantic City than she does publishing healthy and nutritious recipes for readers.

Wealthy win another big tax battle

Image via Wikipedia

Employees fear Publisher Stephen A. Borg
will move to a state without income tax.

You can bet Publisher Stephen A. Borg is toasting the debt-limit deal that leads The Record today -- secure in the knowledge that he and his wealthy friends will continue to get away with murder when it comes to paying taxes.

Just a month ago, he broke out the bubbly when Governor Christie signed a budget that spared him and other millionaires from paying a state income-tax surcharge, but cut programs for low-income and middle-class families alike.

Editor Francis Scandale is one of the clueless journalists who have swallowed all the lies from congressional Republicans and Tea Baggers, who claim the Bush tax cuts create jobs.

No. They create pain, as readers can see from the major element on Page 1 today -- 4,879 disabled people statewide waiting for housing.

Do the math

At the bottom of A-1 today, the headline declares: "School background checks in full swing." Yet, the story says only 29 out of 4,500 to 5,000 board members have been fingerprinted so far.

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin continues to sprinkle his column with silly Broadway references, such as calling Christie's health scare last week "a Kumbaya moment" (A-11).

Doblin notes Christie's relationship with Senate President Stephen Sweeney, D-Glouchester, is "as strained as carrots in a jar of baby food," and says Sweeney "is someone who, like the GOP's elephant, never forgets."

Is Doblin suggesting Christie -- the GOP elephant in New Jersey -- push away his usual beer and pizza for some of those strained carrots?

What is she thinking?

Looking at today's Local section, you have to wonder at head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' priorities.

The lead is a process story on illegal pupils, and there is yet another story about a town's solar energy project (L-1).

The big element on L-1 is an inane column by Mike Kelly on a Pearl Harbor memorial. Is it Dec. 7th already?

But buried on Page L-7 is a story under the headline: "Using food as a uniting force."

A Teaneck block party speaks volumes about North Jersey's diversity and is one of the few signs of harmony amid all the partisan in-fighting and negativity that have  dominated the news for months.

This is the kind of story that belongs on the front of Local, but the incompetent assignment editors just don't get it.