Schoolchildren, teen drivers again dominate news, views

Residents fear that when completed, the Hudson Lights residential-retail project near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee will make the borough's heavy traffic even worse. This photo might remind some old timers of "Heavy Equipment," a 1940s film starring John Derrick and Jean Crain.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

As a senior citizen, I still can't figure out why "new standardized tests tied to Common Core" are so controversial that just the mention of them by Governor Christie lands him on Page 1 of The Record (A-1).

In fact, I have no idea what Common Core is, thanks to reporters who wait until deep into the continuation page today to explain it and quote New Jersey education officials defending it (A-7). 

Then, on the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski has another boring column on teen drivers (L-1).

News bias

North Jersey Media Group has always steadfastly denied discriminating against older workers.

But the editorial policy of The Record, the company's flagship paper, has long discriminated against older readers, the majority.

Autism, not Alzheimer's disease, often dominates Page 1 and the Better Living front.

The challenges facing older drivers are routinely ignored by Cichowski.

And his editors lampoon those drivers when they confuse the accelerator for the brake pedal by running numerous filler photos of the mayhem that causes.

Correction

A Thursday story on high school journalism and censorship has been corrected (A-2).

Why is L-9, a Business page, dominated by rising rents in New York and other cities?

What about rents in Hackensack and the rest of North Jersey?

$92 entree

Orama in Edgewater is really making customers pay for the restaurant's spectacular location on the Hudson River, with entrees up to $92.

I loved what Executive Chef John Piliouras did with fresh fish at Nisi Estiatorio in Englewood -- now replaced by a car showroom.

But I doubt I'll ever eat at Orama. 

There are plenty of great seafood restaurants in Bergen County with down-to-earth prices, and Fort Lee and Edgewater boast at least three Japanese restaurants with great sushi menus.

And the far more affordable food court at Mitsuwa Marketplace has the same great view.

Restaurant critic Elisa Ung's 3-star review today shows a photo of Niman Ranch loin lamb chops, but doesn't tell readers all Niman Ranch meat is naturally raised or give the price (BL-16).

In her text, she confuses readers by describing what apparently is a second dish, "Colorado prime porterhouse-cut [lamb] chops ($21 and $32)." 

"Prime" and "porterhouse" usually describe beef. Maybe these Colorado sheep were raised on steroids.

Nelson Mandela reminds us there is good in the world

A truck carrying watermelons caught fire this morning on Route 17 north, near Midland Avenue in Paramus, above, sparking a traffic nightmare for commuters using that road, Routes 4 and 80, and the Garden State Parkway.

Two of the three lanes on Route 17 north were closed during the cleanup of watermelons on the road and removal of the burnt-out truck.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Nelson Mandela's smile is beaming from a big color photo on Page 1 of The Record today -- an affront to white Republican conservatives everywhere.

Tributes poured in from many in New Jersey after they heard the news Mandela died on Thursday night in South Africa, but I couldn't find a statement from Governor Christie in today's front-page sidebar (A-1 and A-8).

In fact, I didn't find any Republicans quoted in Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado's story, which appears under this headline:

N.J. leaders admired

his courage, compassion

Mandela -- the face of freedom in South Africa and around the world -- probably reminds Christie of the black state Supreme Court associate justice he got rid of a few months after taking office in January 2010.

He also could represent the many minority workers who sought an increase in the minimum wage, only to see the mean-spirited GOP bully veto it.

What about the thousands of Latinos courted by Christie in his successful bid for a second term on Nov. 5?

Now, the governor objects to extending lower, in-state tuition rates to illegal immigrants, whether they are Hispanic or not. 

Sorry, Carlos, didn't you and the other Latinos who voted for him know that the governor won't hesitate to screw you and every other minority any chance he gets?

More screw-ups

Three more embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today amid a seemingly total breakdown of the checks and balances on The Record's production desk, which is run so ineptly by six-figure Editor Liz Houlton.

On the Local front today, Road Warrior John Cichowski explores another compelling commuting issue (L-1).

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung sampled only one salad out of a dozen dishes she tried at Cafe Amici of Wyckoff, but managed to stuff her face with four artery clogging desserts (BL-20).

Defending speeders, criminals and adulterers

These motorists didn't need a sign to tell them they were going nowhere during the rush hour on the Garden State Parkway north, which narrows to three lanes from five.

The Road Warrior column on Wednesday raised the possibility of electronic ticketing, using data from individual E-ZPass tags and global-positioning systems, and called it "Big Brother."

Well, for the vast majority of sane, law-abiding drivers, such a system couldn't come fast enough, given the dramatic decline in the enforcement of traffic laws.

The Record's John Cichowski gives voice to drivers who believe Dynamic Message Signs are "an invasion of privacy."

Rich Pederson of sleepy Bloomingdale (the town, not the store), is quoted as saying, "This information had best not be stored in a database somewhere."

E-ZPass account information has been used to impeach the testimony of a criminal defendant who claims to have been home watching TV at the time of a crime.

And I'm sure E-ZPass information has been used in divorce cases.

The rest of us have nothing to worry about, especially Cichowski, who has mastered the art of using reader e-mails as the basis of numerous columns written from the comfort of his desk.

For another take on Wednesday's Road Warrior laugh-fest, consider the comments of a reader concerned about all of the inaccuracies in the column:

"The Road Warrior embellishes reporting around inane questions, discredited conspiracy theories, and comments that defy common sense and facts in his Jan. 23 column about Dynamic Message Signs, which display updated driving times to points down a highway.

"The Record does NOT appear to care about its integrity or have oversight to stop publishing unsubstantiated and unqualified feedback that does not belong in a Road Warrior column. 

"Please direct these people & their feedback to one of The Record blogs.

"Road Warrior also repeatedly likes to scare readers with his unsubstantiated "dark conspiracy" theories.

"Most drivers understand the benefits and reject any fears about Dynamic Message Signs."

See the full e-mail sent to management at:

Road Warrior paranoia runs rampant 

 

Originally posted from my iPhone at the Riviera Bakery in Newark's Ironbound.

Where are the photos of the dead kids?

NRA Headquarters, Fairfax, Va. What would happen if children of NRA members were among the dead in Connecticut? ( Wikipedia)

Don't you want to see photos of those dead kids, all 7 years old or younger, shot multiple times and covered in blood?

For the second straight day, The Record's front page  is dominated by coverage of the "grisly massacre" at a Connecticut elementary school, but where are the photos of the victims?

Instead, readers get an overlong, eye-glazing he said/she said story on whether the killings will change the debate over gun control.

Thanks to Editor Marty Gottlieb, a Times veteran, this A-1 piece goes on and on, spilling over to half of Page A-8. 

Is anyone going to read more than a few paragraphs of the same rehash we see after every school shooting?

And this story may be confusing a shooter capable of forming the criminal intent to kill with a mentally ill 20-year-old incapable of doing so.

Media and NRA 

Self-censorship by the media makes them complicit in allowing the National Rifle Association to dismiss shootings like the one at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

The NRA is confident that politicians who accept its blood money won't do anything to tighten control over rapid-fire weapons.

The real horror of the Connecticut shootings would be evident in photos of blood-covered kids in classrooms with multiple bullet holes in them. 

The last thing we need after a horrific shooting is the media hosting another debate over the constitutional right to own guns. 

'Mentally disturbed'

A photo of Adam Lanza, the shooter, appears on Page 1 today, and he is described as "mentally disturbed."

A story by three Record reporters refers to his "troubled life" and describe his as a "mentally disturbed loner."

Was he treated for mental illness? The story is silent on that.

Was he insane?

If he was mentally ill and survived, Lanza might have been found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Yet, the first paragraph of the Record's story says, "Advocates for gun ownership rights denounce the 'politicizing' of the tragedy, and say criminals will still find ways to kill."  

In the eyes of the law, Lanza may not be a criminal, and the debate over gun control needs to recognize that crucial difference.

More road kill

On the Local front today, Road Warrior John Cichowski refers to himself as a "know-it-all."

That's directly contradicted by all those error-filled columns in the past 9 years that have exposed just how little he knows.

Today, he corrects  a major error in Friday's column, which reported incorrectly that the increase in road deaths in New Jersey in 2011 was more than in any other state except California.

Now, he says, Alaska's increase was greater than New Jersey's. 

Biggest mistake

Cichowski's biggest mistake was transforming the Road Warrior column into a forum for drivers, and virtually ignoring mass transit and other commuting issues.  

He is so burned out that most of his columns are based on ideas from reader e-mails, such as today's "annual Christmas wish list."

Missing is what anyone who commutes by car desperately wishes for:  

The addition of tens of thousands of road reflectors to help them guide their cars, especially on rainy nights, when all but the brightest, painted lines disappear.  

The Local front also carries a story on new, expanded flood zones after Superstorm Sandy, but what good is the accompanying map, which identifies only a few streets by name (L-1)?

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, needed three gee-whiz photos of non-fatal accidents to fill today's local-news section (L-3 and L-7).

Fattening up readers 

Another columnist who ran out of ideas long ago is dessert-obsessed Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung, who writes a misnamed Sunday column, The Corner Table (BL-1).

Today, she says, all readers want for Christmas is more artery clogging butter and cream, and a lot more sugar in their diet, so she consulted "three local experts who provided tips for baking your way through the holidays."

What this has to do with readers' restaurant-going issues is unclear.

Readers who are diabetic, who have heart problems or are watching their weight can just turn the page. 

Let them eat cake, Ung says.

 

Stories don't go far enough

Image by Xin Li 88 via Flickr

The lead story in The Record of Woodland Park today reports that significant population gains by Asians and Hispanics in North Jersey are, for the most part, not reflected among elected officials, but there's no discussion of minority representation on state and municipal court benches.

However, on the jump page (A-8), the editors re-run a map that was color coded incorrectly on Friday. The error was never acknowledged on A-2, where corrections run.

There's a lot to read on Page 1 today and, thankfully, no sports or sports-related coverage in anticipation of today's Super Bowl. Editor Francis Scandale must have been out sick.

Local yokels

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski is going on again about the new Motor Vehicle Commission office in Lodi -- at least the third column he's written about construction there. 

Chick loves to monitor the long lines of "road warriors" at the MVC office, but routinely ignores all the commuters standing on packed trains and buses going into the city. 

He's a friend of drivers, not mass-transit commuters, and one of the pets of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, who apparently is another mass transit hater.

There's no Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news in the Local section today and most other major towns are ignored as well.

Don't forget to brush

In Better Living, Elisa Ung's "The Corner Table" column further explores her obsession with dessert, claiming Asian treats "are generally lighter and less sugary than American desserts and offer an accessible gateway to ethic cuisine."

If she really wants to write about lighter, less sugary desserts -- rather than just stuff her already pudgy face -- her column would report on all the Middle Eastern pastry shops in North Jersey. And the paper's restaurant reviewer is just plain wrong when she suggests ethnic food is accessible only through fattening desserts.

An article on restaurant inspections appears on F-4 today, but doesn't explain why the paper no longer reports fines levied against restaurants and other food establishments with major sanitary violations, such as thawing meat on the floor.

Image via Wikipedia

Read it in a weekly

The County Seat, the weekly paper published by the Zisa family, reports Hackensack High School plans to open four Academies, similar to those at the Bergen County Academies in Hackensack. 

The Record reported recently that New Milford High School plans to add Academies, but Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado apparently missed the story about Hackensack High.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes has been coddling Alvarado, along with her other favorites on the staff.

Paper hits my driveway with a thump

Image via Wikipedia

The Record's Tower of Babel.

God knows my language can get stale, when, for example, I used the word "lame" three times in the same post recently before rereading it and revising it. But some writers latch onto a word and don't let go for years and years, and it crops up all the time in their work.


The Record of Woodland Park today provides a perfect example in Columnist Mike Kelly, who has an unusual affection for the word "thump." 


Kelly long ago stopped writing creatively and now merely pushes around words, as he does in this Opinion front column: "The thump of bombs and the pop of bullets will likely continue as part of Iraq's tumultuous soundtrack."


I did a Google search and from my own editing of his columns and stories over the years, I recall Kelly has used the word thump time and again, and not just to describe bombs. 
 
He's used the "thump of jackhammers" at least twice. (Jackhammers don't thump, do they?) And there was the "thump" of rhetoric, drums and shoes.



Kelly is one of those reporters who has been around so long, no one -- not the editors, not the publisher -- pays any attention to what he writes, just as long as he files his three columns a week. 


Others who fall into that category include Road Warrior John Cichowski, Staff Writer John Brennan and Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin -- all of whom are glorified, overpaid space fillers.


They get away with this because some writers become the editors' favorites whether they have talent or not, while others never get off the shit list. Who loses here? The reader does, big time.


Burying news


The best story in today's paper is on North Jersey police departments struggling to diversify, but why isn't it on Page 1, in place of the lead story about high school athletics' governing body?


It's probably because Editor Francis "Frank The Castrato" Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Mother Hen" Sykes didn't want to give too much prominence to the police story, lest anyone question their own miserable records in diversifying the newsroom or covering minority communities in Bergen County. 


For example, Kelly and Cichowski are two of the overwhelmingly white, male columnists at the former Hackensack daily. Scandale, Sykes and Features Director Barbara Jaeger have methodically gotten rid of their black, Hispanic and women columnists.


The Local news section is pretty thin today, with no news of Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and many other towns, except for references to them in the police diversity story. 


On L-1, Cichowski blabbers on about crossing guards -- about as far away as you can get from his mission, which is to cover commuting.


On L-6, a package on the Labor Day fire in Passaic city 25 years ago omits anything on whether the devastated area was rebuilt.


Paid for gorging


In Better Living, we find a clue to why Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung failed readers by not writing a fine-dining review for this past Friday's paper. She apparently was stuffing her face at three places favored by the so-called real housewives -- who, along with Ung, are another joke played on the Garden State.


Why have the editors commanded so much copy about these trashy housewives and the other young, white trash from "Jersey Shore," compared to "The Sopranos," a series that was superior in every way imaginable?