Is Margulies a journalist?

Image by Gianfranco Goria via Flickr

Where does Margulies get off confusing readers about the impact of Governor Christie's austere state budget? His cartoon today, in Opinion, seems to suggest the wealthy are being "screwed" by the governor? Or does he mean they will be running for their corkscrews and drink to their good fortune?

If he is saying the rich will be screwed, it's just plain inaccurate. In fact, the Borgs and other wealthy families no longer have to pay the so-called millionaire's tax, and owners of small businesses get a 4% tax cut on corporate income. If he's saying they'll be celebrating, it's an especially poor choice of image, given Stephen and Jennifer Borg's investment in an Englewood wine bar, not to mention their father's past problems with alcohol.

This cartoon doesn't say much for Margulies' journalism credentials.  

Most of the front page in The Record of Woodland Park today is devoted to the state's financial crisis: 

"Plenty of pain

to go around"

This is a reader-friendly summary of Christie's proposed cuts, but much of the rest of the Sunday paper is disappointing.

The L-1 piece on recycling electronics omits any mention of Hackensack's program to accept TVs, computers and batteries year-round, one of the few municipal efforts in North Jersey.

Where does Road Warrior John Cichowski have his head buried, so he doesn't have to write about lousy local bus service? Potholes (L-1). Inside Local, possible school cuts in Passaic city and Wayne are explored in great detail, but Hackensack schools are ignored.


In Business, what is the point of the article on luxury-car importers? The B-2 graphic also appears to be inaccurate on Ferrari sales: They went up, not down.


One of the best pieces in today's paper didn't come from a staffer. It's Jeff Tittel's O-1 piece on restoring the flood plain (he's director of the Sierra Club in New Jersey).

Trickle-down Christie bares his fangs

Image via Wikipedia

Governor Christie's harsh budget plan shares the front page with flooding in The Record of Woodland Park today. We have more to worry about from the governor's concessions to wealthy small-business owners and rich families like the Borgs than we do from Mother Nature.

The headline on Staff Writer Charles Stile's Page 1 column calls us "guinea pigs" in the Republican's trickle-down experiment, which recalls the disastrous outcome of Ronald Reagan's similar sleight-of-hand decades ago. (Photo: President Ronald Reagan.)


On A-4, the story on Christie's proposal to end Bergen County's Sunday shopping ban makes no mention of The Record's financial and editorial support the last time shopping centers tried to repeal blue laws.


The A-18 editorial seems to have been edited by Publisher Stephen A. Borg and doesn't condemn the governor for refusing to raise the gasoline tax and reinstate the "millionaire's tax" during this unprecedented fiscal crisis.

Coverage of the weekend nor'easter, especially in Local, seems adequate today, but there is little here on how the region's routine was severely disrupted, even for those who escaped flooded basements, power outages or trees crashing down on their homes.

In Business, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais has more on shrinking packages at supermarkets. Don't you wonder why there is so little coverage of food shopping in the food pages?

Although Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung is on leave, she continues to be the voice of wealthy restaurant owners. Couldn't all that space in Better Living today on how restaurants use menus to market meals be better devoted to helping restaurant goers during the recession?