If Christie drops out of race, no need for friendly columnist

Hudson Street in Hackensack is one of many streets showing the signs of utility work, but the patching is much smoother than on River Street, especially near the old headquarters of The Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A day after The Record declared that many view Governor Christie's White House bid as a "long shot," the paper's political columnist doesn't miss a beat.

Since the GOP bully took office in early 2010, Staff Writer Charles Stile has stuck by Christie in his Political Stile column, never bothering to report on whether the conservative's policies have been good for New Jersey.

Today, he's back on Page 1, analyzing whether Donald Trump's foot-in-mouth disease can help boost Christie's anemic showing in the race for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.

His column is never labeled "Opinion" or "Analysis," as many papers would with similar partisan reporting.

With Stile in his corner, Christie doesn't even need spin doctors.

The veteran Trenton reporter does a good imitation of a journalist who is angling for a job in what he hopes will be a Christie administration in Washington.

Stile's chief weakness is that he continues to completely ignore all of the New Jersey baggage and failed policies Christie brought to the race -- from Superstorm Sandy recovery to mass transit to "pension reform" to the Bridgegate scandal.

It's a weakness shared with Editor Martin Gottlieb, who puts Stile's boring column on the front page once or twice a week.

Stile's next and last column should be on the sentiment for Christie to drop out of the race, return to New Jersey and finish out his term, fixing the mess he's made as the state's worst governor ever.

Bridgegate editors bury an elaborate Christie cover-up

Today is a thoroughly miserable day to be driving around Bergen County.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If the miserable, sunless weather doesn't get you down, The Record's whitewash of a legislative panel's report on Governor Christie and Bridgegate is certain to do the trick.

"Cover-up" was the word used by some media outlets to describe the report's conclusions, including WNYC-FM.

But you would have to read far into today's upbeat Page 1 "ANALYSIS," a Charles Stile column and an editorial (A-9) to understand just how far Governor Christie, his aides and his cronies went to cover up the real purpose of the George Washington Bridge lane closures -- political payback.

When the Woodland Park daily's editors and reporters sound like the GOP bully's own spin doctors, you know journalistic principals have been compromised.

Wrong-way Boburg

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg claims in his first paragraph today that the Legislature's Bridgegate report concluded Governor Christie didn't know of the scheme (A-1), but that contradicts what he reported on Friday.

The state legislative committee investigating the September 2013 gridlock in Fort Lee said there was "no conclusive evidence" as to whether Christie "was or was not" aware of the closures or involved in directing them, according to Boburg's Page 1 story on Friday.

And Boburg's lead paragraph today mentions "two reports," a reference to the whitewash by Christie's own lawyers, including Randy Mastro, who soaked taxpayers by submitting a request for $7.2 million in legal fees.

Treating the credibility of the two reports equally completely violates the standards of objective journalism.

Indeed, a gullible Boburg quoted Mastro on Friday's Page 1 claiming that "with this [legislative] inquiry behind it [sic], the governor and his office can focus on what they do best -- serving the public interest."

At the moment Mastro's press release went out, Christie was thousands of miles away in Canada, pursing his White House dreams. 

So much for "serving the public interest."

Editorial trickery

Stile, one of the paper's biggest Christie boosters, claims in his first paragraph the latest report "may help [the governor] in his yearlong quest for rehabilitation" (A-1).

The headlines on today's editorial are even more bewildering (A-9):

No involvement

GWB panel implicates only Christie aides

Really? 

Today, none other than Boburg reports "the legislative report said Christie and an aide had deleted 12 text messages they exchanged during damaging testimony by Port Authority officials" (A-6).

And readers have to question the motives of Boburg and his editors to bury the lead in the last paragraph of his so-called Analysis, quoting a spokesman for the Democratic National Commitee:

"Some of Christie's closest aides and allies put safety at risk, seemingly to exact petty political revenge, and in the aftermath, they lied about it. That, in itself, is inexcusable conduct coming from the administration of someone who wants to be president of the United States" (A-6).