Letting Christie off the hook on pathetic Sandy recovery

We may pay some of the highest property taxes in the nation, but we still are burdened with an antiquated road system that causes traffic congestion, worsens air pollution and erodes productivity. The infamous Teaneck Bottleneck on Route 4, which narrows to two lanes from three, above, pleases preservationists, but delays tens of thousands of  motorists every day. The Record's editors could care less.

BY VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You can search The Record's lead story in vain today for any mention of -- or comment from -- Governor Christie on the pathetic recovery from Superstorm Sandy in October 2012.

I guess Staff Writer Kim Lueddeke and her assignment editor didn't bother trying to locate the GOP bully, who has turned his back on New Jersey as he seeks conservative support for a White House run (A-1).

But Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson knocks himself out trying to measure whether Bridgegate has made Christie less popular than the state's indicted senior senator, Bob Menendez, a Democrat (A-1).

They're both bums, and Jackson is just wasting our time. Look at the idiotic thumbnail photo that runs with his NJ/DC column -- it's almost as silly as Columnist Mike Kelly's shit-eating grin.

Surprise bills

In her Page 1 story today, Staff Writer Lindy Washburn fails to mention a simple solution to surprise medical bills from providers who don't accept your insurance:

Refuse to pay the bill or negotiate a much lower payment.

Is Christie out?

Check out Tom Moran, a member of The Star-Ledger Editorial Board, on why Christie may quit the presidential race.

Moran is a former Record reporter who is married to Mary Jo Layton, a senior writer at the Woodland Park daily.

See: Why Christie may quit

Eye on The Record

will return later this week

Another sad day for New Jersey journalism

Will The Record's coverage of the Christie administration's politically inspired George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee, above, win the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize, the highest achievement in journalism? Prizewinners and nominated finalists will be announced April 14 at Columbia University in Manhattan.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Newspaper veterans rubbed their tired eyes today as they read of more drastic cuts in the news-gathering staff at The Star-Ledger, the onetime behemoth that once cast a shadow on The Record and every other newspaper in New Jersey. 

The Woodland Park daily is reporting that 40 more jobs will be lost in The Star-Ledger's non-unionized newsroom, cutting the staff to 116, down from a high of 350 before the first buyouts in 2008 (A-1 and A-3).

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Star-Ledger, hit by the newspaper industry's nationwide drop in readership and advertising, claims a circulation of 167,600 daily, compared to 473,000 in 1993.

Outsourcing

A total of 306 will be laid off at The Star-Ledger and other daily and weekly papers owned by Advance Publications Inc. in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and at the company's NJ.com Web site.

Advance plans to create a new company based in Woodbridge that will provide advertising, marketing and news content to The Star-Ledger, its other newspapers and its Web site.

Outsourcing news gathering is sort of like a school board outsourcing janitorial services: 

Both deal with a lot of shit. At New Jersey newspapers, that takes the form of bullshit from Chris Christie, the GOP monster who has turned out to be state's worst governor.

Second thoughts

The Star-Ledger has done a better job than most of seeing through Christie's bluster, and in February, the paper called its endorsement of his reelection "regrettable."

"...Yes, we blew this one," wrote Tom Moran, the former Record staffer who is now on The Star-Ledger's editorial board, mentioning both the Bridgegate and Sandy aid debacles.

The Record's story today is strangely silent on how the flagship North Jersey Media Group daily has weathered the downturn in the industry.

The Woodland Park daily has been hiding its circulation decline by issuing numbers that include the Herald News, which is called an "edition" of The Record.

After a major downsizing in 2008 and the abandonment of its Hackensack headquarters in 2009, many new reporters have been added, likely at much lower salaries than newsroom veterans.

But the merger of the NJMG daily papers' newsroom staffs in Woodland Park has resulted in a decline in the quality and quantity of local news; poor writing and editing, and a dramatic increase in errors. 

Page 1 profiles

Three of today's Page 1 stories read like profiles:

Virginia Rohan's column on David Letterman, who announced his retirement from late-night TV; a story on Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, called "a mystery" in the headline; and an obituary for Vincent Lamberti, a Lever Bros. researcher who is called the "father of Dove soap," a synthetic compound (A-1).

I just skimmed the headlines and first few paragraphs of the column about Letterman, who will be missed by insomniacs, drunks who live in bars and The Record's long-suffering news and copy editors, who work late into the night putting out the error-filled paper.

Ditto for the long, boring story on Guadagno, a non-entity who was chosen as a running mate by Christie because she was a woman, had a pulse and wouldn't dare challenge the governor in anything.

Christie was already henpecked by his overweight wife, who later got him to kill the Hudson River rail tunnels because the connection to the New York City subway was too far for her to walk.

But I read and enjoyed every word of the Lamberti obituary, saying to myself, Now, that is a life well-lived, something I'm sure I will never say about Letterman, Christie or Guadagno. 

Hackensack news

The Record's Local section today has a follow-up on Polifly Towing, a Hackensack company that has been using city owned land rent free, but has been paid $20,613 for towing illegally parked vehicles in the past three years (L-1).

The Record has had nothing so far on whether there is a school-board election this month.

But today's edition of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle reports the school board has presented a proposed 2014-15 operating budget that raises taxes $116 for a home assessed at $240,329.

Neither paper has reported the ups and downs of the elevator at Hackensack High School, where the cafeteria is in the basement, and classes are held on upper floors.

The elevator was out of service for more than two months, until a new part was fabricated, but it continues to break down periodically, stranding disabled students and an athlete recovering from a broken leg. 

Dog food

Is any reader eager to dine at The Dog & Cask in Rochelle Park, where a "pathetic" 5.5-ounce burger was "cooked into oblivion," the toast with charcuterie was burnt, and cod and pasta were oversalted (BL-16)?

Elisa Ung, the dessert-obsessed reviewer, even hated three of the four artery clogging treats she sampled. 

The poorly edited review describes the pub as "upscale ... with food that veers more fine dining," but a word is missing (data box on BL-16).

Leave it to Ung to find awful places to eat, then neglect to tell readers whether any of the meat served is grass-fed or raised naturally.

The Dog & Cask replaces Bistro 55, where former Food Editor Bill Pitcher was given a send-off several years ago.

If you eat at the new place now, good luck surviving the drunks in the parking lot or the ones racing by on Route 17.

Local-news readers are left out in the cold again

Hackensack officials have asked residents, including those on Euclid Avenue, above, to move their cars so plows can clear streets of snow "from curb-to-curb." Cars will be ticketed and towed, if parking is prohibited when streets are "snow covered," the city says.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

In The Record newsroom, the local editors' contempt for bus riders knows no bounds.

For decades, coverage of snow removal routinely ignored blockaded bus stops, and long lines of NJ Transit riders snaking through Manhattan's midtown bus terminal became a laugh line at news meetings.

In the months and years after Staff Writer Karen Rouse was assigned the transportation beat, she couldn't find time to report on NJ Transit's creaking local buses, patronized mostly by minorities who can't afford to buy cars.

Catching up

Now -- five days after the problem was reported on TV news -- The Record's front page catches up to dangerous snow mounds blocking riders' access to bus stops along Route 4 in Hackensack and Route 3 in Clifton.

Where was Dan Sforza, head of the local-news assignment desk, hiding out in a bathroom stall with one of the New York tabloids?

Where was Editor Marty Gottlieb, editing another one of those interminable Page 1 stories about the "bromance" between Governor Christie and some other GOP moron?

Where were Rouse and Road Warrior John Cichowski?

Christie love fest

Meanwhile, Gottlieb sent Staff Writer Melissa Hayes to Chicago to cover Christie's fund-raising trip as head of the Republican Governors Association (A-3).

Hayes, one of the governor's biggest boosters, uses a well-worn media device to blunt criticism of Christie -- putting the harsh assessment in the mouth of a Democrat:

"Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat who made the trip to Chicago, described Christie as a 'political bully,' questioning how he couldn't know what some of his closest aides were doing" when they closed Fort Lee access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, Hayes reports.

Millions have been wondering the same thing, and readers wonder why The Record's reporters and editorial writers have been so blind to Christie's many faults since he took office in 2o10.

Coming clean

Three days ago, former Record staffer Tom Moran, now a member of The Star-Ledger's editorial board, said the paper's endorsement of Christie during the fall election campaign is "regrettable."

Moran said:

"Yes, we knew Christie was a bully. But we didn’t know his crew was crazy enough to put people’s lives at risk in Fort Lee as a means to pressure the mayor. We didn’t know he would use Hurricane Sandy aid as a political slush fund. And we certainly didn’t know that Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer was sitting on a credible charge of extortion by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno."

Just awful 

Some of the worst headlines I've seen appeared today in The Record's Sports section:

Pitcher perfect

Japanese righty basks in pinstriped spotlight