Two Hackensack stories for a change

In The Record today, North Jersey Media Group says its 20 acres in Hackensack are "for sale." A construction trailer was set up recently at the newspaper's old headquarters, above.

Staff Writer Hannan Adely appears to have been working overtime -- her byline is on three stories today, two about Hackensack, her main assignment.

In a story on the Local front about the New Jersey Naval Museum and the USS Ling -- which are on North Jersey Media Group property in Hackensack -- an NJMG official is quoted as saying the land is "for sale."

This apparently is the first time NJMG has discussed what will happen to its 20 acres since The Record abandoned Hackensack in 2009.

"We are evaluating several options for our property," said CFO Tom Heffernan, without addressing rumors a Walmart might replace the landmark newspaper building at 150 River St. (L-6).

The second Hackensack story today is about the $148,000 retirement payout for Tomas Padilla, the interim police chief, that was approved on Tuesday night by the City Council, a meeting The Record didn't cover (L-7).

The front page

The long, front-page story on an aging Hamburg Turnpike in Wayne is woefully incomplete when it discusses state funding (A-1).

Editor Marty Gottlieb, a New Yorker, apparently never heard of the state's bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund, which is used to rebuild roads and bridges.

Gottlieb also appears to be ignorant of the controversy over Governor Christie's refusal since 2010 to raise the state's low gasoline tax to refill the fund.

And the story doesn't explain why no mass-transit alternatives were put in place during the glacial reconstruction of the road.

Road Warrior John Cichowski writes so rarely about mass transit readers wonder why he did a second column on the Teterboro train station (L-1).

Face stuffers

It's bad enough the restaurant review in Better Living has been put on a diet and covers only half a tabloid page (BL-16).

Why waste it on the mediocre Limoncello in Waldwick? A few paragraphs of warning would suffice.

Free-lancer Jeffrey Page, who struggled with his weight for most of his career at The Record, actually ordered dessert at Yasou Mykonos, the Greek restaurant in Demarest he chose for Eating Out on $50 (BL-18).

The Record is cutting back in so many areas, including staff, so it's a mystery why it continues to throw money away on these useless reviews.

There are literally hundreds of restaurants in North Jersey where two people can eat out for $50. Readers don't need the paper to do these monthly appraisals.

More road kill

A concerned reader believes Staff Writer John Cichowski is defending -- not condemning -- red-light cameras in his column this past Wednesday:

"The Road Warrior's column, as did his previous column on Feb. 15, is clearly promoting red light cameras and their supposed benefits and not opposing them.

"The Road Warrior is opposed to many of the proposed reforms of the red light camera law.

"Most of his column is devoted to quoting a supposed traffic safety expert, who is a paid consultant to red light camera companies, about the supposed, but baseless, justifications for red light cameras.

"The NorthJersey.com headline for the column is:

"'Care Needed in Altering Red Light Cameras'"

"That headlines implies support for cameras.

"He does not quote any traffic safety experts  who are opposed to the N.J. red light camera laws and are working with the Assembly Transportation committee, which  is debating this camera law."

The reader's full e-mail to management can be found on the Facebook Page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Does he or doesn't he like red-light cameras?

Editors distort positive change in Hackensack

The Record continues to use "chaos" to describe positive change in Hackensack, and ignores city news by printing endless reports on the saga of ex-Police Chief Ken Zisa.

Hackensack readers hit a rare daily double today -- a Page 1 story plus a column on the latest developments in the legal saga of former Police Chief Ken Zisa.

The headline on the news story is straightforward, but Columnist Mike Kelly claims the developments turn the city into "Chaosville" from "Zisaville" -- echoing his earlier columns on "chaos" in Hackensack.

Now, according to the headline over Kelly's column, there is a "double dose of chaos" for city police.

Kelly the hack

Kelly's second paragraph on the front page contains another poorly written sentence from the veteran columnist, who appears to get no editing help from his assignment editor or anyone else:

"That he [Judge Joseph S. Conte] signaled in various rulings over the course of the trial, which ended nearly four months ago, that he had no problems with the evidence did not seem to matter."

High school-level writing on the front page of the Woodland Park daily. What's next?

So, what does Kelly the hack mean by a "double dose of chaos"?

Zisa stands convicted of official misconduct and insurance fraud, meaning he faces five or more years in prison without parole and loss of his pension, even though Judge Conte threw out guilty verdicts on three other counts.

Positive development

And interim Police Chief Tomas Padilla -- whom Kelly labels "a controversial Zisa pal and political force in his own right" -- announced he is retiring at the end of the year (L-1).

Hackensack residents find those developments to be positive overall. 

There is no "chaos" in Hackensack or its Police Department, where rank-and-file police officers get high marks from the vast majority of residents. 

Where were the editors?

And readers have to wonder what Kelly and the paper's editors and reporters were doing to remain clueless during all of the years the Zisa brothers were a corrosive influence in the Police Department.

Since the end of the Ken Zisa trial in May, Kelly and Hackensack reporter Stephanie Akin have carefully avoided drawing attention to the huge conflict of Zisa's cousin, Joseph Zisa, serving as city attorney and recusing himself from all of the lawsuits against the former chief.

Indeed, coverage of Hackensack in Local has declined drastically under head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, and only got worse when The Record abandoned the city for Rockaway, Woodland Park and other towns.

Unearthing altered lives

The cover story in the new Signature section discusses an historic cemetery and three of the dead whose lives were "cut short" -- as pieced together by Staff Writer Jay Levin, the master of local obituaries (SIG-1). 

As good as this story is, I was disappointed Levin didn't use the Sept. 3 death of actor Michael Clarke Duncan at 54 as a launching pad for a discussion on the apparently higher health risks faced by African-American men.

Discovering soft tacos

On SIG-4, a story by Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill carries a clunky headline, likely a special effort from Editor Liz Houlton's copy desk: 

"Plate and soul of Mexico."

And the report on a downtown Paterson taqueria is missing a couple of elements: 

Does Antojitos Poblano serve any tacos for people who don't eat meat or want to avoid its mystery poultry and pork, and is the sanitation there any better than at other taco joints in Paterson and Passaic city? 

The photo package on SIG-6 demonstrates the talent of another staff photographer -- something readers have forgotten under the onslaught of minor accident and fire photos used as filler in Local (L-1).

Sykes and Sforza are really scraping the bottom of the local news barrel today.

Christie's 'Jersey Comeback' goes belly up

The Record continues to peddle testimony in depositions as front-page news.

When it comes to Governor Christie, The Record's editors have abandoned all pretense of objectivity -- as readers clearly can see from coverage of July's state jobless rate, the highest in 35 years.

N.J. jobless rate at 9.8%

That was the headline over the lead Page 1 story on Friday, but inside, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Dublin did his best to polish the governor's battered image (A-21).

Doblin insisted it is "subjective opinion" to say "the state isn't improving." 

Yet, he asked Christie to discard the so-called Jersey Comeback he has been selling at every opportunity.

Doblin's opinion columns, especially his unabashed admiration for Christie, undermine the legitimacy of the paper's Editorials.

More rhetoric

Editor Marty Gottlieb and the Trenton reporters he directs have been careful to put all criticism of the the GOP bully into the mouths of Democrats, thereby making it part of the endless partisan rhetoric that has paralyzed the country and turned off readers.

Christie censored a report on state revenue -- hiding how it came out below budget projections -- but the only critic quoted in Friday's A-1 story is Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, deep on the continuation page (A-10):

"Obviously, he [Christie] doesn't want the truth about New Jersey's revenues to come out before the Republican National Convention, because it will show his 'New Jersey Comeback' is a public relations fantasy."

Of course, Gottlieb gave Christie the last word through his spokesman and spin doctor, Michael Drewniak, who called Buono's incisive comment a "partisan" pot shot. 

No follow up

Another clear indication of how the editors have sold out is the lack of follow-up in today's paper of the clearest evidence so far of Christie's failure to boost the state economy with hundreds of millions of dollars in business tax breaks and low taxes for the multimillionaires who support him -- all at the expense of the middle class.

Zisaville coverage

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes kept the Hackensack reporter busy with two more stories about the city's convicted former police chief.

On Friday, an L-3 story reported Ken Zisa's ex-wife, Mary McMorrow, is asking a judge to award her half of his $11,000-a-month pension, which the ex-chief might lose after he is sentenced for official misconduct and insurance fraud.

Today, another story based on depositions in lawsuits filed against Zisa leads the front page, this one focusing on provisional Police Chief Tomas Padilla, identified as the disgraced chief's friend and political ally (A-1).

As astute reader noted the first version of the story to appear on North Jersey.com around 6 p.m. Friday was by Mark J. Bonamo, managing editor of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle. 

The Record's version, by Staff Writer Stephanie Akin, didn't show up until 11:30 p.m.

What remains unclear is what all of this intense coverage of Zisa -- which began in the summer of 2009 -- has to do with Police Department morale or how the city is being run. 

Ninja hero

The main element on A-1 today is a sensational story that tries to garner sympathy for the family of Emmanuel Devy of Wallington -- a father of five who died in a crash after fleeing from police on one of those insanely fast Ninja motorcycles.

The sad truth is people like Devy are a menace.

Gottlieb, who came to Woodland Park from The New York Times, will do anything to sell the paper.

Lowe's in lights?

On the Better Living front today, this headline confused readers:

After losing, Lowe's still set on showbiz

That's the first I've heard of the home improvement store chain shifting gears so significantly. 

Will all of the stores, including the new Paramus outlet, be converted into theaters?

Rogaine review

Readers of Friday's restaurant review got a good laugh from the large photo of customers at Pellegrino's in North Haledon (BL-16 and 17).

Is it something in the food? All four male patrons shown in the photo are bald or balding. 

Staff Writer Elisa Ung's rating was lukewarm. The sugar addict applied the kiss of death by saying the desserts "alone [were] worth the trip."

Burying the lede on Hackensack

The once-powerful Zisa family commiserated at White Manna after Ken Zisa was found guilty. The hamburger joint on River Street named a special after Zisa: The B.S. Burger. The connection is clear: Pink slime in the burgers, more slime in City Hall.

The Record today again insists that Ken Zisa is "still chief" of police in Hackensack, according to a headline on Page 1.

Inside, deep on A-8, the story mentions "Zisa's continued position at the head of the Police Department ...."

But Editor Marty Gottlieb and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes are just burying the lede (newspaper jargon for a story's lead or first paragraph, which is supposed to capsulize what happened).

And what happened at an unusual Monday night meeting of the City Council was the appointment of Capt. Tomas Padilla as interim police chief -- two years after Zisa was suspended without pay and Padilla took over the department (A-8).

Out of the picture

Zisa, 58, has been a non-entity for two, long years as his case moved slowly through the criminal courts, and he was found guilty by a jury nearly a week ago.

Still, the editors, Columnist Mike Kelly and other reporters maintain the fiction that Zisa is head of the Police Deparment -- contradicting the facts -- because controversy sells papers.

They continue to manufacture controversy where none exists, and ignore the real crime in Hackensack.

Family conflicts

Zisa will forfeit his so-called position -- and his pensions -- on the day he is sentenced. But his cousin, Joseph Zisa, remains city attorney. That's the real problem for residents.

It would be natural for The Record to ask the city attorney to explain the legal process of cutting ties to Ken Zisa, but, of course, the city's lawyer is involved in a clear conflict.

Turd-filled Ravi-oli 

Many readers were disappointed by the 30-day jail term for homophobe Dharun Ravi, who maintained his superior airs through his sentencing and refused to apologize for hounding Tyler Clementi to his death (A-1).

Let's hope that after he serves his time and performs 300 hours of community service, Ravi gets deported to his native India, where privileged people like him keep millions underfoot, living in abject poverty.

A famous travel writer coined the phrase "Turd World" to describe the country after he saw an Indian man squat down and defecate on a train platform.

Avatar news

On the front of Local, the Port Authority's plan to install customer-service avatars at the three metropolitan area airports may give Gottlieb an idea on how to improve municipal coverage.

He can replace head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her cast of lazy, incompetent minions with a single assignment avatar in the Woodland Park newsroom.

Just imagine. The avatar won't overeat or fart or fill the newsroom with insane laughter, which I used to hear no matter how bad the news was that day.

Today's Local news section is so short on stories about Hackensack and other towns, every page carries police, court or accident news as filler.