People of New Jersey deserve an apology, not Christie

Rush-hour traffic on Route 4 east crawling through Paramus a little after 8 a.m. today at the start of the Memorial Day weekend.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie is complaining about "media bias"? 

What a joke.

The story on A-4 of The Record today reports the GOP bully is demanding an apology from news outlets that branded him as "guilty," claiming he was cleared by three investigations into the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal.

But U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman never cleared Christie, himself a former U.S. attorney.

Fishman obtained indictments against two of Christie's closest aides and accepted a guilty plea from a third, who has pledged to cooperate with the government.

And he has refused to identify unindicted co-conspirators or give defense attorneys 1.5 million pages of documents and other evidence, which may eventually show Christie had a pivotal role in the 2013 political retribution scandal.

Shameless

Christie should apologize to the people of New Jersey for being the worst governor in the state's history, one focused on helping his wealthy supporters at the expense of the middle and working classes.

For many years, the media's "bias" was in his favor as The Record and other news outlets swallowed whole the governor's elaborate public relations campaigns:

"Reform Agenda," "Jersey Comeback" and "Stronger Than the Storm" are only three of the elaborate dog-and-pony shows the media dutifully attended and regurgitated as Christie destroyed the state's economy. 


Correction?

The correction on A-2 today appears to be in error.

"An article on Page A-1 Tuesday about an FBI presentation on terrorist propaganda misidentified the location of Bergen Arts and Science Charter [High] School. It is in Hackensack."

But the front page of Tuesday's paper makes no mention of the FBI or the school. 

Wednesday's Page L-1 did, the story carried a Hackensack dateline and reported the school is, in fact, in Hackensack.

Cops kill man

Hackensack police officers opened fire on a city man who allegedly threatened them with a cleaver, and he died of his wounds (L-1).

This police shooting is different than so many others that have sparked riots and media feeding frenzies: The suspect was Hispanic, not black.

On today's Local front, the compelling photo of an officer comforting a woman at the home where Elvin Diaz, 24, was shot is by Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi.

Sadly, Assignment Editors Dierdre Sykes and Dan Sforza have demoted Zehawi to ambulance chaser in the past few years, and he has turned in scores of non-fatal accident photos, especially gee-whiz rollovers and other filler material (see L-6 today).

Don't you wonder why the woman in the photo isn't identified in the caption?

Or why Hackensack's Fairmount section is described incorrectly as a "working class neighborhood," when it is far more varied than that, including both modest homes and multi-million dollar mansions.

In fact, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg grew up in such a mansion at Summit and Fairmount avenues, and frolicked in a 14.2-acre forested backyard that has been preserved as Borg's Woods.

Road kill

Why did it take Road Warrior John Cichowski four days to throw water on Monday's wildly exaggerated front-page story on the probable end of self-serve gas in New Jersey (L-1)?

As in her March 11 story on a pedestrian fatality in Hackensack, Staff Writer Stefanie Dazio doesn't say whether an elderly Fort Lee woman killed by a car was in or near a crosswalk when she was struck (L-2).

Today, police reporter Dazio's byline or credit line appears on eight stories or briefs, making her the most overworked staffer in the newsroom.

But something has got to give when she handles all or most of those assignments by telephone, and it usually results in holes big enough to drive a cop car through.

Elisa and Emma

Readers can't tell whether Elisa Ung withheld a third full star from Emma in Englewood because she hated most of the desserts or because of what she calls "unpolished and occasionally confused" servers (BL-1 and BL-14).

And the paper's chief restaurant critic devotes so much space to the resumes of the consulting chef and two partners readers never learn whether the skirt steak shown in a big photo was naturally raised.

After so many years in the gig, Ung remains tongue tied, and the editor who read the story before publication must have been out to lunch:

"A much bolder sauce stampeded an already overcooked salmon dish ($22)." 

Some readers would like to stampede Ung out of the Woodland Park newsroom.

In GWB case, editors' knowledge of legal system is a joke

The YMCA at Main and Passaic streets in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Despite the hundreds of hours his ass has been planted on a courtroom bench, Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record is no expert on federal criminal prosecutions.

In fact, only one of the three bylines on today's continuing front-page coverage of the George Washington Bridge lane-closure indictments carries with it any credibility (A-1).

Staff Writer Peter J. Sampson, who is assigned to cover the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Courthouse in Newark, is a former wire-service reporter who likely has covered hundreds of federal indictments and trails.

Still, today's banner headline isn't news to anyone familiar with federal prosecutions:

"Defense team may call Christie"

That was clear four long days ago, when Christie ally David Wildstein pleaded guilty to conspiring with the governor's aide and another Port Authority executive to close bridge access lanes in 2013 as part of a political vendetta against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor.

Defense lawyers for Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni would be fools not to call Christie, himself a former U.S. attorney, who continues to insist he had no knowledge of the scheme.

Otherwise, Kelly and Baroni, along with Wildstein, would have to take the fall for a fraud scheme that was the nastiest political dirty trick since Watergate.

'Oh, shit' moment

I am sure that Christie said "Oh, shit" to himself and called his high-priced lawyer on Friday as soon as he heard Wildstein repeat his January 2014 statement that "evidence exists" the GOP bully knew of the lane closings as they were happening.

Instead of pursuing the potential of a sitting governor and GOP presidential candidate being called as a witness at a Bridgegate fraud trial, Editor Martin Gottlieb jumped immediately to the governor's defense.

That was clear from Monday's idiotic banner headline:

"Sharp contrasts in GWB probe"

Gottlieb actually compared the federal criminal charges filed against the Bridgegate defendants after a 16-month investigation to a March 2014 report that exonerated Christie at a cost to the taxpayers of $7.5 million.

That report -- from lawyer Randy Mastro -- was never even credible in the court of public opinion, but Christie could count on a clueless media to waste precious front page space and treat it as if were evidence.

'Fading' hopes

In one of the most negative Christie editorials I've seen, The Record notes the governor will be out of state again today and asks:

"When is Christie going to consistently show up at his day job, the one some people were so focused on his retaining in 2013 that they allegedly broke the law" (A-8)?

The edtorial also refers to the Mastro report as "a multimillion-dollar whitewash on the GWB scandal," making you wonder why it was regurgitated at such great length on Monday's Page 1.

Playing media

Christie continues to manage Gottlieb and other editors in the wake of the federal charges, just as the GOP  bully has since he took office in early 2010 and started waging war against the middle class.

NJ.com reports the governor has cancelled the weekly New Jersey town hall meetings he said he was going to attend.

And WNYC-FM, a New Jersey Public Radio station, puts Bridgegate legal costs to taxpayers and toll payers at nearly $10.7 million, if state, legislative, Port Authority and Fort Lee expenses are included.

Finally, a new Bridgegate poll released today found more than two in three New Jerseyans (69%) feel Christie has not been completely honest about what he knew.

And a majority of Garden State Republicans (52%) now believe he hasn't been completely honest.

More errors

On Sunday, The Record reported incorrectly that Pompton Lakes had already adopted its school budget (A-2).

A bigger error occurred in Brigid Harrison's Sunday opinion column, which referred to Richard Nixon as a former governor (Sunday's O-2).

An Eye on The Record reader noted Nixon ran for governor of California in 1962 and lost.

On Christie's lack of concern in reacting to the GWB charges, the political science and law professor said:

"The connection to the [Christie] administration is problematical for a presidential contender because it demonstrates either corruption and lying or an inability to manage staff -- not what voters are looking for in a president."

Why wasn't Harrison's column played on Page 1 -- instead of an endless stream of drivel from Charles Stile, Mike Kelly and other burned-out reporters?

McDonald's

An upbeat Business page story on McDonald's slumping sales reports the company "intends to stop buying chicken treated with antibiotics" (L-8).

The clueless Washington Port reporter says nothing about the low-quality, additive-filled beef on which McDonald's made its reputation.

Anyone foolish enough to eat at McDonald's would be happy with a guarantee the hamburgers don't contain cow feces.