Editors testing readers' patience for unlimited holiday cheer

"Refugees" is from cartoonist John Cole. The Record and many other news outlets continue to ignore the carnage of the Syrian civil war, which began in March 2011; the role of Russia in keeping the regime in power and whether Russian President Vladimir Putin helped Donald J. Trump win the U.S. presidential election.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We have much to celebrate during Christmas and Hanukkah, but the holidays aren't easing our nationwide anxiety with a Trump presidency just 26 days away.

Meanwhile, the Sunday edition of The Record is laying on the holiday cheer with upbeat columns and stories on nearly every section front, even though many of them are flawed.

For example, on Page 1, the enormous amount of space devoted to Nora Renzulli, a Wayne woman who volunteers to serve meals at Eva's Village in Paterson, ignores thousands of others who are just as dedicated (1A).

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski so-called Wish List for Santa is so heavily focused on drivers that he becomes a Road Scrooge for the tens of thousands who commute by train or bus (1L).

His lone reference to the midtown Manhattan Port Authority Bus Terminal as "a sardine-can relic" is inaccurate.

Nor does he know enough to call for more exclusive bus lanes to the Lincoln Tunnel as a way of providing immediate relief until a new terminal is built.

2016 election

An Associated Press story reports that polling after the November election found that "nearly two-thirds of voters described the [strong] economy as 'not so good' or 'poor' (16A).

But the AP ignores whether racism and misogyny were among the real reasons they voted for Trump.

On the Opinion front, a long piece by Merrill Brown, director of the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University, argues a Trump administration will test news organizations as never before (1O).

However, Brown doesn't discuss how the news media's intense focus on state and national politics -- as opposed to policies, issues and what's good for the state or country -- is the biggest possible disservice to voters.  

Future of Gannett journalism: 5 times more ads than news

NJ Transit buses in the exclusive lane to the Lincoln Tunnel are driven against the flow of westbound traffic during the morning commute. The Port Authority has ignored calls for a second XBL, as the lane is called, and never explained why exclusive bus lanes don't operate in the evening, too.

For decades, this portion of Route 495 to the Lincoln Tunnel has been called the helix. On Wednesday, The Record's so-called commuting columnist labeled it a "bridge," and raised an alarm about a rehabilitation project that won't start until late next year at the earliest.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I might actually try reading the Thanksgiving Day edition of The Record now that I've caught my breath after wrestling with what felt like 5 pounds of advertising inserts.

I quickly bundled them up for recycling, along with Sports, leaving me with four news and feature sections, containing pages that appear to carry more advertising and less news than before Gannett redesigned the print edition.

Stephen A. Borg, the former publisher, was no slouch when it came to advertising and marketing, and he even created a North Jersey Media Group unit that staged food-truck and other events.

Those events were promoted in the paper and covered by the news staff.

With the sale of NJMG to Gannett for a reported $40 million in July, the Borgs now call themselves Fourth Edition Inc., and work out of their old offices in Woodland Park.

Today's paper

It's front-page news when President-elect Donald J. Trump doesn't appoint another middle-aged white man or white supremacist to his Cabinet (1A).

Today's A-section has news on 4A, 8A and 9A that would normally appear in Local.

Local news?

Since Gannett let go more than 200 NJMG employees, reporters and editors for daily and weekly papers now work out of the same newsroom.

That means readers of the local-news section have been seeing many unfamiliar bylines, which belong to reporters from the weeklies.

Generally, they are younger and less experienced, and make a lot less money than reporters for The Record and Herald News.

Wednesday's paper

Staff Writer Christopher Maag, who covered NJ Transit and the city of Hackensack for The Record, had a Page 1 byline on Wednesday that identified him as "columnist."

No thumbnail photo of Maag appeared, as with The Record's other columnist. 

His story on "one family's journey from Syria to Paterson" is a tearjerker, especially if you've been following the horrific news from Aleppo and other towns that are being destroyed during the civil war.

The focus was on Ghussoon Zouabi, 39, who recalls the food shortages in Syria and who has been cooking non-stop since she arrived in South Paterson for her family, for the homeless and for others.

"When we got to my parents house [in Paterson], the kids opened the fridge and pulled all the food out and ate it. I sat on the floor and cried."

Zouabi arrived in the United States in March 2013. 

Last year, after the terrorist attacks in Paris, Governor Christie called for a ban on all Syrian immigrants to New Jersey, including children, but it has been widely ignored.

Route 495

Staff Writer John Cichowski appears to be the only columnist who continues to use a dated thumbnail photo, which is probably a decade old.

On Wednesday's Local front, his Road Warrior column quotes commuters who use Route 495 to the Lincoln Tunnel.

But Cichowski isn't concerned about congestion in the exclusive bus lane, the lack of rush-hour seats on NJ Transit buses or how Route 495 was closed for an hour in each direction when Trump left Manhattan for his New Jersey golf club last week.

Instead, the addled reporter looks more than a year ahead to the start of a major rehabilitation of the Route 495 helix, which he refers to as a "bridge" (1L).

PA big again dupes reporter on new Manhattan bus hub

At mid-afternoon on Tuesday, an NJ Transit 165 local bus to Hackensack flew through the Lincoln Tunnel. The round-trip senior fare is only $4.10.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's transportation reporter is proving to be as gullible as his predecessors on Lincoln Tunnel congestion and plans for a new bus terminal in Manhattan.

Today, Port Authority Vice Chairman Scott Rechler duped Staff Writer Paul Berger into writing an elaborate Page 1 argument for a new bus hub in New Jersey (A-1).

That would mean commuters from Ridgewood, Hackensack and other towns would have to transfer to a city-bound train, which won't be built for a decade or more.

What incredible nonsense. 

Of course, the Lincoln Tunnel is congested -- the Port Authority operates an exclusive bus lane only in the morning, and buses parked in New Jersey during the day have to fight rush-hour traffic to pick up commuters at the antiquated midtown Manhattan terminal.

Rechler and everyone else at the Port Authority fear the easiest and quickest solution to that congestion -- more exclusive bus lanes operated weekday mornings and afternoons.

They would be a victory for bus riders, but anger thousands of drivers whose toll money keeps the bi-state agency afloat.

On Wednesday, Hackensack senior citizens gathered for a St. Patrick Day's Luncheon of corned beef and cabbage at the city recreation center on Holt Street.

The buffet luncheon included entertainment.

Mayor John P. Labrosse Jr., second from left, and other City Council members posed for a photo.

Tax-exempt hospitals

Residents of Hackensack, Englewood and other towns with non-profit, tax-exempt hospitals are chagrined Governor Christie is seeking a moratorium on lawsuits that seek more money from them (A-1).

In Hackensack, officials settled tax appeals by agreeing Hackensack University Medical Center will pay the city $4.5 million over three years.

If medical center property was taxed fully, Hackensack would receive more than $10 million a year in new revenue, stabilizing or reducing taxes paid by homeowners and commercial property owners.

Local news?

A long story on Teaneck approving a preliminary school budget on Wednesday has Hackensack readers wondering why they haven't seen anything in The Record on their school budget plan, which was approved on March 1 (L-3).

If you're watching your cholesterol, be sure to steer clear of Axton's by Chef Anton Testino in far-off Pompton Lakes (Better Living).

The "huge" scallops come with bacon, pasta with crab meat is topped with pork, and cheese flows like lava out of the open kitchen (BL-16).

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung doesn't say whether Chef Anton Testino will broil fish for a customer or hold the meat in his other dishes.

And despite her lukewarm, 2-star revue, she raves over the "luscious cannoli cream" in a totally superfluous dessert.