Cichowski, Kelly and Ervolino -- take a hint

Can you guess the location of this photo in Bergen County, near Hackensack?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The wrong columnist announced his retirement in The Record's thin Sunday edition today.

Kevin DeMarrais, the paper's lone voice for the consumer, is bowing out after 20 years, without saying whether the Your Money's Worth column will be written by someone else (B-1).

Of course, DeMarrais was the least offensive of The Record's veteran, white-male news columnists.

Readers would love to see last columns from John Cichowski, the error-prone Road Warrior; Mike Kelly, the reporter who pushes words around and rarely ventures a strong opinion; and Bill Ervolino, whose funny stand-up routine falls flat on the printed page.

DeMarrais pats himself on the back, and thanks "senior management and editors" for their support, "even when I got advertisers upset."

But he doesn't mention his failures, including never listing organic and naturally raised food in his monthly survey of supermarket prices.

Nor does he remind readers he went to bat for a businesswoman, without telling readers she had sold a private jet to North Jersey Media Group Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg and his best friend, real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson.

Today's paper

If you count the story that leads the paper today and opinion columns, nearly three full pages of the Sunday edition are devoted to analyzing Governor Christie's actions in the George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee (A-1 and O-1).

Did anyone get through the Page 1 "ANALYSIS" of "key words" in the 344-page report that Christie commissioned at taxpayers' expense -- a report that has been denounced as a self-serving whitewash?

Editor Marty Gottlieb thinks readers have all the time in the world to plow through stories and columns that are top-heavy with background and bury the "nut graf" -- the hard-hitting conclusion or opinion.

Try not to fall asleep reading the "nut graf" of today's long and winding piece at the top of A-1:

"The report prepared by lead attorney Randy Mastro of Gibson Dunn appears to diverge from those [investigative] standards in several ways, according to an analysis by The Record and interviews with experienced investigators."

Three reporters and an unknown number of editors and graphic artists worked on this snorefest, which goes a long way toward explaining why young people don't read newspapers anymore.

Local-news follies

Readers looking for local news today strike out, thanks to Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza and writers of the photo captions.

On the Local front, none of the five donors to the Pascack Valley Meals on Wheels are identified in the caption (L-1).

On L-3, a photo caption blames a power outage in Leonia on a "primary splice fail" that caused smoke and a small explosion.

The section includes municipal news from Kinnelon and West Milford, but nothing from Teaneck or Hackensack.

Restaurant propaganda

On the Better Living cover, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung is trying to make us believe none of her readers are upset about ever-higher prices, especially $9 or $10 for a single glass of wine, or a tipping system that puts the burden on the customer to provide servers with a living wage (BL-1).

Second look

A story on moving Englewood's Dwight Morrow High School "toward full integration" makes no mention of doing the same at the city's segregated elementary and middle schools (Friday's Local front).

Travel editor to Korean-Americans: Bite me!

One of the newer restaurants in Palisades Park, a Korean-American enclave that might as well be on the far side of the moon, as far as The Record's travel editor is concerned.

What could Bergen County's Korean-Americans possibly have done to Jill Schensul, the ditzy, jet-lagged travel editor at The Record of Woodland Park?

Schensul has been dissing Koreans for years, refusing to run any travel stories about their native country in her thin section (only four pages today).

In today's cover story on immigrant enclaves, she goes out of her way to ignore the bustling Korean-American business district in nearby Palisades Park,  while praising others as far away as Washington, D.C. (T-1).

Dog eaters?

Schensul is a vegetarian and an animal lover who has never hidden her dislike for Koreans, because they allegedly eat dog meat in their home country.

In today's piece, she tells readers "to bring an appetite" and "an open mind," but continues to exhibit a closed mind when it comes to Korean culture and its largely vegetarian cuisine.  

Sadly, she is the kind of dishonest journalist -- think Road Warrior John Cichowski and Columnists Mike Kelly, Charles Stile and Alfred P. Doblin -- who seems to find a roost at The Record.

All you have to do is look at the haggard woman's dated column photo on the Travel front today to see her dishonesty.    

As for today's Sunday edition, it's another bomb from Editor Marty Gottlieb, who gives us a front page weighed down by think pieces on gun control and federal disaster aid that are guaranteed to send you back to bed.

Another Kelly mystery

Then, Kelly's A-1 column goes on an on about another mystery few people care about -- whether poet Joyce Kilmer wrote "Trees" while living in Mahwah.

This ranks up there with his endless column on the identity of an elderly woman who was rescued from ankle-deep flood waters in Little Ferry during Superstorm Sandy. 

Who is man in photo?

A photo of "Alex Michelini" runs on Page 1 with Kelly's column, but who is he?

Readers have to plow through some 20 paragraphs before they find out on A-6 that Michelini, 75, lives in Mahwah and "decided to devote part of his retirement to tracking down the origins of Kilmer's poem."

Talk about seniors having nothing to do after they retire.

Kelly identifies Michelini as a former New York Daily News reporter, but in the 1970s, I worked as an Elizabeth-based stringer for the New Jersey edition of the News and Michelini was my editor.

He is not only one of the shortest editors I have ever met, he had one of the foulest mouths.

I had to "sell" my stories to the tough-talking Michelini, who wouldn't accept just anything, and I wasn't paid unless my reporting was published.

I recall he paid for a few paragraphs about an overweight woman who sued her landlord after she sat down on her apartment toilet and fell through to the floor below. 

And when I called and asked if he wanted something on a New Jersey priest who had been found dead of a heart attack in a Manhattan brownstone, Michelini wanted to know if the clergyman had been "screwing" a young boy.

Chief space filler

Cichowski, the Road Warrior, is prized for his ability to fill space -- three times a week -- in the Local section of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her incompetent deputy, Dan Sforza, who also rely on photos of minor accidents (L-2).

Today, Cichowski's column is devoted to a single NJ Transit rail station, in Garfield. That follows another whole column devoted to the Teterboro train station.

One station, one column. 

Maybe, he'll eventually get around to the Anderson Street station in Hackensack that burned down several years ago and was replaced by a bus shelter.  

The Broken Record

As for Hackensack news, The Record is known as The Broken Record, today giving city readers the third major story about the new police director, Michael Mordaga, since Wednesday (L-1).

Today's story says Mordaga takes over Feb. 4 from interim Police Chief Tomas Padilla, who retires Jan. 31.

So, who runs the department for three days?

Food for thought

On the Business front, the thousands of readers who buy organic and naturally raised food can ignore the  Your Money's Worth column, which doesn't recognize their existence (B-1).

A second Kelly column appears on the Opinion front today, discussing the case of Jennifer O'Brien, a Paterson teacher who was sacked "almost two years ago" for a Facebook reference to her students as "future criminals" (O-1).

Why is Kelly writing about this now? Has he run out of ideas? 

On the Better Living front, why is chief Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung writing about chefs who smoke, in a Sunday column -- The Corner Table -- that is supposed to discuss issues facing restaurant goers (B-1)?

More Obama bashing on Page 1

The YMCA on Main Street in Hackensack. After prospering for more than 110 years, The Record left the city and scattered its operations to other parts of North Jersey.

You never know when The Record's editors will use a front-page story to take a swipe at President Obama, burying the truth inside, where only the most persistent readers go.

Today's splashy Page 1 takeout on Garfield hangs a possible delay in cleaning up neighborhood pollution dating to 1983 on Obama's "plan to cut $37 million from the Superfund program" (second paragraph).

Taxing readers

Deep inside, only the hardiest readers learn taxes on chemical and oil companies to fund cleanups like the one in Garfield expired in 1995, "when Congress refused to reauthorize it despite the urging of President Clinton."

"President George W. Bush did not support reauthorizing the tax," The Record reports, and last year, a bill to revive the Polluter Pays Restoration Act went nowhere in Congress.

Just smell the manure

On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section, the big news is harness racing.

But L-1 also carries the first story on Englewood's struggling downtown in many years (L-1).

The Record virtually abandoned coverage of downtowns in Teaneck, Englewood and other diverse communities after North Jersey Media Group pulled up its roots in Hackensack -- delivering a royal F.U. to Main Street. 

Why stop now?

Thankfully, most drivers have to go to the MVC only every four years or so, but that didn't stop Road Warrior John Cichowski from writing his 107th column on the dysfunctional agency (L-1).

The letters "MVC" in the headline instantly put to sleep readers looking for genuine news on commuting in one of the most congested regions of the nation.

Fooling consumers

The Record's Business section is so intent on promoting mattress companies, clothing chains, real estate agents and even sellers of business jets that its lone consumer columnist is a welcome relief.

But in today's piece on poor service, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais really lets down readers by not naming an airline or a "popular seafood restaurant in Maine" that simply don't care about customers' bad experiences (B-1).

Heart attack on a plate

On the front of Better Living, Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill's homage to Julia Child ignores the late great TV chef's heavy reliance on butter and cream -- two ingredients shunned by anyone who wants to eat healthy today.

Shell-shocked

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's entire Sunday column discusses pasture-raised eggs available at only three small markets in northern Bergen County (BL-1).

But where is the list of restaurants that serve naturally raised eggs? 

It's a sad commentary on Ung's Corner Table column, if readers can't get that information from the restaurant reviewer.

Low drama, high drama and political hype

Image by TalkMediaNews via Flickr

Gabrielle Giffords six months after the shooting.

The anti-climactic approval of the debt deal is a minor footnote to the surprise appearance of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to cast her vote on the House floor, as captured by The Record today in A-1 and A-6 photos.


Unspoken in the Associated Press story is the stark contrast between her values and those of the Tea Party conservatives who paralyzed the process for so many months and who may face defeat in 2012, just two years after they helped the GOP take control of the House.


Giffords' dramatic appearance also served to remind readers how Editor Francis Scandale treated her and the Arizona shootings nearly eight months ago.


Here is an excerpt from Eye on The Record on Jan. 13, 2011:

"The Arizona shootings are back on the front page again today. 

"Even though it's the most talked-about story in the nation, Editor Frank Scandale again demonstrated his famously flawed news judgment by underplaying it badly on Sunday on The Record's front page.

"Then, he played catch-up on Monday, allowed it to play second fiddle on Tuesday to the dismemberment of a Cliffside Park man and knocked it off the front altogether on Wednesday.

"Running a huge photo of a Jets football player on Sunday's front page -- and squeezing the attempted assassination  of Gabrielle Giffords under a one-column headline -- is so insensitive that it could only come from an editor like Scandale."

 Read the entire post here: An emotionally cold editor

Image via Wikipedia

Gabrielle Giffords before the shooting.

Editors love Chris Christie


Scandale and other editors fell all over themselves to give Page 1 play today to Governor Christie actually doing something good for seniors and the disabled.


The story by Staff Writer Mary Jo Layton is careful to omit mention the $100 to help pay energy bills comes not from Christie, but from the federal government, as readers learn from the Political Stile column on L-1.


An editorial on A-8 blasts "a core of Tea Party-aligned House Republicans [who] held their party and the nation hostage," but that's diluted by an OpEd piece on the next page, A-9, claiming the Tea Baggers scored "a key victory."  What B.S.


F.U. to old people


The big photo of an old car in a pool on the front of Local again dramatizes the challenges facing elderly drivers, but don't expect head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes to awake from her nap and direct the staff to do a series on the subject (L-1).


Another L-1 story reports Passaic County ranks extremely low in a quality-of-life poll -- likely because of the presence of the editors and managers who run The Record, Herald News and North Jersey Media Group in Woodland Park.


At the bottom of the Local front, a story on changes to school-bus routes in Teaneck leaves readers wondering why they should sympathize with parents who spend $15,000 to $20,000 a year to send their kid to private school, on top of paying public school taxes.


Not a suspect


Tenafly police are dismissing a tip the polite robber at the NVE Bank was Publisher Stephen A. Borg, scrambling to make the mortgage and property tax payment on his $3.65 million Churchill Road McMansion (L-3). 


On the first Business page, the Your Money's Worth column -- on spending by 10 charities -- has readers questioning what happened to the full-time newsside reporter assigned to non-profits (L-7).

Scandale barks: Find me a serial killer

Image via Wikipedia

You can save at least 10 cents a gallon by using a cash rebate card to buy gas.

Desperate for North Jersey news, Editor Francis Scandale ordered his wire editor to find him a serial killer he could use as filler at the bottom of Page 1 today -- just below the main element, a riveting piece on blood infections.

And he wasn't referring to all the bodies buried near the Woodland Park newsroom or the old one on River Street.

More cop news

The lead story on A-1 today is the indictment of three, $33,000-a-year probationary police officers in Hackensack, where Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado is doing her best to ignore drastic cuts in the public schools. 

An editorial on unequal pay for women (A-10) is careful to avoid any mention of North Jersey Media Group's own shameful policy in this regard. 

World court

Brushing off criticism for all the stories he misses at the Bergen County Courthouse, Staff Writer Kibret Marko spins a long tale on L-3 about a lawsuit over an automobile accident in South Africa.

On the first Business page, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais reports another story on rising gasoline prices, but says nothing about credit cards that offer 3% to 5% rebates -- or about 10 cents to 16 cents off each gallon of regular (L-7).

Nor does he list local stations that charge the same for cash or credit, such as a Shell station on Cedar Lane in Teaneck.

What's for dinner?

Look quickly at the syndicated 15-Minute Chef recipe photo on F-2 of Better Living today and tell me if it doesn't look about as appetizing as a large, fresh elephant turd.

Did the Borgs meddle in the news?

Image via Wikipedia

A Gulfstream business jet. Is there a link between a Sunday column and the Borgs?

A woman who is a wealthy dealer of $10 million to $50 million business jets seemed a strange choice of subjects for Kevin DeMarrais, The Record's long-time consumer columnist.

DeMarrais usually reports on credit card fees, supermarket prices and the ups and downs at the gasoline pump to help readers get the biggest bang for their buck.

But his "Your Money's Worth" column on the front of Sunday's Business section told the tale of Rebecca Posoli-Cilli, president of Hackensack-based Freestream Aircraft. 

Under a photo of the businesswoman in a hangar with one of those sleek jets, the caption says she "learned that even a stellar standing can get lost in cyberspace."

DeMarrais went on to relate a lawsuit, a settlement and stale information on the Internet, and how the businesswoman hired a firm to get positive information about her moved to the top of Google searches. Happy ending.

Now, it seems, Chairman Malcolm A. Borg may have had something to do with getting what amounts to a million dollars worth of free publicity for a business-jet dealer who has been hurt by the recession. 

Or did his son, Publisher Stephen A. Borg, or his daughter, Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg, ask the Business news department to do the story?

The elder Borg apparently is a client of Posoli-Cilli's and his testimonial appears on a Web site, along with that of Ralph Lauren and other movers and shakers who uses these enormously expensive and wasteful business jets.

Here is the link to the testimonials, including the one from Mac Borg: 

 

Rebecca ... was the best thing that happened to us

DeMarrais' sell-out can be read here:

When your reputation is on the line

Hasn't DeMarrais and the Woodland Park daily put its reputation on the line? What other stories appearing in the paper are about the Borgs' friends and business acquaintances?

Of course, the other question is why do the Borgs need a private jet at their disposal? Let's hope it's not just for beating the traffic out to their place in the Hamptons.