Editors miss the mark on home-rule reporting

Jitneys such as this one heading to Manhattan relieve the pressure on NJ Transit, which doesn't provide enough rush-hour bus or rail seats for North Jersey commuters.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor


Mike Kelly pushes a lot of words around on The Record's front page today without coming close to answering some of the biggest questions about local police departments:

What exactly does the chief of a small department do, and why do we need nearly 70 of them in Bergen County alone (A-1)?

When The Record's Local section runs stories about a string of house burglaries, readers in such wealthy towns as Tenafly know what the chiefs don't do.

So, isn't it a good idea to empty the office of police brass and get them out on the street in Englewood Cliffs and other towns, where they can try to stop burglaries and enforce speeding laws?

But Kelly, aka "The Shit-Eating Grin," beats the subject to death, relying on one of the silliest comparisons I have ever seen:

"Think of this as the law enforcement equivalent of a restaurant with too many cooks and not enough waiters to serve the food."

No. Think of this as a columnist who long ago ran out of steam, and has been reduced to rewriting news stories.

Elderly and dead

Another front-page story today continues The Record's portrayal of the elderly as so demented they wander off for days -- or end up confined to a long-term care facility (A-1 and A-9).

The Record often ignores vibrant seniors who are living full lives until they die.

Still, I searched Local in vain today for an expanded obituary of a noteworthy North Jersey resident. In fact, I haven't seen one in several days.

Assuming Staff Writer Jay Levin is on vacation, why do the editors simply sit on their hands instead of assigning another reporter to write a local obit?

God knows, readers can't figure out why the Borgs are paying some reporters whose bylines are as rare as blue moons or why head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes keeps making excuses for them.

Help for obesity

The Better Living section today picks up more of Local's slack with a cover story on where families can get help for their obese children (BL-1).

Now, the paper should publish a story on where its obese editors can go for help.

The section also appears to have ended "STARTERS" -- a feature on new restaurants -- and substituted a streamlined column called "NOW OPEN" (BL-1)

Today's piece on Fiona's Restaurant in Midland Park is by Staff Writer Sachi Fujimori, whose straightforward reporting is far better than the hard sell of free-lancer Joyce Venezia Suss.

Will we get rid of Christie in November or 2016?

Last Monday morning, only one window was open at the Hackensack Post Office on State Street, above and below.

Customers made sure they fed the parking meters outside.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The fawning editors of The Record seem intent on being the first to report that Republican Chris Christie will run for president in 2016.

The latest in a series of speculative stories appears on Page 1 today.

The Record long ago wrote off the challenge of Democrat Barbara Buono, who will stop Christie from getting a second term if she can overcome the apathy of her party's voters in November.

I see an upset, but if the fat, mean-spirited slob does beat Buono, at least we can count on him going down in flames in 2016 in a race against Hillary Clinton.

In one way or another, a woman will deal Christie the huge political humiliation he so richly deserves.

Today's story is written by reporter Melissa Hayes, who is trying her hardest to scoop the national media or at least earn a job in the next Christie administration.

Arabs step in

The second paragraph notes in passing that Christie accepted a $4.5 million donation from the United Arab Emirates to the Superstorm Sandy relief charity.

That's great. New Jersey prostrates itself before Arab oil billionaires. 

What's next? Arab oil money flowing into his campaign? What would that mean to the drive to develop alternative forms of energy?

Cops sit on hands

The major story on A-1 today bemoans the lack of progress in creating bike lanes on Route 9w, but the entire focus seems to be on what state officials are or aren't doing (A-1 and A-6).

The editors never question whether more police enforcement of traffic laws or of bicyclists blowing through red lights would improve the situation.

Or why the mayors interviewed aren't getting their towns to improve safety on the heavily trafficked road.

Fat chances

Check out the editorial hailing a slight decline in obesity among low-income preschoolers in New Jersey (A-9).

There is not a single mention of what Christie or other state officials might have done to lower the incidence of obesity among 2 to 4 year olds -- except for a campaign to make adults "more aware of the dangers of childhood obesity."

Ken Zisa's lawyer blows his defense

Ken Zisa is expected to retire to La Zisa, a palace in Palermo, Italy.

The jurors hearing official misconduct charges against suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa were waiting to hear, "He didn't do it."


Instead, Zisa's defense lawyer claimed the criminal charges were part of a "witch hunt" led by the county prosecutor, The Record reports on Page 1 today.


With those words, attorney Patricia Prezioso all but blew her defense case and likely guaranteed Zisa will be convicted and end up in prison.


Zisaville to celebrate


If that happens, the city will fire him and the state will strip him of his pension. And Hackensack will no longer be called "Zisaville."


The cheers from Hackensack residents would be deafening, but in far-off Woodland Park, Editor Marty Gottlieb, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and the Borgs will continue to ignore the city the paper called home for more than 110 years.


Prezioso apparently has been so busy preparing Zisa's defense she is unaware of just of how sick everyone is of "politics."


She literally put her foot in her mouth when she said, "This was a politically convenient prosecution for Mr. [John] Molinelli," the prosecutor.


Lampooning Christie


Governor Christie's visit to Israel and Jordan has finally fallen off the front page (A-3). 


But none of the coverage has explained what the F he is doing visiting the Middle East, with all that he still has to accomplish in the Garden State.


Reporters asked him what he thought of the New York Post headline after he prayed at the Western Wall, "The Whale at the Wall."


Of course, in the two years he's been in office, no reporter has asked him what he is doing to end childhood obesity in New Jersey.


Beating a dead horse


For the third day in a row, Gottlieb and Sykes give prominent display to the return of a Marine who was killed in Afghanistan (A-1 and L-1).


But a protest march calling for the arrest of a Neighborhood Watch member who shot and killed Trayvon Martin, 17, in Florida ends up on the front of Sykes' Local section.


"The march took place in Hackensack," Sykes said at the news meeting on Wednesday afternoon. "Who says we don't cover the place?"


City is bleeding


Sykes continues to run stories on Englewood's financial problems, which have led to cuts in the public schools and library, inspired by wealthy residents of the East Hill, where Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg lives (L-1).


But none of the stories have mentioned Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, a non-profit that pays no property taxes to the city.

Readers are the ones who need protection

Image via Wikipedia

The Record has long ignored safety problems in Ford police cruisers.

Don't bother trying to climb into the brain of Editor Francis Scandale: It's the size of a pea.


Don't bother trying to understand why he loves bonding with other males over sports or why he favors slapping fellow editors on the ass to signal a job well-done.


With the government on the brink of default and readers still trying to make some sense of the slaughter in Norway, Scandale thinks the most important story of the day for The Record of Woodland Park is the end of a football lockout.


Did he order the inane headline at the top of Page 1 today, seemingly an appeal to like-minded readers?

Strap on your helmets

What was the news copy desk thinking? Are readers literally going to go looking for a football helmet? Do even hardened fans wear helmets in front of the TV?


Maybe readers are being told to put on helmets as protection from Scandale, who continues to bombard them with distracting nonsense.


Or perhaps Scandale gives prominence to this story as recognition of how NFL owners are greedily grabbing for more money -- an issue he's familiar with since fellow jock Stephen A. Borg took over as publisher five years ago.


Ford gets a pass


The A-1 story on turnpike lawsuit settlements at the bottom of the page inadvertently highlights safety problems with the Ford Crown Victoria -- used by police departments across North Jersey -- a story the paper has avoided for years.


Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptors went out of control at high speeds, killing  Teaneck and Paramus officers. Twelve other officers were killed between 1983 and 2002 when cruisers were rear-ended and caught fire, according to CNN.


Today's A-1 story in The Record reports a 19-year-old fashion model was trapped and burned to death in 2006 after her 2003 Ford Crown Victoria taxi stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike, and was rear-ended by another vehicle traveling 45 mph to 50 mph.


Running in place


Scandale thought more of the football story than two pieces on A-3 today about Governor Christie's ambitions for national office, including his attempts to hide a meeting last year with the head of the conservative Fox News channel.


Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes made sure she made room in Local for the burglary of eight unlocked cars in Tenafly, where Borg lives (L-3).


Sun stroke


Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski must have been suffering from heat stroke when he wrote his Sunday L-1 column on leaving pets in cars during the heat wave.


What happened to his mission of writing about commuting problems?


The lead article in Local on Sunday -- how politics affect solar-power projects -- was well-researched, but the reporter erred on the location of Bergen County's major installations, as an A-2 correction notes today.


An editorial on O-2 Sunday praises first lady Michelle Obama's program to attack childhood obesity, but is strangely silent on what New Jersey first lady Mary Pat Christie is doing about the problem here.


Unfortunately, Staff Writer Scott Fallon's cover story in Travel on Sunday -- "36 Hours in Washington, D.C." -- adopts a format The New York Times has used for many, many years, and smacks of shameless copying.