Now, here's a local chef worthy of celebration

For the print oriented, signs are impossible to ignore, including this one in the men's room of a business in Allendale, above, and another on the West Side of Manhattan, below. Thanks to Rosh Hashana celebrations, there were fewer traffic jams and more seats on NJ Transit trains on Friday. 

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

I read every inspirational word of today's Page 1 story in The Record about Darryl Dela Cruz, a chef  who will be teaching former drug addicts and the homeless in Paterson skills they can parlay into a steady kitchen job (A-1).

Since Publisher Stephen A. Borg folded The Record's Food section in 2007, there have been few such stories, but lots of mindless promotion of so-called celebrity chefs and their restaurants.

I recall in 2009, Staff Writer Elisa Ung purportedly gave readers an inside look at the launching of Bobby's Burger Palace in Paramus, praising the use of "chef's quality" beef. 

But in truth, Chef/Owner Bobby Flay was intent on ignoring the welfare of his customers and using low-quality Certified Angus Beef raised on antibiotics and growth hormones to fatten his bottom line.

Ung is still at it, breathlessly reporting on Friday's Better Living cover that the new owners of the Saddle River Inn "take ambitious risks."

But her review doesn't bother saying whether the $42 filet mignon or the $45 sirloin are naturally raised.

More 9/11 lies

Today's front page is weighed down by a Mike Kelly column that appears to kick off the paper's 9/11 anniversary coverage (A-1).

A few photographs would suffice to update readers on the long-delayed opening of the 9/11 Museum, not the thousands of words pushed around by "The Shit-Eating Grin."

A second 9/11 story on today's Better Living cover skillfully ignores the most shameless day in the history of the newsroom on River Street in Hackensack (BL-1).

"The story behind a photographer's iconic image" is the headline over a report on "The Flag," a CNN investigation of what happened to the American flag that was raised over the rubble of the World Trade Center by three firemen on Sept. 11, 2001 (BL-1).

The real story

The Record's story never reports then-Editor Frank Scandale blew it by running Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin's photo of the flag raising on the back page of a section -- not on Page 1, as he was urged to do by Rich Gigli, the paper's photo editor in 2001.

That decision likely killed any chance of Franklin winning the Pulitzer Prize for Photography.

It's no wonder Franklin declined to be interviewed for the CNN documentary.

Today's story reports:

"The photo, published first in The Record on Sept. 12, 2001, subsequently ran on the cover [front page] of the New York Post -- without crediting Franklin -- and the cover of Newsweek. 

To add insult to injury, the story ends in mid-sentence (BL-3), another great job by Production Editor Liz Houlton, the six-figure "Queen of Errors."

In recent years, Vice President/General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg has spent tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to sue anyone who uses the Franklin photo -- even with full credit -- claiming violation of the newspaper's copyright.

That's noteworthy, because higher-ups cited the high cost of remaking  the front page on Sept. 11, 2001, as the reason the iconic photo wasn't run on A-1 -- in one of the biggest journalistic blunders ever.

More missing

An editorial on A-11 today reminds readers how The Record has completely ignored the issues in the gubernatorial campaign as it has cranked up the public relations machine for Governor Christie's second term.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, apparently took a 3-day weekend, judging by today's Local section.

Readers looking for local obituaries instead find an incredibly long story about a Hitler bodyguard who escaped the firing squad and lived to 96 (L-6).  

Error addict?

The Road Warrior column on Friday was filled with mistakes, and a concerned reader suggests Staff Writer John Cichowski -- "The Addled Commuter" -- has become addicted to error:

"In his Friday column, the Road Warrior repeatedly and deliberately misquoted a judge and misrepresented clearly stated assessments and facts in a court decision.

"The case was about whether a remote cellphone texter can be held partially liable in a civil suit if a person who read the text while driving caused an accident involving injuries or property damage.

"The Road Warrior introduced a crazy assessment that implied the texter knowingly promoted addictive texting behavior by the driver, even though the plaintiff's lawyer and none of the four judges hearing the case ever raised such nonsense.

"The Road Warrior's misstatements of quoted text from the court's decision is cause for even greater concern that a reporter is unable to do his job and is intentionally misleading his readers.

"The Road Warrior incorrectly reported or made up figures about the National Safety Council 2011 estimate about cellphone-related crashes.

"Some psychiatrists consider excessive and frequent misrepresentations to be addictive behavior.  Is The Record's management encouraging such behavior by the Road Warrior?"

To read the entire e-mail to editors and management, go to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:


Road Warrior can and does tell lies

Related Articles

• Editor should hang his head in shame
• Good riddance to bad rubbish
• Stephen Borg fingered as 'the real problem'
• On 9/11 anniversary, newspaper stumbles

Page 1 train-crash story is filled with errors

The Record's fender-bender photography staff -- under the direction of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes -- apparently missed this Wednesday morning accident.

The lack of quality control under Production Editor Liz Houlton -- the six-figure supervisor of the copy desk -- is shocking.

When local assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza gave Houlton an error-filled story and graphic on a train-truck crash, her clueless copy editors missed all the mistakes, which appear on today's front page.

Let's start with the clunky headline, "Train slams paint truck."

There's no need to say what the truck was carrying, especially if you have to sacrifice the word "into," as in, "Train slams into truck."

Houlton lays an egg

If the truck was carrying chickens, the word would never be used in the headline, because it wouldn't fit.

But that's minor compared with the major errors that appear in the lead paragraph and in the graphic on Page 1.

The long first paragraph tells readers a school crossing guard "was injured by flying debris" after she tried to help a truck driver "as a commuter train barreled toward them."

Of course, the debris didn't start flying until the train hit the truck -- the event missing in the lead paragraph.

And the graphic, labeled "On the track," shows the trailer of the truck straddling the tracks before the driver backed up, even though the text on A-6 says the driver "backed his truck into the crossing."

Houlton's crew screwed up again on L-9, where a headline misspells the name of the Lexus automobile.

Boyfriend charged

With the quick arrest of Michael Brady of Teaneck, the family of murder victims Tam Marie Pitts-Gaddy, 40, and 5-year-old Natasia Gaddy of Englewood may ultimately find justice (A-1).

But what about the residents of Englewood and all of the other towns in North Jersey: Should they expect their police departments to prevent crime?

In 2002, when Nathan L. Johnson was slain execution style during a robbery at his large East Hill home in Englewood, one of The Record's local editors dismissed a staff suggestion the paper look into whether police were doing a good job in safeguarding residents.

On the Local front today, a story reports three Hackensack police officers have agreed to resign after covering up a drunken-driving accident involving one of them (L-1).

The story is another in a nearly unbroken string about the city's Police Department and its convicted former police chief.

Is there anything else going on in Bergen's biggest community?

Illegible signature

Five months after the debut of Signature, Editor Marty Gottlieb has come to his senses and announced the end of the free-standing Thursday section.

Gottlieb decided to "disperse" features and the "Then and Now" column "through the regular daily sections of The Record," his note to readers says.

Signature, which purported to "define life in North Jersey," took away from an already weak local-news section.

Gottlies doesn't say what will become of Alan Finder, the Times pal he hired to edit Signature.

Changes on River Street?

A construction trailer and other equipment have been set up in the visitors parking lot at the old Hackensack headquarters of The Record.

A permit for the trailer was issued today, the city's Building Department said, but there has been no request for a demolition permit.

The trailer is in marked contrast to all of the dumpsters that have been seen on the property since the daily newspaper and North Jersey Media Group moved out in 2009.

No end to problems

The Road Warrior Column on Wednesday prompted a concerned reader to send another e-mail to management:

"The Road Warrior continues to baffle people with his mistaken, contradictory, and out-of-date reporting of published facts about tolls on Port Authority and NY MTA bridges for trucks/vans and NJ statutes/bills in response to readers' questions in his January 30 column.

"Road Warrior continues to report false items based on his inability to comprehend official information and perform basic math calculations.

"The Record's integrity continues to suffer when it allows the Road Warrior to report items that are contradictory to several recent Road Warrior columns and Record articles, and items that are made up by the Road Warrior.

"These practices NEED TO STOP.

"Road Warrior closed out January with 11 of his 12 columns riddled with his clueless, misleading, or false statements, wrong advice, and crazy, unsafe, or illegal comments from others. "

The full e-mail can be seen at: 

Bell tolls for Road Warrior
 

  

A Facebook page for Road Warrior screw-ups

In his column on the Local front today, Road Warrior John Cichowski doesn't mention that all drivers with two passengers can pay a carpool toll of only $4.25 every time they use a Hudson River crossing -- day or night on any day of the week -- as long as they register their E-ZPass ahead of time.

Editor's note: A concerned reader, who has sent numerous e-mails to The Record in an appeal for greater accuracy in Road Warrior columns, now has established a Facebook page to expose all of the errors and misinformation the editors continue to publish under the byline of  Staff Writer John Cichowski. The reader, who prefers to remain anonymous, sent Eye on The Record the Facebook address as well as his latest e-mail to management.

I have established a Facebook page -- titled "Road Warrior Bloopers at The Record" -- with the Web address noted below.  
 
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Road-Warrior-Bloopers-at-The-Record/110506372452496?ref=hl

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The Record's management and Road Warrior, John Cichowski, need to take responsibility to address past mistakes and prevent new mistakes in 2013 based on my identification of the final tally of ALL problems from 9/12 to  12/31, where 171 mistakes or problems (more than 6 per column on average) were identified in 60% (27 of the 45) of his transportation columns.

I know The Record has been performing internal reviews to address matters. 


Unfortunately, the Road Warrior reporting problems, mistakes, gaffes, and faulty, unsafe, or legally conflicting advice and conclusions appeared to continue unabated in 2012.  All of these faults clearly question the reliability of Road Warrior columns and cause further confusion.


These faults were exacerbated further through reliance on readers' unsubstantiated questions and claims without any counterpoints or corrections by the Road Warrior.


A NO BRAINER TEST should be used and if a reader's unsubstantiated claim or example can be disputed by common sense/facts, it should normally NOT be published.


However, if a reader's claim or example, which CONTRADICTS current regulations, laws, facts, or common sense, happens to be published, the Road Warrior must point out those conflicts so others are NOT confused.
 
I started to bring all of these faults to the regular attention of both The Record's management and the Road Warrior, along with many clear suggestions on what needs to be STOPPED or improved.


Similar mistakes should also NOT be repeated in follow-up columns when I previously point out the mistakes and corrections in a previous column.


No one, including the Road Warrior, should be presumptuous and refer to themselves as a "Know-it-all" since everyone, including the Road Warrior, can learn something they do not know from others. 


Since the Road Warrior column is supposed to be responsible to its readers as a regular educational forum about transportation issues, it would be more valuable to readers that any significant corrections are made As Soon As Possible in a Road Warrior column rather than The Record's A-2 corrections.

A highlight of the number of mistakes and problems from 9/12 to 12/31/12 are noted below:


1)  Misleading and/or False Statements, which also included false "facts" or incorrect items - 96 times

2) Useless, Impractical, Unsafe, or Misleading Advice - 18 times

3) Misdirected Readers Due to Key Omissions of Relevant Information that were Paramount to a Topic - 30 times

4) Doesn't Address Reader Question Directly or Correctly - 15 times

5) Useless, Misleading Stories Wasted Readers' Time - 12 times

These particular items should NEVER have been published. 

Road Warrior exhibited empathy about people that exhibited no common sense to easily solve or accept responsibility for problems they caused and/or exacerbated problems by making wrong decisions about their unsubstantiated claims.

An earlier e-mail from the same reader discussed problems in the Dec. 31 Road Warrior column. What is clear from this e-mail and others is The Record's total lack of  editing or fact-checking on the local assignment and copy desks under the supervision of Editors Deirdre Sykes, Dan Sforza and Liz Houlton -- Eye on The Record

I thought the Road Warrior would learn his lessons by year's end for NOT presenting misleading or false statements or facts, but he clearly did NOT in his Dec. 31 column.

Here's what you should know about the Road Warrior's column on ttraveling and tailgating in the left lane and his failure to keep it right:

1)  Misleading false statement - "Nobody likes a left-lane hog, who encourages others to pass him illegally on the right."

CORRECT FACTS - While it is required to normally pass a vehicle on the left, it is NOT illegal to pass a vehicle on the right as per NJSA 39:4-85 if it is done "under conditions permitting such movement in safety".

2)  Misleading false statement - "Failing to do so [violation of tailgating law] risks 5 points and $200 fine - even more in a construction zone."

CORRECT FACTS - Violation of tailgating law risks 5 points and an $85 fine -- even more on roads with 65 MPH speed zones.  Reporting was about tailgating in a 65 MPH zone.

3)  Misleading false statement - "one-day session [for NJ defensive driving course by the Garden State Safety Council] should remove 2 points from her license and grant her a 10-percent auto-insurance discount."

CORRECT FACTS - That driving course should remove 2 points from her license and grant her at least a 5% discount and UP TO a 10-percent auto insurance discount (subject to the NJ insurer), as noted on Garden State Safety Council's Web site.

4)  Questionable Road Warrior tactics - Road Warrior continues bad habit of repeating details of questionable reader tactics, including how drivers handle tailgaters.

CORRECT TACTICS - There is NO need for the Road Warrior to continue repeating questionable reader tactics, particularly if they are reckless UNSAFE driving behavior, which can lead to a traffic fine, such as spraying windshield wiper fluid at a tailgater.

--------------------

Perhaps, this will then be the last of an endless series or a very, very long holiday from Road Warrior columns and questionable or unsafe readers' advice about these topics if common sense, as quoted by a cop, is remembered:
.
1) "Anyone in the left lane [or middle lane] should immediately yield to an overtaking vehicle as soon as practical."

2) When "there are way too many cars and not enough space... out of necessity, the left lane [and middle lane] must be used and rules go out the window."