Road Warrior column should be labeled 'FANTASY'

The Johnson Public Library on Main Street in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

There are plenty of news stories on Page 1 and elsewhere in The Record today, but on the Local front you'll find the musings of a madman who has to make it up as he goes along just to fill space.

The Record has been printing Road Warrior columns by Staff Writer John Cichowski based on false premises and false information for years now.

For more than a year, a retired engineer has been sending e-mails to everyone from Vice President Jennifer A. Borg on down with the results of his fact-checking, and posting those e-mails on a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Few of the hundreds of errors, distortions or omissions detailed in the e-mails have ever been corrected, and the columns are as cockamamie as ever.

Nut on the loose

Today, Cichowski puts himself in the head of a reader who heard about the loose wheel and tire that smashed through the windshield of a bus on Route 17, and wondered "what your chances are of being killed this way" (L-1).

Frankly, I didn't, but did wonder why news stories about the bus passenger who was critically injured by the flying wheel didn't say why it came off a fairly new car, a 2009 Lexus.

Still, Cichowski can't answer the question he poses, and can't find many examples of fatalities "in our own backyard."

Fast-food fatal

He goes all the way back to 1994 to find a high school senior killed by "a 200-pound tire that sailed off a tractor-trailer," but the victim wasn't in a vehicle.

He was walking into a McDonald's in Paramus. Thus, Cichowski inadvertently confirms many readers' belief that fast food can kill you.

(In the column, headlines and photo captions, "tire" is used interchangeably with "wheel," but, of course, he must be referring to a tire mounted on a wheel in nearly all instances.)

The next example of a flying wheel in Paramus didn't kill the driver.

And then Cichowski finds himself citing a fatal accident in Syracuse, N.Y.; and a double fatality all the way out in Indiana.

Lost in the woods

Then, having run out of fatal wheel-tire incidents, Cichowski reports on a smashed window at a car dealership, and a pickup's loose wheel and tire that rolled into the woods in Sussex County.

If it's possible, his column last Sunday on the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan was even worse, because Cichowski left out a crucial piece of information that would have exposed the addled columnist.

Cichowski dashed commuters' hopes that there is any relief in sight for them, if they use the obsolete bus terminal.

But he never mentioned a major, Port Authority funded study that began in mid-2013 to recommend plans for expanding or replacing the crowded terminal.

He also got the age of the bus terminal wrong and in one instance, the number of commuters who use it.

See:

Road Warrior John Cichowski is obsolete 

Hey, Editor Marty Gottlieb.

It's time to start labeling Cichowski's columns "FANTASY," if you are not going to force the turkey to retire.

Another loose nut

None other than Food Editor Esther Davidowitz is the author of a long, promotional story about Callahan's unhealthy hot dogs, now sold from a truck by Daniel DeMiglio, the third generation (Better Living cover).

Here is one editor who needs editing to stop her from cramming so many words and facts into one sentence.

She describes DiMiglio as "the dark-haired, super-energetic, currently Old Tappan, soon-to-be Fort Lee resident, who bided his time working in the NBA's entertainment division ...."

Sounds like a woman north of 60 who has the hots for a guy half her age.

Christie is a political animal -- with emphasis on 'animal'

On Monday, crews paved 4 blocks of Hackensack's Euclid Avenue, between Prospect Avenue, above, and Main Street, for the first time in decades, according to long-time city residents. An elderly man walking his dog said he feared the work would be reflected in higher property tax bills.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Governor Christie and his clumsy attempts to remake the New Jersey Supreme Court have been a continuing story since he took office in 2010.

But The Record's editors have sounded more and more like they are on the GOP bully's public-relations payroll, rather than working hard to uncover the truth for readers.

Editor Marty Gottlieb leads today's paper with a news story and column about Christie ducking out of a political battle with Democrats and looking forward to the 2016 presidential race (A-1 and A-6).

Court disorder

Of course, one reason Democrats would have opposed tenure for Assistant Justice Helen E. Hoens is that she is just as conservative and mean-spirited as Christie on funding affordable housing and public schools in poor districts.

The second is making Christie pay for his shameful, racially charged decision in 2010 to deny tenure to Justice John E. Wallace Jr., who was the only black member of the high court.

(Today, the news story fails to identify Wallace as African-American, but the Political Stile column does.)

Judge Fuzzy

But a third reason is evident: Christie's past nominees and his current pick -- a native of Santiago, Cuba -- are a bunch of turkeys.

Do we really want a state Supreme Court Justice with "Fuzzy" as his nickname?

Politics define Christie, including his putting his fat face into the Superstorm Sandy TV ads in an election year (A-3), and giving cleanup and other contracts to his wealthy supporters.

Cops and courts

Today's Local section from head Assingment Editor Deirdre Sykes is heavy with police and court stories.

Stories on L-1 and A-1 today raise anew the question of whether police are doing enough to enforce traffic and DWI laws -- a story The Record has been avoiding like the plague.

Page L-1 alone carries two stories and a photo about a chase and crash, a one-car accident that killed 3 and an inconsequential car fire.

The front-page story is about a Clifton woman who was killed in the street by an allegedly drunk driver.

Who wrote this?

A photo on L-2 shows an employee for the New York and Greenwood Lake Railway cleaning up the right of way, but the over line is a puzzling "OFF THE BEATEN TRACK."

There is a lot of wire-service filler in today's paper, including a long story from Chicago about Ford pushing Lincoln dealers to make expensive upgrades in a bid to sell the faltering luxury brand to younger buyers (L-10).

I guess The Record's business editors couldn't find anyone to pick up a phone and get a comment from a local dealer.

On the Better Living cover, Staff Writer Elisa Ung is peddling a vegetable-and-fruit juice that fits eveyone's budget: A 16-ounce jar is $12. 

Second look

Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to remain in the dark about when the Summit Avenue exit ramp on Route 17 will reopen -- the subject of his Sunday column and two earlier, though equally clueless, efforts.

The only work left is to activate traffic lights, according to a concerned reader who spoke to a project manager for the state Department of Transportation.

There are so many errors and so much misinformation and missing information in Sunday's column, I'll defer to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

More incompetent Road Warrior reporting