Exxon deal, roads are bigger stories than vaccinations

Gasoline prices below $2 a gallon are just a memory. Take that, drivers of gas-guzzling SUVs who speed and hog the road.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's front page exposes Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record to charges he is a slave to the conservative agenda adopted by Governor Christie and congressional Republicans.

Four of the five main elements on A-1 cast such issues as vaccinating schoolchildren, a pollution settlement and a nuclear deal with Iran in strictly partisan terms -- Republicans v. Democrats.

Gottlieb even legitimizes a crackpot group's wildly distorted estimates of road building and maintenance costs in New Jersey in an effort to kill any gas-tax increase (A-1).

Leading the paper with the so-called controversy over vaccinations is bewildering.

Ugly politics

The real controversies involve Governor Christie caving in to Exxon Mobil, and the transportation crisis brought on by the GOP bully's refusal to raise the gasoline tax to repair roads, bridges and rails.

One example of how politics is allowed to influence many of The Record's stories is today's report on the proposed $225 million settlement with Exxon Mobil Corp. for $8.9 billion in damages (A-1).

Staff Writers Scott Fallon and James O'Neill write almost the entire story as a battle between Democrats and Christie's party.

They note "Christie's practice of siphoning funds from environmental settlements to close state budget gaps instead of using the money for restoration efforts" (A-6). 

But in a related story at the bottom of the same page (A-6), O'Neill quotes a Democrat, Sen. Paul Sarlo, D-Wood-Ridge, on Christie's money grab, casting it as a partisan issue.

Of course, this and just about every other story neglects to point out the state's ongoing fiscal crisis is caused by Christie's refusal to impose a tax surcharge on millionaires and raise the gas tax, two moves that would raise billions of dollars.

'Breaking news'

In his Feb. 22 column bestowing 2015 Black Hole Awards, Road Warrior John Cichowski neglected to warn drivers about numerous potholes on Route 4 west.

In today's column, the confused reporter is Johnny-come-Lately for two drivers I know who lost a total of five tires on that highway between Englewood and Hackensack (L-1).

Cichowski isn't the only disoriented reporter in the Woodland Park newsroom.

Staff Writer Hugh Morley insists the Tesla Motors showroom he visited (and wrote about in December) is on "Route 17 west" in Paramus (L-7).

Of course, that highway runs north and south.

How did his editor, a news editor, a copy editor and their supervisors miss that blatant error?

Good effort for a change

Image by wallyg via Flickr

 
There is a lot of good reading on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park today, but not much hard news there or elsewhere in the paper.

Tall, thin Ashley Kindergan not only stands head and shoulders above most of the other reporters, but she is a far better journalist, as is evident again today in her story about North Jersey Iranians who are getting the word out on events in Tehran. Jeff Roberts, a sports reporter, has a moving story on the self-destruction of a onetime star athlete.

But I guess both of these stories are on Page 1 because there was no real news to report. Editors allowed most of the reporters to spend Friday making weekend plans, not reporting and writing Sunday stories. (Photo: One Police Plaza and federal courthouse in Manhattan.)

On the front of Local, there is not one, but two stories about Paterson students. Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski continues to be held hostage by drivers. There's nothing much to recommend in the section outside of an expanded obituary on Patricia Travers with a great headline.

In Business, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais has another column on how credit card companies continue their efforts to screw us -- despite a new law. Maybe, he should be providing readers with strategies on paying off their balances in full every month and collecting rebates and other rewards, so they don't have to worry about interest rates, penalties and other outrageous fees.

On the front of  Opinion, Columnist Mike Kelly perpetrates another fraud, the second installment of his attempt to rehabilitate his pal, Bernard Kerik, the convicted felon who once was New York City's police commissioner. Kelly had the chance to ask bosom buddy "Bernie" the hard questions, but didn't. This isn't confrontation. It's masturbation.

Kelly loves to push words around to create a mood and ask lots of unanswered questions, but this so-called veteran journalist is afraid to use the appropriate words for Kerik: greedy and arrogant. I wanted to throw up reading Kelly's nonsense and the ridiculous, unchallenged quotes from Kerik.

A far better effort appears above Kelly's drivel -- former gubernatorial press secretary Carl Golden's reasoned analysis on the need to raise the gasoline tax to save the Transportation Trust Fund. Let's hope The Record's editorial page also isn't held hostage by drivers and urges Governor Christie to do so.