Paper's obese editors long ignored our obese governor

A front-page "ANALYSIS" in The Record today credits four officials and declares that NJ Transit bus commuters no longer face long lines and delays in returning home from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan, above. Now, will the Woodland Park daily finally take notice of the shortage of rush-hour seats on NJ Transit trains?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In The Record's front-page story on Governor Christie's weight loss, experts note a candidate needs "to look like the part they are running for."

But the story never explains why Record reporters covering Christie's campaign in 2009 and his inauguration completely ignored his weight and whether he was fit to serve.

That may be because after working side-by-side with at least two obese editors in the newsroom, the reporters covering Christie didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

And that continued for years as only the national media tried to find out how much Christie weighed, and late-night comedian David Letterman guessed the GOP bully had ballooned to 400 pounds.

See this Eye on The Record post from 2011:

Guess how much Christie weighs 

Better or not?

A front-page story last Wednesday and another one today declare an end to long lines and afternoon rush-hour delays for NJ Transit bus riders leaving the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan (A-1).

But Jay Holahan of Teaneck says in a letter to the editor today:

"As a 25-year commuter, I don't recognize any immediate improvements ...." (A-13).

News or snooze?

Residents of Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and many other Bergen towns won't find anything about them in Local today.

The lead story in the section is a controversial proposal to replace Memorial Field in far-off Washington Township with artificial turf (L-1).

The local editors needed another Dean's List to fill their pages (L-2).

Poor food choices

Free-lancer Kate Morgan Jackson's list of a dozen "great food stores" for home cooks omits Whole Foods Market, Costco Wholesale and two of the best, Jerry's Gourmet & More and Balthazar Bakery, both in Englewood (BL-1).

Jackson appears unwilling to stray too far from her Upper Saddle River home.

On Wednesdays, the food blogger also supplies Better Living with unhealthy recipes, many filled with artery clogging cream and butter.

Christie is losing weight along with credibility

Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to hang up on commuters, with another column on today's Local front that shows he can't get his mind out of the gutter and off of potholes. He gives a big plug to Jack Tewani, owner of a sportswear business, who blames "craters" for ruining his tires.

Many readers didn't think there was another politician who could make Chris Christie look good, but a  photo in The Record today proves them wrong.

Paterson City Council President Anthony Davis appears to the African-American version of what Christie looked like before he had lap-band surgery and lost weight (A-3).

But under all that body fat, Davis is really an Uncle Tom, a black Democrat endorsing Christie's bid for a second term, despite all of the GOP bully's anti-minority policies.

Who could forget Christie's recent veto of a hike in the minimum wage? 

Or, how about cutting state aide to Paterson, forcing the layoff of 125 cops in one of New Jersey's most crime-ridden communities?

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, from the State House Bureau, does a masterful job of avoiding those issues, lest it darken her upbeat, Christie-is-great story.

And like the editors she works for, Hayes writes off the challenge from state Sen. Barbara Buono, the likely Democratic nominee, denying her campaign equal time and a separate story.

Page 1 news

After watching extended coverage of the devastation in Oklahoma on Tuesday night's local and national TV news shows, readers pick up the paper today, only to find the front page dominated by the same image (A-1).

The lead Page 1 story is about the Rev. Michael Fugee, who is getting more coverage than the new pope (A-1).

Editorial page

For the third day in a row, the editorial cartoon is about the Bengazi, IRS or AP "scandals" (A-8).

Where is Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin, and what happened to the cartoons'  New Jersey focus?

Get out of jail

On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Syke's Local section, the lead story is about the manager of the Tick Tock Diner finally making bail, six weeks after he was charged with plotting to kill his wife's uncle (L-1).

There is more Law & Order coverage on L-3 and L-6, but no municipal news from Hackensack or many other communities.

The Record misses biggest Christie story

How many of these will Governor Christie be able to down now that he has had surgery to stop him from overeating? They were served on Sunday during a fund-raiser in The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack.

The Record's rotund editors have ignored Governor Christie's weight problems -- lest they be forced to confront the uncomfortable truth about their own food obsessions.

The Woodland Park daily has never even reported what New Jersey and schools in Hackensack and many other communities are doing to fight the child-obesity epidemic.

Now, the New York Post is claiming an exclusive, reporting that Christie "secretly underwent lap-band stomach surgery to aggressively slim down for the sake of his wife and kids."

Here is the link to The Post's story on its Web site:


GOP fat cat has surgery 


Christie has refused to disclose his weight in interviews with both national and New Jersey media, but David Letterman has joked the governor hit a hefty 400 pounds.

Doughnut patrol

If you doubt police in Wyckoff and other wealthy Bergen towns have too much time on their hands and eat too many doughnuts, check out the big photo on the front of today's Local news section (L-1).

On L-2, Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports the school district and teachers union have reached a tentative contract agreement in Hackensack.

There is a lot of local news in today's section, making readers wonder whether the editors held a bunch of stories for publication today.

But head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes still needed a photo of a refrigerated produce truck the driver deliberately overturned to make fruit salad (L-3).
     
Unflattering

The cover photo of the May 2013 issue of (201) magazine shows a clearly overweight Lisa Oz standing in her Cliffside Park home in a most unflattering pose -- with her right hand on her hip and her right leg off to the side, as if it is permanently broken.

Of course, her multimillionaire husband is Mehmet Oz, a doctor who can't stop lecturing Americans on healthy eating, although he probably has never stepped foot in a supermarket or tried to make sense of food labels.