Columnists Kelly, Cichowski are readers' real enemies

Commuting by car into Manhattan or around North Jersey has become a daily nightmare, above and below, yet Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to ignore the need for an expanded mass-transit system.

The headlights stretch for as far as you can see on antiquated, two-lane Passaic Street in Rochelle Park during a recent commute.

Columnist Mike Kelly still hasn't recovered from the heart surgery he had 7 months ago -- as his Father's Day confessional clearly shows.

On Sunday's Opinion front in The Record, Kelly appears so ashamed of the ridiculously unhealthy diet that led to his heart problems that he wrote his column in the third person (O-1).

Kelly was completely clueless about the harm of hamburgers, butter, bacon, ice cream, cake and lots of pizza before he went under the knife, and now his grown daughter is telling him what to eat.

Maybe his wife was trying to kill him.

His column could have served as a more powerful lesson to readers, if he wrote it in the first person and leveled with them about whether he had coronary bypass surgery to clear blockages from harmful animal fats.

Bridge to the truth

Sunday's paper also carried the second Road Warrior column on a new footbridge over Port Imperial Boulevard in Weehawken that Staff Writer John Cichowski is begging commuters to use.

NJ Transit told Eye on The Record today the footbridge was built to provide a "safer crossing" for users of its Bergen-Hudson light-rail line, as well as to provide handicap access to the NY Waterway ferry.

But there has always been a light to stop traffic and a crosswalk there, so most people simply cross the street -- information Cichowski deliberately omitted -- and not a single pedestrian has ever been injured or killed.

No need to cross

And many commuters park in a lot east of Port Imperial Boulevard and don't have to cross the street to reach the ferry -- likely a major reason the footbridge isn't getting a lot of use.

Below is an excerpt from an e-mail to The Record, exposing the many errors in Cichowski's Sunday and Wednesday columns.

It was sent by an anonymous reader who set up a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers after his complaints about inaccurate columns fell on deaf ears at The Record -- from Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg down to Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, who supposedly edits Cichowski.

"These columns falsely promoted and over-hyped the newly opened pedestrian footbridge over Port Imperial Boulevard, which is near the Weehawken ferry terminal on the Hudson River.

"He simply ignored the most obvious fact, which is that there already is a convenient, safe crosswalk at an intersection with a traffic light.

"It is one of the undisputed reasons that most pedestrians will NOT need to use this footbridge."

For a blow-by-blow listing of all of the errors in the two columns, see:

Road Warrior shows more contempt for the truth

Is Big Oil running the newsroom?

The car-pool lane on the New Jersey Turnpike was full Monday evening, and it moved noticeably faster than the other lanes during the rush hour.

Leave it to The Record to emphasize all the negatives of car-pooling, just as it ran down the proposed extension of light-rail service to Englewood and Tenafly.


Flacks for Big Oil or the Big Three automakers couldn't have written a more discouraging article than Monday's Page 1 story by one of the so-called transportation reporters.


Assignment error


Much of this coverage seems to be inspired by Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, who ignored mass transit -- including defective NJ Transit buses -- and wrote about "highways of the future" when he was a transporation reporter.


Readers also are well-acquainted with the Road Warrior's obsession with the MVC and his desperate reliance on drivers' e-mails to put out three columns a week.


The car-pool story dominated a mostly ho-hum front page on Monday, but didn't tell readers how many car-poolers there are in the Garden State, nor list car-pool lanes.


And the editors failed to mention how car-pooling saves the environment and reduces our dependence on foreign oil.


Full car-pool lanes


Even the choice of car-poolers is suspect: 


What are these morons doing driving a gas-guzzling BMW sport-utility vehicle? They could save a lot more moola in something really fuel-efficient.


During the rush hour Monday afternoon and evening, the car-pool lanes on the New Jersey Turnpike and Route 280 were full, so there are plenty of other car-poolers to choose from, if the paper wanted to put car-pooling in a good light.


The attitude of Sforza, Editor Marty Gottlieb and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes appears to be that car-pooling  and light rail are evil forces that depress gasoline and auto sales, and as crusading journalists, they are going to do their utmost to put a stop to it.


Mike Wallace


Monday's A-1 wire-service obituary of Mike Wallace, the "60 Minutes" newsman with "a fearsome reputation," reminded me of when I covered the federal courthouse in Newark for The Record in the 1980s.


Reporters in the press room got word that Wallace would be taking the stand to testify in a lawsuit against the investigative news show over a story on fast-food franchising.


On the stand, Wallace was nervous under questioning by the plaintiff's attorney -- more nervous than many of the witnesses I had seen during several years of covering state and federal courts.


His demeanor was in stark contrast to his reputation, but showed another side of him few people knew.


Now, look at the editorial cartoon on A-10 today, showing a "gulp" from God when an angel announces, "Mike Wallace is here to see you."


Today's paper


Today's front page is just as boring as Monday's.


If you're going to run a Page 1 story story on wind-whipped fires in North Jersey, why in God's name would you use an A-1 photo of one that was set by children playing with matches?


Another A-1 story -- "Raising the curtain on suburban prostitution" -- doesn't mention the story broke in Harrington Park, where Sykes lives with her husband, Kevin O'Neil, a graphics director who was laid off for unknown reasons several years ago.


Since Gottlieb came over from The New York Times, he seems to have "discovered" that North Jersey's suburbs are filled with the homeless and prostitutes.


Nothing wrong with that -- unless you turn that new-found knowledge into greatly exaggerated front-page stories, as he has been doing.


An A-2 correction today fixes a headline on Saturday that said "Englewood" had installed a red-light camera. It is Englewood Cliffs.


Zisaville news


Cross-examination of a witness who testified against suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa on Monday is all Hackensack readers will find in Local today.


In Better Living, a cover story on the revival of the Three Stooges (F-1) is based on "the kings of lowbrow journalism" at The Record: 


Editors Gottlieb, Sykes and Liz Houlton, head of production and supervisor of the error-prone news copy desk.

Today's big news isn't on Page 1

Image via Wikipedia
Electrified NJ Transit light-rail cars such as these would serve commuters under a plan to extend the line to several Bergen towns, including Leonia, Englewood and Tenafly.

Martin "Marty" Gottlieb finally has taken over as editor of The Record of Woodland Park -- as readers can see from a change in the masthead at the bottom of the Editorial Page today (A-10).


Gottlieb's name and title appear between those of Publisher Stephen A. Borg and Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin.


Readers are hoping the former New York Times editor will usher in much-needed change at the North Jersey daily as caretaker Douglas Clancy returns to his newsroom budget chores.


Gottlieb, 64, certainly can ask for better writing and editing from the staff, and a more even-handed approach to such important issues as mass transit.


Two glaring examples appear on the front page today under the main headline, which just as easily could have read:

New day for The Record

The first paragraph of the lead story on Governor Christie's historic nominations to the state Supreme Court is awkwardly written, especially the phrase between the dashes -- "hailed by him Monday for their diversity and 'pure judgment.'"

What an abomination. Did a committee write that lead?

Trashing transit

Given the huge amount of advertising revenue from car dealers, it's no surprise that news stories are anti-mass transit, as demonstrated again by today's A-1 centerpiece on the proposed extension of light rail to Tenafly.

Tenafly officials appear to be the only ones opposing the plan, claiming they will have to give up $200,000 in tax revenue from the loss of commercial property to create parking lots for commuters.

But why add parking? The commuter ferry at River Road and Route 5 in Edgewater is thriving with a shuttle bus and no public parking. Why couldn't light rail do the same?

The A-1 photo caption for the light-rail story also contains an error, calling Englewood "one of the cities affected" by the plan. It is the only city; none of the other towns have a city form of government.

The boring photo of a man crossing the tracks isn't worthy of appearing on the back page, let alone the front page. Where is a photo of the electrified light-rail cars that would serve Englewood and Tenafly?

Hack attack

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section is missing any Hackensack news.

But I love that photo of a horse carved from snow in Cliffside Park by talented Staff Photographer Tariq Zehawi, who Sykes has had chasing ambulances for too many years (L-1).

The Road Warrior column didn't run on the front of the section on Sunday, as it usually does, and there was no explanation in the paper. It is scheduled to appear again on Wednesday. 

Mixed message

On the front of Better Living, the promotional Starters restaurant feature reports MK Valencia in Ridgefield Park serves "American-Italian" cuisine "with an emphasis on seafood," but a photo shows two dishes with meat and none with fish.

At The Times, Gottlieb served as global edition editor, associate managing editor in charge of the weekend editions, deputy culture editor and an investigative reporter and editor on the national and metro staffs. 

He has also been editor-in-chief of The Village Voice, managing editor of The New York Daily News, and a reporter at The News and The Record when it was in Hackensack.