In GWB case, editors' knowledge of legal system is a joke

The YMCA at Main and Passaic streets in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Despite the hundreds of hours his ass has been planted on a courtroom bench, Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record is no expert on federal criminal prosecutions.

In fact, only one of the three bylines on today's continuing front-page coverage of the George Washington Bridge lane-closure indictments carries with it any credibility (A-1).

Staff Writer Peter J. Sampson, who is assigned to cover the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Courthouse in Newark, is a former wire-service reporter who likely has covered hundreds of federal indictments and trails.

Still, today's banner headline isn't news to anyone familiar with federal prosecutions:

"Defense team may call Christie"

That was clear four long days ago, when Christie ally David Wildstein pleaded guilty to conspiring with the governor's aide and another Port Authority executive to close bridge access lanes in 2013 as part of a political vendetta against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor.

Defense lawyers for Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni would be fools not to call Christie, himself a former U.S. attorney, who continues to insist he had no knowledge of the scheme.

Otherwise, Kelly and Baroni, along with Wildstein, would have to take the fall for a fraud scheme that was the nastiest political dirty trick since Watergate.

'Oh, shit' moment

I am sure that Christie said "Oh, shit" to himself and called his high-priced lawyer on Friday as soon as he heard Wildstein repeat his January 2014 statement that "evidence exists" the GOP bully knew of the lane closings as they were happening.

Instead of pursuing the potential of a sitting governor and GOP presidential candidate being called as a witness at a Bridgegate fraud trial, Editor Martin Gottlieb jumped immediately to the governor's defense.

That was clear from Monday's idiotic banner headline:

"Sharp contrasts in GWB probe"

Gottlieb actually compared the federal criminal charges filed against the Bridgegate defendants after a 16-month investigation to a March 2014 report that exonerated Christie at a cost to the taxpayers of $7.5 million.

That report -- from lawyer Randy Mastro -- was never even credible in the court of public opinion, but Christie could count on a clueless media to waste precious front page space and treat it as if were evidence.

'Fading' hopes

In one of the most negative Christie editorials I've seen, The Record notes the governor will be out of state again today and asks:

"When is Christie going to consistently show up at his day job, the one some people were so focused on his retaining in 2013 that they allegedly broke the law" (A-8)?

The edtorial also refers to the Mastro report as "a multimillion-dollar whitewash on the GWB scandal," making you wonder why it was regurgitated at such great length on Monday's Page 1.

Playing media

Christie continues to manage Gottlieb and other editors in the wake of the federal charges, just as the GOP  bully has since he took office in early 2010 and started waging war against the middle class.

NJ.com reports the governor has cancelled the weekly New Jersey town hall meetings he said he was going to attend.

And WNYC-FM, a New Jersey Public Radio station, puts Bridgegate legal costs to taxpayers and toll payers at nearly $10.7 million, if state, legislative, Port Authority and Fort Lee expenses are included.

Finally, a new Bridgegate poll released today found more than two in three New Jerseyans (69%) feel Christie has not been completely honest about what he knew.

And a majority of Garden State Republicans (52%) now believe he hasn't been completely honest.

More errors

On Sunday, The Record reported incorrectly that Pompton Lakes had already adopted its school budget (A-2).

A bigger error occurred in Brigid Harrison's Sunday opinion column, which referred to Richard Nixon as a former governor (Sunday's O-2).

An Eye on The Record reader noted Nixon ran for governor of California in 1962 and lost.

On Christie's lack of concern in reacting to the GWB charges, the political science and law professor said:

"The connection to the [Christie] administration is problematical for a presidential contender because it demonstrates either corruption and lying or an inability to manage staff -- not what voters are looking for in a president."

Why wasn't Harrison's column played on Page 1 -- instead of an endless stream of drivel from Charles Stile, Mike Kelly and other burned-out reporters?

McDonald's

An upbeat Business page story on McDonald's slumping sales reports the company "intends to stop buying chicken treated with antibiotics" (L-8).

The clueless Washington Port reporter says nothing about the low-quality, additive-filled beef on which McDonald's made its reputation.

Anyone foolish enough to eat at McDonald's would be happy with a guarantee the hamburgers don't contain cow feces.

Blood of 12-year-old Paterson girl stains Christie's hands

Dead trees remind visitors to Sandy Hook of the devastation Superstorm Sandy caused at the Jersey shore in late October 2012.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record today continues to play catch-up to the slaying of a 12-year-old Paterson girl, especially the link between police layoffs and escalating gun violence in the Silk City.

Already tired of the story, Editor Martin Gottlieb demoted the follow-up to the front of Local today, and used a dramatic photo of the girl's grieving mother on Page 1, where the initial account appeared on Monday.

Police layoffs

Readers have to dig deep to learn "Paterson's Police Department has not recovered from a layoff of 125 police officers in 2011" (L-2).

But in a masterful job of selective reporting and editing, the story ignores the cause of the layoffs -- Governor Christie's deep cuts in state aid to New Jersey's poorest cities.

The blood of Genesis Rincon, who was shot in the head on Saturday evening while riding on her scooter, is on Christie's hands, whether The Record wants to acknowledge it or not.

The real victims

And, really, police officers aren't the only ones affected by the layoffs. 

It is residents of the impoverished 4th Ward, where Genesis lived and died, and other parts of Paterson who are the real victims of the GOP bully's mean-spirited treatment of the poor, women and anyone else who isn't wealthy and white.

Today's L-1 story on continuing community outrage over the slaying is another example of the police coming out in force after the crime, but doing little to prevent it.

Typos 'R' Us

Typos, misspelled names and other errors continue to plague the paper under six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, who seems to be napping at her computer or out shopping for a new dress most of the time.

The Record's style is to upper case "Police Department" when referring to a specific one, such as in "Paterson's Police Department," not "Paterson's police department" (L-2).

In an L-1 headline today, it should be upper case "Chief Zisa," not "chief Zisa."

The name game

On A-2 today, the editors correct a misspelled surname in an A-1 story on Saturday. Last Saturday's A-2 also corrected a misspelled name.

A-2 on July 3 corrected the misspelling of the first names of a couple featured in the previous Sunday's Real Estate section, as well as the complete omission of a councilman's name in a story on Teaneck's reorganization meeting. 

A-2 on June 30 noted "Tyler Marshuetz of Mendham was "incorrectly identified in a photo Saturday on Page S-1," but doesn't identify him further.

Finally, A-2 on June 26 noted a caption on L-3 a day earlier "misidentified a woman participating  in a ceremony at Haledon School."

Hackensack news

Today, The Record reports Hackensack's insurance company has settled a federal lawsuit filed by former Police Chief Ken Zisa (L-1).

The last paragraph notes Zisa was convicted in 2012 of official misconduct and insurance fraud for improperly removing his former girlfriend from the scene of a car accident and later filing a false $11,000 insurance claim (L-2).

But the story errs in saying Zisa, sentenced to five years in prison, is under house arrest "while his attorney prepares an appeal."

That appeal -- of the conviction and sentence -- likely was filed weeks after the judge imposed the prison term in September 2012.

You can blame an agonizingly slow appeals process, which favors corrupt officials like Zisa, who remains free so long after he was sentenced to prison.

The paper also continues to report the city has spent "at least $8 million on legal defense and settlements" for litigation related to the former chief, but never says how much of that was paid by insurers.

Want the Zisas back?

Today's Zisa story should remind Hackensack residents of the many years they lived under the yoke of a family that practiced nepotism and cronyism in the best New Jersey tradition.

After he left office, Jack Zisa, who was mayor for 16 years, reaped tens of thousands of dollars in fees as the city's insurance consultant.

I don't pretend to know the identity of all the cousins, uncles or other Zisa relatives who had city jobs, but do know there were many, including cousin Joseph C. Zisa Jr., who was the last city attorney and before that a municipal judge.  

I also don't know whether a Zisa relative was the one who didn't bill the Board of Education for a city police officer posted in the high school, but do know the city lost $1 million as a result.

The new City Council hired a chief financial officer to put the city's affairs in order, and he has been praised, even by critics, for the job he did on the city budget and on starting to clean up the fiscal disarray of the past.

Scouring Page 1 for scraps of local news

Euclid Avenue, near Grand Avenue, in Hackensack's Fairmount section, above and below, is another street officials have neglected for decades. Residents say it hasn't been paved since 1979, yet taxes and city employees' salaries continue to rise. 

As if a week or more of stories on the so-called sequester crisis wasn't enough, Editor Marty Gottlieb unleashes two more on Page 1 today that are guaranteed to put readers to sleep.

A third A-1 story is a trend piece on free online classes that seems to suggest Gottlieb is flunking his assignment of putting out a hometown newspaper filled with local news.

Shoot em' up

But the front-page is dominated today by a wildly exaggerated column on the AR-15 assault rifle by the tired Mike Kelly.

The main headline -- "Meet America's weapon of choice" -- is hype, and isn't supported by the text or the numbers in a graphic on A-6.

The graphic says 1.626 million were produced in a 21-year period -- this in a nation of 300 million people.

Maybe, the AR-15 is the "weapon of choice" for men who wish their cocks were that big.

More sloppy work

And typical of the work of Production Liz Houlton's copy desk, the A-6 graphic drops the word "million" in two places under a heading: "Number of firearms in U.S."

More errors

On the front of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski publishes an elaborate justification for all of the rollover-accident photos Sykes uses as filler in place of news she and her minions are too lazy to gather (L-1).

This column follows Cichowski's major boner on Friday, when he told readers toll agencies don't cross-honor E-ZPass discounts, when, in fact, they do. 

A reader concerned about Cichowski's accelerating inaccuracies sent this e-mail to management:

"Like death, taxes and rising tolls, there is another sure thing Record readers can count on: Endless mistaken reporting and misinformed responses by the Road Warrior to readers' questions without any corrections, even when notified about these gross mistakes.

"Road Warrior's glaring mistakes and made-up, uneducated answers were in evidence in the March 1 column responding to to readers' questions about E-ZPass and tolls.

"The Record should STOP the Road Warrior from misinforming its readers and publishing nonsense in response to readers' questions.

"The Road Warrior indicated that the New Jersey Turnpike Authority E-ZPass system won't accept discounts from other E-ZPass systems, including the Port Authority.

"In reality, the N.J. Turnpike E-ZPass Web page specifically states that its EZ-Pass users are eligible for discounts from various E-ZPass systems, such as the Port Authority's.

"The Road Warrior seems to be more interested in filling up column space rather than actually providing accurate answers to his adoring readers."

For the full e-mail, click on this link to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Answers pulled out of thin air 


Local snooze

Hackensack readers are accustomed to a Sunday paper without news of their city, but what about other towns?

The big news in Teaneck is a family and dog escaping a fire (L-3).

Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood are conspicuously absent in the L-1 story on towns launching health and fitness "wellness" programs.

Empty plate

In Better Living, there is no explanation to readers for why The Corner Table column is missing today.

The column -- which often promotes chefs and restaurant owners -- is written by Staff Writer Elisa Ung, who is taking a break from weekly restaurant reviewing.