A Pulitzer finalist emerges from the mediocrity

At CNBC headquarters in Englewood Cliffs this morning, Porsche Cars North America introduced the 918 Spyder, a plug-in hybrid sports car with 887 horsepower and a base price of $845,000, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A photo on Page A-3 of The Record today shows Staff Writer Rebecca O'Brien being congratulated by Editor Marty Gottlieb and colleagues on Monday -- a rare glimpse inside a newsroom that fosters mediocrity.

The paper's series on the North Jersey heroin epidemic by O'Brien and Tom Mashberg was named a Pulitzer Prize "finalist" in the local news category.

But the actual prize was given to the Tampa Bay Times for  a probe of housing for the homeless that led "to swift reforms" (A-3).

Laggards

Meanwhile, the hard-working O'Brien is surrounded by mediocre colleagues, as columns on A-1 and L-1, and a health story on the Better Living cover demonstrate today.

The Record is no different than other media in being unable to resist anniversaries.

Today, burned-out Columnist Mike Kelly rehashes last year's Boston Marathon Bombing, which readers are already sick and tired of (A-1).

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski claims police are pulling over "a record number of motorists as if they were stray cattle at a roundup" (L-1).

What an odd phrase to describe drivers using cellphones in North Jersey. 

And I haven't noticed any unusual enforcement of distracted driving, just as I hardly ever see drivers stopped for speeding or blowing through stop signs, far more dangerous behavior.

No local news

There is so little local news today, L-6 carries four obituaries of obscure people most readers have never heard of.

The really bad news today is on Page 1.

The state budget gap keeps growing -- $145 million for March -- and The Record still has not reported what programs were cut by Governor Christie, who claims to have trimmed $700 million in spending (A-1).

The lead story today adds a great deal of detail to Christie's "intertwined government and political operations," which led to the George Washington Bridge scandal, among other things (A-1). 

Crappy reporting

The Better Living editors debut Your Health, a "new weekly health page," but the first major story is disappointing (BL-1).

The reporter, John Petrick, says "organic," "natural" and "free-range" are "seemingly healthy buzz terms" that don't mean "much." 

Yet on the continuation page, he concedes "organic at least has meaning, if not proven benefits" (BL-2).

What crappy reporting and editing. 

In  fact, organic food is grown without pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are banned.

Organic meat and poultry are grass fed or raised on a vegetarian diet without harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones.

Back from exile?

A decade ago, Petrick became a features writer at The Record, beating out at least one reporter who sought the promotion from then-Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale.

Then, another editor decided to exile Petrick to covering criminal and civil trials at the Passaic County Courthouse in Paterson. Is he back in features now?

He did a great job as a courthouse reporter, but this first health story isn't up to that standard.

Does big cutback in food coverage serve advertisers?

The old headquarters of North Jersey Media Group and The Record in Hackensack is now used primarily as a parking lot for attorneys, jurors and visitors to the Bergen County Courthouse a few blocks away ($5 per car). Many courthouse visitors are finding free parking elsewhere.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Under Publisher Stephen A. Borg, food coverage in The Record has declined drastically -- only to be replaced by highly promotional stories about the restaurants and chefs that advertise heavily in The Record of Woodland Park.

Eating Out on $50, the so-called budget restaurant review written by freelancer Jeff Page, appears to be the latest casualty, ending its monthly run in Better Living without an announcement.

Less space

The fine-dining restaurant review, written by full-time Staff Writer Elisa Ung, continues to cram photos and text into half the space it once commanded in the Better Living tabloid on Fridays, and Ung is restricted to taking one guest, instead of three, to the two dinners she buys.

Even if she were inclined to, Ung has little room to discuss whether restaurants are serving wild-caught fish and naturally raised or grown food.

Organic, shmorganic

Similarly, The Record's monthly Market Basket survey of supermarket prices continues to ignore the revolution in organic food that began with the opening of Whole Foods Market more than 30 years ago.

Doesn't this serve the majority of supermarket and restaurant advertisers who fatten their bottom lines by selling or serving cheaper conventionally grown food or farmed fish filled with harmful antibiotics and preservatives?

Wasted space

Ung continues to waste space in the data box that appears with every review, listing what the restaurant is "good" or "appropriate for," instead of whether it serves naturally raised or grown food.

And on Friday, she wasted two of the 11 paragraphs in her review of Solaia in Englewood on the lousy desserts, even though the vast majority of her readers don't touch the artery clogging, cloyingly sweet stuff out of concern for their waistline and their health (BL-18). 

Ung said Solaia "would be good for relaxing dining in downtown Englewood," but "less appropriate for big, loud groups."

She must think her readers are morons who can't figure that out on their own, and wouldn't the restaurant owner encourage diners to order wine and spirits from his full bar, rather than try to keep them quiet?

Raw or cooked?

Inexplicably, Ung used "sushi-quality fish" -- a term applied to fish served raw -- to describe a pricey grilled sea bass served at Solaia for $29.

As one of his first acts as publisher, Borg signaled an end to serious food coverage when he killed The Record's weekly Food section, promising daily stories about food that the editors were unable to deliver.

It's been all downhill from there.

Today's paper 

The Record doesn't bother with a full story about the third phase of Port Authority toll hikes that kick in on Sunday -- just four paragraphs on Page 1.

Nor does it report a statement from state Assembly Deputy Speaker John S. Wisniewski.

He called the bitstate agency "dysfunctional" and one that operates with "minimal accountability" -- an indirect slam at Governor Christie, who rubber stamped the toll hikes on the George Washington Bridge and other crossings.

Wisniewski said higher tolls come at a time "of stagnant wages and negligible inflation."

The Record also doesn't mention that the heavily discounted E-ZPass off-peak toll for hybrid cars with a Green Pass is going up on Sunday to $5.50 and the carpool discount, available at all hours, increases to $5 -- both are 75 cents more than before.

High-tech traffic system

The major element on today's front page reports on a high-tech traffic management system in the Meadowlands, but doesn't explain whether it can handle the influx of cars expected when American Dream, a huge entertainment and retail complex, opens (A-1).

In Hackensack news, Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports that more than $9,000 has been raised for James Brady, the former homeless man who was penalized for his honesty (Local front).

Bankrupt Christie turns to Obama -- again

The license plate and stickers on a Chrysler PT Cruiser, spotted Friday on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, speak for themselves.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Governor Christie has made such a wreck of state finances he's grabbing $15 million in federal Sandy relief funds to help the owners of shore businesses (The Record's front page today).

Wait a minute.

The fire that destroyed 50 businesses in Seaside Park and Seaside Heights last week had nothing to do with Superstorm Sandy, and may even have been set deliberately.

Since he took office in January 2010, Christie has used voodoo economics and cuts to middle- and working class programs to balance his budgets.

He's also grabbed federal money from NJ Transit and the Port Authority to fix state roads after he cancelled the Hudson River rail tunnels, dealing a blow to commuters and labor.

The GOP bully may be a hero to shore residents and business people, and the editors of The Record, but North Jersey voters will do their best on Nov. 5 to drum him out of office.

Bankrupt him

Another Page 1 story today discusses the risks in a second federal indictment of former Bergen County Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Ferriero (A-1 and A-10).

All the legal mumbo jumbo is fine, but the story ignores this:

Even if acquitted, Ferriero will be forced to spend a large part of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in allegedly ill-gotten gains to defend himself, and that's poetic justice.

Kelly is back

Readers can't tell if a related column on the Opinion front is more about Ferriero or Staff Writer Mike Kelly, who goes into great detail about what the so-called journalist said in his 2008 interview with the champion of pay to play (O-1).

The strongest word Kelly had for Ferriero was "boss."

"This is how politics works," is the last line from Kelly, who completely misses the bigger picture (O-4).

This is how democracy -- our corrupt system of government -- works. This is the wonderful system that we export to the rest of the world -- the system Kelly and other members of the media can't stop glorifying. 

And this is the system that has been poisoned by Christie and Tea Party crackpots.

More road lies

On the front of Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski again ignores the daily commuting nightmare for yet another column on MVC lines (L-1).

The Addled Commuter is fresh off two columns greatly hyping the diversion of some drivers who entered the upper-level toll plaza of the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee streets last week:

Here's what a reader concerned over all the errors and distortions in Cichowski's work had to say in an e-mail to management:

"In his Friday and Saturday columns, the Road Warrior relies on a series of false rumors and exaggerated false statements and assessments to over-hype and distort significantly more traffic congestion to the upper level of the GW Bridge. It was due to temporarily reducing number of tollbooths allotted to a local Fort Lee entrance for only 5 morning rush hours.

"His first column was falsely titled Closed tollbooths a commuting disaster, and the Road Warrior falsely reported in these two columns that two tollbooths were 'closed' and 'shut down.' All of this contradicted the facts and The Record's own photograph with the Friday column, which showed these tollbooths remained open, but were used for other highway traffic instead of cars from the Fort Lee entrance.

"Road Warrior had to sheepishly admit in his follow-up column that this traffic congestion was really a short-term situation based on a PA traffic pattern study in contradiction to denials by him in his Friday column, and was not a permanent change, as he and others repeatedly implied in that column.

"Yet, the Road Warrior could not resist republishing false rumors from his Friday column and making up new false rumors about the fictitious reasons for this temporary change."

To read the entire e-mail on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, click on the following link:

Inscrutable Road Warrior screws readers


Man with tits

What do you make of the big photo of a bearded, pot-bellied Sussex County man with tits next to the Road Warrior column (L-1)?

It's hard to believe there wasn't someone more photogenic at a tattoo fest in Secaucus.

The drought on Hackensack news in Local continues today, although the byline of Hannan Adely, the reporter assigned to the city, has been appearing on 9/11-related and other stories.

Say it ain't so

Readers can't have much respect for another columnist, Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State (O-1).

Today, she describes the mean-spirited Christie as the "brash and beguiling soon-to-be-reelected governor."

Why does Harrison prostitute herself only months after she blasted Christie for putting "a great double-digit victory" on Nov. 5 "over the lives of women in New Jersey" who lost $7.5 million in preventive health funds (June 23 column).

Or her June 16 column that labeled Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, a Democrat, as "a sell-out" for endorsing the homely GOP slob.

She also called DiVincenzo "a politically expedient compromiser who doesn't give a rat's fanny about what's best for a political party he allegedly bosses."

Christie is "beguiling"? Give me a break, professor.

Frugality rules

On the Business front, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais can't stop boasting about what a smart money manager he is (B-1).

It's one thing for the frugal DeMarrais not to buy organic food, but it's irresponsible for him to publish a monthly Market Basket survey of supermarket prices without organic or naturally raised milk, poultry and other items.

In the same way, advising seniors to chase discounts at fast-food restaurants, as he does today, ignores the many dietary restrictions they are under and the crappy beef and other low-quality items served.

Also, where did The Record get the ridiculous  illustration at the bottom of his column on the Business front -- an elderly woman in curlers with a bullhorn?

Another suit

A story on A-3 today reports that North Jersey Media Group has filed another copyright-infringement lawsuit over use of "an iconic 9/11 photograph," this time by Sarah Palin and her political action committee.

The Associated Press story has  a huge hole  in it: 

The Record's management refused to spend the money to re-make Page 1 on Sept. 11, 2001, to highlight the inspirational flag-raising image from Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin, and banished it to a back page.

Now, NJMG General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg is spending far more in legal fees to punish anyone who uses the photo, even if full credit is given.

After 20-plus years, columnist can't hack it

A noisy private business jet takes off or lands at Teterboro Airport and flies over Hackensack every few minutes most mornings, afternoons and evenings. They are driving some residents crazy, but imagine what it's like to live next to the airport, a favorite of the 1%.

Columnist Mike Kelly is back on Page 1 of The Record today, asking the rhetorical questions that allow him to avoid directly criticizing Rutgers officials over the Mike Rice affair.

Questions are Kelly's specialty, but without them, his columns are nothing more than news stories, stringing together quotes from such sources as lawmakers, and state and university officials.

Columnists are supposed to have voices and strong points of view -- damn the attribution -- not ask questions, such as this one in his second paragraph today:

"Why did so many allegedly smart academics seem so clueless to the significance of the coach's abuse and what they needed to do about it."

I need some caffeine.

Editor Marty Gottlieb runs two columns about Rutgers on the front page, and a news story inside -- the fifth day in a row of over-the-top coverage that leaves most readers searching for some other news.

Dissing Hackensack

The Page 1 story on towns holding April school elections makes no mention of Hackensack, where officials censored public questions at a recent forum for candidates and where a school board member is running for a seat in the May 14 City Council election.

In today's Local, the big Hackensack news apparently is the first report about the March 22 closing of a wing at the Fanny M. Hillers School, but the story assumes all 45,000 residents of the city know where it is (L-3).

Second look

On Sunday's Business front, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais praised Whole Foods Market's decision to list genetically modified ingredients on labels, and made a rare mention of organic food -- more than 30 years after the chain was founded (B-1).

Travel Editor Jill Schensul completely ignored the American Littoral Society in her Sunday cover story on volunteers flocking to restore the Jersey shore after Superstorm Sandy (T-1). 

The ALS is based in Highlands.

Since Sandy, coverage shifts to the shore

Another rough ride on Louis Street near Fairmount Avenue in Hackensack has many residents wondering why city officials are giving a 30-year tax break to a wealthy apartment developer, especially in view of hundreds of millions of dollars in property that yields no taxes to pay for road paving, city owned hybrid cars, better food in the high school and other sorely needed improvements.

Hey, Editor Marty Gottlieb, remember North Jersey?

More than four months after Superstorm Sandy, The Record today leads Page 1 with two more stories about the mess -- in a shift of coverage that has left many towns in Bergen and Passaic counties feeling neglected.

Yes. We want front-page, blow-by-blow coverage of  a lucrative clean-up contract awarded to AshBritt, a Florida-based disaster recovery firm with close ties to Haley Barbour, one of Governor Christie's key allies.

And yes. Most North Jerseyans love the shore, but few can actually afford to own a home there, so how about putting stories about homeowners bracing for another storm or having to elevate homes inside the paper.

Hospital expansions

Ridgewood residents girding for new hearings on the expansion of The Valley Hospital are lucky they don't live in Hackensack, which has been changed fundamentally by the expansion of the non-profit Hackensack University Medical Center (A-1).

The Record's coverage of  the growing medical center pales in comparison to the endless stories about the Ridgewood hospital, and the Borg siblings may have something to do with that.

Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg was an HUMC board member for many years, and may have discouraged negative coverage.

Meanwhile, Publisher and President Stephen A. Borg, who is on the President's Council at the Ridgewood hospital, may be encouraging blanket coverage. 

Little comfort 

Protestations over dedication of a stone to women sexually enslaved by the Japanese armed forces -- and even claims that it never happened -- remind many of the annual denial of the Armenian holocaust by the Turks (A-1).

Production Editor Liz Houlton's copy desk made a mess of this story, which never uses the word "Korean" or "Koreans" on Page 1, even though many of the so-called comfort women were Korean.

The headline also is botched in an irresponsible way that insults the victims: 

They were not "Japan's comfort women," as the headline says, but women from Korea, China and other Asian countries invaded by the Japanese.

Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado also refers to e-mails as "electronic missives." Give me a break. 

Houlton should be fired immediately, and her six-figure salary distributed as bonuses to the staff.

Hackensack news 

On the front of Local, Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports on the possibility of higher parking fees on Main Street and higher parking fines -- in her fourth story about the city in as many days  (L-1).

Residents would like to see some of the extra revenue from parking fees and fines -- along with revenue from red-light cameras and stricter enforcement of traffic laws -- dedicated to property tax relief.

John, Sandy and errors

As if readers aren't already sick and tired of Sandy coverage, Road Warrior John Cichowski revisits the gasoline shortage brought on by the Oct. 29 storm (L-1).

In Wednesday's column, the tired Cichowski confused miles and minutes in his incredibly boring column about a small minority of commuters who travel at least 90 miles and spend at least 50 minutes getting to work:

"He doesn't complain about the time (90 minutes) or the distance (52 minutes) required to reach Manhattan," Cichowski wrote, and the error was completely missed by his assignment editor and the copy desk (Wednesday's L-2).

For the complete text of a concerned reader's e-mail to management, click on the following link to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

John Cichowski: Can you find the error?

Lays an egg

In Better Living, I'm glad to see a review of a restaurant that serves "mostly organic" food, but surely The Record can do better than the Red Hen Bistro, which is open only two days a week (BL-14)?

And isn't this at least the second review of the small Wood-Ridge BYO, which was run by a different chef in 2011? 

See previous post, 

A rare peep from a North Jersey racist

Columnist jumps back into bed with Christie

With the help of a compliant and adoring media, a truly ugly Governor Christie is trying to sell himself as a champion of the middle class he has been screwing all along.

Charles Stile, The Record's chief political columnist,  must really have contempt for readers today as he regurgitates the latest royal B.S. from Governor Christie.

Long after most people labeled "The Jersey Comeback" a big lie, Christie has adopted a new slogan to deceive voters: "Christie Middle-Class Reform Agenda" (A-1).

Of course, it's the Democrats who are fighting for the middle class, as the party's national convention demonstrated time and again  last week.

And it's Christie, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan who are out to destroy the middle-class way of life by trying to loot Social Security and Medicare, assaulting the unions at every turn, and defending huge tax cuts for their wealthy supporters.

Paper does P.R.

Stile has had his head up his ass for so long he won't even acknowledge any of that in today's Page 1 column nor does he mention all the anti-middle class moves from Christie since he took office in January 2010:

Christie's attacks on state employee and state teachers unions are well-known. The GOP bully also killed the biggest expansion of mass transit in decades.

And our rotund governor stood by as the Port Authority and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority held up commuters with drastically higher tolls.

Christie also cut funding for women's health programs and school nutrition programs for students from low-income families.

The governor should start worrying about his spreading middle, not the middle class.

Meanwhile, the media -- and Editor Marty Gottlieb of The Record -- would shock all of us if they started reporting on Christie's health problems and his failure to address the state's child obesity epidemic.

Now that Stile has jumped back into bed with Christie and his spin doctors let's hope the obese governor rolls over on the clueless reporter.

More corrections?

The Record's editors have repositioned "Corrections" on A-2 to make them more visible to readers. 

Let's hope they'll start acknowledging all the errors that appear in the paper, instead of ignoring them. 

Little local news

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza present another disappointing Local section today, with two Hackensack stories that are merely follow-ups on former Police Chief Ken Zisa and the city's school board (L-1 and L-2).

Road Warrior John Cichowski again relies on reader e-mails to turn out his 678th column on the MVC (L-1).

Even with coverage of 9/11 ceremonies in North Jersey, Sykes needed to fill space with a photo of a minor, three-vehicle accident (L-2).

Whole paper?

I'm still digesting Monday's editorial, which urges readers to "keep eating organic" to avoid pesticides, animal antibiotics and growth hormones, and to help the environment.

So, what's the explanation for how little attention the paper's food editor and restaurant reviewer pay  to naturally raised food? 

Today's weekly recipe from Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill calls for ground turkey and beef, but she doesn't even recommend that readers try to find antibiotic-free meat for themselves or their children (BL-1-2).

And Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung rarely tells readers anything about the origin of food she samples and recommends or say whether restaurants serve organic salad greens and other dishes.

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• Business editors blow Christie -- again