Wacko Trump labeled a racist by everyone but news media

Hackensack officials have agreed to store artifacts and other items from the New Jersey Naval Museum until the USS Ling is relocated. Now, the museum's artifacts are displayed on North Jersey Media Group property at the old River Street headquarters of The Record, where the World War II sub is tied up.

The gangway to the submarine, and other artifacts. The museum is closed and tours of the sub are suspended. The Ling is stuck in the mud of the Hackensack River.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump's tirades against Mexicans and Muslims made it clear the billionaire was just another white racist.

Yet, the news media likes to say Trump represents millions of "angry white men."

Of course, we know his supporters are racists who blame their problems on hard-working immigrants instead of the greedy corporations who have sent millions of their jobs overseas. 

Why have the news media -- including The Record of Woodland Park -- generally avoided calling him a racist even as Hispanic cooks in Manhattan's best restaurants are spitting in his food? 

'Novice' or racist?

On Wednesday's front page, the first paragraph of an Associated Press story identified Trump as a "political novice," and that was echoed Thursday night on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley. 

A Record editorial on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee ran down in great detail his insults to Mexicans, and his pledges to deport 11 million illegal immigrants and ban all Muslims from entering the country ("GOP at the abyss" on Thursday's A-12).

Editor or hack?

But Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin never calls Trump what everyone else knows he is -- a racist and white supremacist.

Even in his opinion column on A-13 today, Doblin refuses to label Trump a racist for his Cinco de Mayo posts on Twitter and Facebook.

A news story today reports the Latino Victory Fund released a statement that said:

"Donald Trump is doubling down on his racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Latino and anti-Mexican rhetoric."

But hacks at The Associated Press made sure to undercut the validity of that statement by describing the Latino fund as "a left-leaning political group" (A-4).

Donald Trump with big sister Maryanne Trump Barry, a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. She was nominated as a federal district judge in Newark by President Reagen in 1983, and appointed to the appeals court in 1999 by President Clinton.

Media made Trump

Much of Trump's support is rooted in the slavish media reporting every one of his hateful words in a presidential campaign we grew tired of months ago.

The editors of The Record only seem interested in stirring up controversy, not exploring issues and reporting on what would be good for New Jersey and the nation.

In covering Governor Christie since he took office in early 2010, editors and columnists have focused relentlessly on politics -- instead of issues and policies.

So, it's no surprise The Record remains the only major New Jersey daily that hasn't called on Christie to resign after he dropped out of the race and threw his support to Trump.

Today's paper

On the last workday of one of the dreariest weeks in memory, Editor Deirdre Sykes finally produces a Page 1 weather story (A-1).

And why is "vaping" dominating the front page instead of an environmental story on New York City imposing a 5-cent charge for using a disposable plastic grocery bag -- a fee that New Jersey certainly could use (A-3)?

Senior citizens

On the Local front today, Staff Writer Colleen Diskin has a rare report on senior citizens who aren't institutionalized (L-1).

Sykes and other newsroom staffers have been treating seniors like shit for decades -- stories on autism have been far more numerous than those on Alzheimer's disease.

Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to ignore the challenges facing older drivers like himself -- even as "pedal confusion" leads them to plow into pedestrians and storefronts, often with fatal consequences.

And the food editors promote mystery meat and artery clogging desserts as if they expect their older readers to live forever.

Hackensack news?

Staff Writer John Seasly covered Tuesday night's meeting of the Hackensack City Council, but wrote only one story -- yet another report on who is leading the Police Department.

Seasly didn't mention the council approved a resolution to store artifacts from the New Jersey Naval Museum until the USS Ling is relocated from North Jersey Media Group property at the old headquarters of The Record in Hackensack.

The Record hasn't reported whether the newspaper's owners, the Borg family, will pay for the relocation of the World War II submarine, which is stuck in the mud of the Hackensack River.

The Borgs, NJMG and The Record abandoned Hackensack in 2009 after prospering there for more than 110 years -- dealing a death blow to many Main Street merchants.

Now, with the blessing of the City Council, the Borgs plan to sell their 19.7 acres aong River Street to an apartment developer, and laugh all the way to the bank.

Lead in fountains

Saddle Brook is the latest district to turn off school drinking fountains where "unacceptably high levels of lead" were found (L-6).

Hackensack residents haven't seen a similar story reporting on lead levels in drinking fountains used by their children in what is the biggest school district in Bergen County. 

Mystery BBQ

Staff Writer Elisa Ung raves about a glazed doughnut stuffed with barbecued beef, bacon and cheese, but doesn't tell readers whether the meat is the cheap, low-quality stuff of unknown origin usually found in Korean restaurants.

Her 3-star Informal Dining review of Kimchi Smoke BBQ Shack in Bergenfield is long on mindless promotion and short on the information readers need to stay healthy (BL-16). 

Last front page of '15 is same mix of sensational, political

Post offices in Fort Lee, above, and Maywood have small parking lots for patrons, but the much bigger Hackensack Post Office only offers metered street parking.

Free parking is at a premium in Fort Lee, but postal patrons luck out.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

So many front pages in The Record speculate on the future -- today, the lead stories discuss the guilt or innocence of Bill Cosby, and which GOP candidate will take the Iowa Caucuses.

Yet, the vast majority of readers want the media to do a better job of reporting what happened -- the definition of "news" -- especially in their town, county and state.

Below the fold today, a story on the warmest December in state history recalled the poor job The Record did recently in reporting the anemic sale of all-electric cars in the Garden State.

The emphasis was on their limited range and lack of chargers, not on their zero emissions or how they are perfectly suited to the lifestyle of North Jersey's senior citizens.

Local obits

It's time for another annual roundup by the local obituary writer, Jay Levin (L-1).

Often, the local obit is the only relief from the editors' over-reliance on police news, trials and photos of rollover accidents.

Yet, in 2015 as in previous years, many of these well-written life stories literally were buried in the back pages of Local.

What's coming

If you want a good laugh, take a look at what the Better Living editors are predicting for 2016 in food and culture (BL-1).

The first item ignores that Italian-Americans and other ethnic groups have been eating such small fish as anchovies, sardines, herring and mackerel since the invention of the net.

The last item is another shameless plug for a restaurant that won't open until March from The Record's chief critic, whose lavish dinners are paid for by the newspaper.

Elisa Ung doesn't mention menu prices at American Cut Bar & Grill probably will induce sticker shock in anyone outside of the 1%.

GOP tries to screw well-off seniors

Image via Wikipedia
A Medicare card.

To avoid taxing millionaires and other wealthy supporters, House Republicans OK'd a payroll tax cut that would be paid for in part by higher Medicare premiums for seniors who earn more than $80,000 a year.

Of course, there's no mention of Medicare in the news story that runs in The Record today, and interim Editor Doug Clancy made sure you'd have to search for it (A-5).


More crime news


Clancy chose crime news for the fourth day in a row to lead the GOP-friendly daily, bringing readers the breathtaking news that an ex-cop accused of murder failed drug tests during probation (A-1). What a bad guy he must be.


The photo in the middle of the front page is from Parksville, N.Y. Is that near Park Ridge, Palisades Park or Park and Ride? 


It's hard to believe there were no North Jersey images worthy of Clancy's A-1.


Clancy seems more comfortable dramatizing police and fire news than an investigative piece on a Bergen County insider by Staff Writer Jeffs Pillets or former Gov. Jon Corzine's latest shucking and jiving about $1.2 billion in client funds. 


Temper tantrum


What about Governor Christie's style of leadership -- retaliating against state Sen. Richard Codey, D-Essex (A-4). Why isn't that on Page 1?


"When Christie doesn't get his way, he stomps his feet and terminates people just to show he's boss," a Democratic leader noted.


Also on A-4, a photo caption by Editor Liz Houlton's news copy desk incorrectly calls an unusually large airplane designed to carry spaceships a "giant spaceship."


When is someone going to slap former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky as hard as possible across the face to bring him back to the reality of the molesting charges against him (A-9)?


He ducked out of a court hearing, where he would have faced accusers, saying he intends "to fight for four quarters."


You won't find any Hackensack municipal or school news in the Local section today, but you will find another column by Road Warrior John Cichowski on the parents of teen drivers (L-1).

Columnist trashes 'drunken Indian' killed by park officer

Image via Wikipedia
Well-known people of Irish descent.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK -- Leave it to Columnist Mike Kelley to play the race card in commenting on the award of nearly $2.3 million in damages to the family of a Ramapough Mountain Indian who was shot dead by a white park ranger in 2006.

Kelly resorts to all of the stereotypes about Native Americans and their supposed problems with alcohol in his hate-filled, blame-the-victim column in The Record's Local section today (L-3). 

How this man calls himself a journalist is beyond me. Look at his phony smile in the column photo and tell me he doesn't look like the typical person of Irish descent who likes to take a nip now and then. 

Kelly calls the mixed-race victim, Emil Mann, "rowdy" and "tipsy," and says "booze" may have "blurred his judgment and helped get him killed."  

Honest Indian

The columnist completely ignores statements at the civil trial that Park Police Officer Chad Walder "made up the story about the scuffle [with Mann] and ambush to justify the shooting."

This isn't the first time Kelly has sided with law enforcement in the shooting of an unarmed suspect. He wrote a 1995 book about the fatal shooting of black teenager Philip Pannell by a white Teaneck police officer in 1990.

Witnesses said Pannell, 16, was shot in the back.

For many years, The Record barred the word "Indian" and its style book mandated the use of "Native American." However, under Production Editor Liz Houlton, who now supervises the news copy desk, anything goes.

Outside of Kelly's outrageous attack on the reputation of a dead man, there isn't much in the Woodland Park daily today.

Jock-strap news

Interim Editor Doug Clancy squanders more space on Page 1 of the Bergen Edition to report on the latest developments in the Wayne Hills High School football scandal -- a story that belongs in the Passaic-Morris Edition.

Staff Writer Colleen Diskin goes to nursing homes and assisted living centers in writing about the longer life expectancy of men -- making it sound as if all old people are just waiting to die (A-1 and A-12).

Diskin is another pampered member of the big butt sisterhood nurtured by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes. (See previous post, The newsroom's big butt sisterhood.)

Press corps pussies

Leave it to Michael Fremer of Wyckoff to do what the entire Washington press corps (including staffer Herb Jackson) has failed to do in the raging debate over taxing the wealthy -- a battle that has paralyzed Congress.

In a letter to the editor on A-22 today, Fremer puts the debate in perspective:

"All we've gotten from the Bush tax cuts on the wealthy are deficits, greater income disparity and the weakest job creation in the post-World War II era. In fact, President Obama's so-called failed stimulus resulted in greater job creation in three years (almost 2 million jobs saved or created) than did Bush's tax cuts in eight."

Locals are yokels

In Sykes' Local section, Hackensack reporter Stephanie Akin was sent to cover a hearing in Franklin Lakes Municipal Court (L-1), meaning there is no Hackensack news in the section for yet another day.

In more senior citizen news, a 67-year-old driver rear-ended another car in North Arlington (L-2), and a 75-year-old woman was run down by a car in Ridgewood (L-3).

Sykes has asked Diskin to find out which nursing home or assisted living center these two end up in, assuming they survive, and to interview them for her next story on old people.

Relentless focus on the young

Image via Wikipedia
Multimillionaire Dr. Mehmet Oz of Cliffside Park using his fingers to indicate the size of a typical senior citizen's brain when it comes to exercising and living a healthy lifestyle.

 

Is it really front-page news that a bill proposes to add more hours of practice for teen drivers with learner's permits?


As interim Editor Doug Clancy surely knows, inexperienced drivers are more dangerous than the inexperienced reporters in The Record's Better Living section. But isn't the goal safer roads for everyone?


Now, readers can expect a half-dozen columns from the Road Warrior, giving parents a platform to bitch and moan about this proposal, as they did about the red license-plate decals for teens under 18.


F.U. to seniors


The teen-driving story on Page 1 today only highlights how little attention head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes pays to older drivers, another accident-prone group.


She loves the photo ops they provide as they plow into storefronts, other cars or pedestrians -- often with fatal consequences -- but she doesn't bother publishing a guide to programs that could help them become better drivers.


You'd think Egypt was part of North Jersey by the frequency of photos from there that land on the front page (A-1).


Staff Writer Kibret Markos reports a $2.1 million award to the estate of a Ramapough Indian who was fatally shot by a park ranger in 2006, but ignores the potential one-third payout to the family's lawyer (A-1).


I could not find the age of the victim, Emil Mann, in the story. 


And Markos apparently missed a bigger jury award Monday in state Superior Court in Hackensack -- $10 million to the family of a visiting 13-year-old Korean boy who drowned in Ridgewood's municipal pool (NorthJersey.com).


Christie payback


The third and final part of the series on the developmentally disabled highlights Governor Christie's plan to shift work from unionized state employees to low-paid workers in the private sector -- likely at the behest of his many corporate donors (A-1).


The big news from Hackensack in Sykes' Local section today is the carbon-dioxide poisoning of a family of three from a faulty furnace flue (L-1).


Senior handouts


Below that, a story reports seniors lined up for free smoothies and cups of fruit during a visit by that horse's ass, Dr. Mehmet Oz, to the Northwest Bergen Senior Activities Center in Midland Park (L-1).


The story reinforces the paper's theme that most seniors need to be spoon-fed a message of "healthy aging" -- just as Sykes' assignment desk insists on being spoon-fed press releases.

Related posts

• Editors ensure seniors stay invisible (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Older people make front-page news (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• More hard-luck seniors on parade (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

PSE&G ads are an insult to customers

This ad appears on NorthJersey.com

I wonder how many utility customers agree with this ad, which appears on NorthJersey.com, the Web site of North Jersey Media Group?


A similar, self-congratulatory, full-page PSE&G ad appears today on Page F-12 of The Record, in the Better Living section.

Maybe the ads explain why the paper's editors seem to be going out of their way to treat Public Service Electric and Gas Co. gently in the wake of massive outages from last weekend's nor'easter. 

Again today, the anger and frustration of customers still without lights, heat and hot water are buried at the end of the Page 1 story, which focuses on rate-hike requests "months or years"  down the road.

Fall back, take a nap

Interim Editor Doug Clancy's first Sunday paper is a snoozer.

The off lead on the front page is a slow-moving process story on privatization of state services that doesn't even mention the disastrous, private automobile inspections put into place by the last governor named Christie -- Christie Whitman.

Also on A-1 is a story about two women who competed in today's New York City Marathon in memory of their marathon-running father. So what?

A far better choice for Page 1, and a story of wider interest, is coverage of Friday's "Seniors in Suburbia" conference in Paramus that the editors held for a day -- especially in view of how senior citizens in the audience projected a new image.

Negative stories

Staff Writer Colleen Diskin reports on the Local front today that one panelist said the "senior community is often portrayed as being a population in need rather than as a population that has something to offer in a community."

Of course, Diskin doesn't mention that her assignment editor has had her write story after story recently that portrayed seniors in just those negative terms.

The assignment desk under Editor Deirdre Sykes has become so addicted to turning out filler based on reports, surveys and statistics no one batted an eye at Road Warrior John Cichowski's latest, sleep-inducing column on the cost of road fatalities (L-1).

Most of Local today is heavy on election coverage and death notices and light on municipal coverage.

Let's get fat

In Better Living, the photo of a rail-thin Asian woman is really inappropriate for a story urging readers to do at least 15 minutes of exercise a day (F-5).

And the photo is a counterpoint to Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's pudgy cheeks on F-1, where her Sunday column informs readers she will personally taste every cookie submitted to the paper's annual let's-get-fat contest.

No editorial appears in the Opinion section taking PSE&G to task for its slow response to the massive outages, but a reader who lost power for at least six days had a lot to say (O-3):

"I guess when you're a monopoly you really don't have to worry about what your customers think of you," Richard Dalin of North Haledon says in a letter to the editor.

Indeed, Clancy should ask the paper's non-profit reporter, Harvy Lipman, to get off his ass and explore why a utility that provides an essential service -- but has no competition -- should be profit making. 

PSE&G would have done a far better job restoring power, if it didn't have to worry about paying overtime, hiring extra crews and seeking rate increases to compensate.


More shameless promotion


Travel Editor Jill Schensul is urging fliers to spend more time in airports, with an upbeat, promotional column on "real restaurant dining."


It's weird to see this pet-loving vegetarian recommend steak and barbecue restaurants, but not provide readers with a list of non-meat alternatives (T-1 and T-5).

Related posts

• More hard-luck seniors on parade (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Editors ensure seniors stay invisible (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)
• Is PSE&G responsible for two deaths? (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

Editors ensure seniors stay invisible

Image via Wikipedia

North Jersey is returning to normal a week after a bad nor'easter,
but The Record's editors grew tired of the story in just a few days.

The Record's lazy assignment desk didn't bother actually covering a conference of senior citizens on Friday in Paramus -- and missed an instant poll of the audience.


So, today's paper doesn't report that many of the participants feel they are "invisible" in their communities -- a reflection on the Woodland Park daily as much as it is on politicians and social-service agencies.


Not one of the 132 participants groused about Social Security payments, Medicare premiums and lousy lunches at senior centers or told nursing-home horror stories -- which is all you hear about in The Record's spotty coverage of the elderly.


In fact, they asked about inter-generational programs and housing, courses to improve their driving skills and a list of politicians based on how they stand on senior issues -- not party affiliation -- among other suggestions and demands.


And they said they stay in North Jersey because they are "familiar with the area" and love having all that Manhattan has to offer on their suburban doorstep.


Screw old people


Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes missed all of this -- just as she has ignored the concerns of the elderly for years. 


Interim Editor Doug Clancy leads the paper today with the resignation of former New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine as head of something called MF Global Holdings Ltd. Presumably, "MF" doesn't stand for "mother fuckers."


Is there anything in this Page 1 story to suggest Corzine defrauded investors? 


A week after a brutal nor'easter knocked out power to 175,000 customers, Clancy continues to downplay the damage, relegating a couple's death to A-8, and bouncing Bergen County stories off of the front page again.


More election stories


Election coverage again dominates the Local news section, Sykes' pride and joy. Utilities report more than 20,000 customers still were without power on Friday.


However, Better Living hasn't let down readers. Today's cover story by Staff Writer Virginia Rohan lists essentials that should be restocked for the "next time we're left in the dark."


On Friday, the weekly Hackensack Chronicle, a sister publication of The Record, reported on its front page that a proposed 19-story hospital would be built "at the corner of Prospect and Summit avenues in Hackensack."


Those streets run parallel.


Blame the victim


Also on Friday, on the front of The Record's Local section, transportation reporter Karen Rouse provided all the grisly details surrounding the September 2010 death of Caesar Muloki, a 12-year-old Hackensack Middle School student killed by a train, but never names him.


Rouse is doing her best to help NJ Transit blame pedestrians who are killed by trains. In doing so, she takes the focus off the agency's responsibility to make tracks and crossings safer.


Her job as a journalist -- the one her assignment editor won't ask her to do -- is to go into the Hackensack neighborhood where the boy was killed and interview residents who believe the safety of block after block of unfenced track can be improved so another student won't be killed.


That's especially important in Hackensack, where many students walk to and from school, because the city doesn't provide busing.


Meat obsession


On Wednesday, Staff Writer Bill Ervolino celebrated ethnic butchers, but never told readers whether the sausage, meatballs, pork chops and liverwurst he buys were raised with antibiotics, growth hormones and other harmful additives or preserved with nitrites (F-3).


He also goofed when he identified Ray Venezia as a butcher who "oversees the meat departments of North Jersey's Fairway stores."


New York-based Fairway Market has only one store in North Jersey, and it's in Paramus.

Editors trot out pathetic seniors

Image via Wikipedia

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signing the Social Security Act in 1935.

Where do you send a reporter to interview seniors about the first raise in Social Security benefits in three years?


If you are Editors Francis Scandale and Deirdre Sykes or one of their clueless minions -- who have shown only contempt for the elderly -- you assign your reporter to go to two senior centers and gather tales of "woe is me."


On Page 1 of The Record today, Staff Writer Colleen Diskin reports seniors fear much of the increase could be swallowed up by an expected hike in Medicare premiums.


Fair enough. Is that valid for all 55 million Social Security recipients?


Why didn't the reporter go to a couple of gyms, where many seniors work out every day? 


Why not interview a few seniors who regard Social Security as a nice supplement to their investment and other income when they're not off enjoying luxury river cruises in Europe and other travel?


Chasing 20-year-olds


When circulation began to fall a few years after Scandale took over as editor, his strategy was to try and attract readers in their 20s. 


That coverage was a slap in the face to readers 55 and over, the ones who have all the money to buy cars and other goods and services from the paper's advertisers.


Of course, the strategy failed, but Scandale was promoted to vice president, anyway.


In recent years, Scandale and Sykes have continued to ignore seniors, running far more stories on autism than Alzheimer's disease, and filling Local with numerous accident photos that portray the elderly as menaces behind the wheel.  


Today's A-1 story fortifies that image of a pathetic group living out their last years while scraping together enough money to feed and clothe themselves.


But Scandale didn't think Social Security is that big of a deal, certainly not as important as the battle over the re-opening of Pascack Valley Hospital in Westwood, a story that belongs on the front of Local, not taking up much of today's front page.


Hospitals that oppose the plan claim there are already 400 vacant beds in Bergen County -- a seeming impossibility given all the recipes the paper runs for baked goods made with sticks of butter and cups of heavy cream, and all the fatty prime beef recommended by its pudgy restaurant reviewer, Elisa Ung, or is it Ugh?


Animal farm


Any why waste space on the front page for a national story everyone saw on the TV news last night -- the deadly police safari in Zanesville, Ohio? Gee whiz, readers must be saying, as they strain to see the carcasses in the small photo on A-8.


When is the last time Scandale ran anything on the paralysis in Congress, rather than jumping on the media bandwagon of covering the 2012 presidential election, still more than a year away?


Look at all the space wasted on those moronic Republican Party candidates on A-11 today. Why not start coverage with the first primary, rather than report all the ridiculous jawboning in the debates?


In New Jersey, Governor Christie's attack on the judiciary over pension and health benefits doesn't seem to be going anywhere (A-3 and L-1). Why isn't that on Page 1?


On A-2, two more sports corrections -- following several others in recent weeks  -- suggest that department's copy desk has just started to make a lot of mistakes or just started acknowledging them. 


Earth-shaking news


Sykes' assignment desk came up with big news for L-1 today -- a minor fire in Teaneck and yet another story about six towns continuing to study "a proposed shared dispatching center."


When is someone going to "dispatch" Sykes and the rest of her incompetent assistant assignment editors, and replace them with people who can inspire reporters to cover their towns?


Today, readers won't find any municipal news from Englewood, Teaneck or many other communities, but more than 20 inches are devoted to an air show in West Milford (L-6).


In Hackensack news, a Syrian Orthodox church has dropped plans to expand in the Fairmount neighborhood -- the first municipal news from the city since Oct. 14, when a story about another church appeared.


In filler on L-3 today, an apparent production error resulted in an incomprehensible weather photo -- with a gray bar running along the bottom of the image.


Upsetting stomachs


The highly promotional Better Living cover story on upscale food at sports arenas doesn't say whether Madison Square Garden is aware MSG is the abbreviation for a flavor enhancer that causes headaches and other adverse reactions?


Will its MSG Signature Collection menu become associated with monosodium glutamate, whose widespread use caused "Chinese restaurant syndrome"?


A lot is missing from Staff Writer Kara Yorio's poorly reported story -- especially prices, and whether the hamburgers and chicken hot dogs with kimchi are naturally raised. 


Maybe her assignment editor wanted to downplay how sports arenas are just as intent on ripping off fans now as they were in the old days of preservative-filled hot dogs and pricey cups of beer.


And is Yorio serious in her gimmicky lead paragraph? "Not that long ago, sushi at a sports arena was the food choice of someone who finds food poisoning fun...."


What arena was serving spoiled raw fish to fans? Food poisoning is "fun"? Does anybody edit Better Living stories to ensure they don't sound like they were written by novices? 


Finally, is it just a coincidence that another promotional -- though poorly written -- story on the renovation of Madison Square Garden appears on A-4 today?


Why do almost all of Staff Writer John Brennan's stories sound like he's been bribed with season tickets?


Four years, no raise


An Anonymous comment from a reader of Eye on The Record has been added to the post, How much does Stephen Borg make?


The comment comes from someone who works in advertising. After a salary cut, this employee says he/she hasn't had a raise in nearly four years -- while Borg lives high on the hog in his $3.65 million Tenafly mansion.


The employee also asks whether one of the vice presidents quit.


Here is a link to the Stephen Borg post:


How much does Stephen Borg make?

Disappointing readers day after day

Image via Wikipedia

Add Casey Anthony to the murder defendants who have been acquitted in the manner of O.J. Simpson after a deeply flawed police investigation.

Are you as disappointed as I am when you unfold the paper and look at another front page that tries to distract readers from the mess we're all in?


Most of Page 1 in The Record today is devoted to two sensational trials -- including an O.J. Simpson-like verdict in the murder of a 2-year-old Florida girl --  while a third story puts a positive spin on the state budget signed by Governor Christie.


The GOP governor signed the budget nearly a week ago, so why is Editor Francis Scandale giving us the details in dribs and drabs?


Wrong court


Front-page play for sports writer Bob Klapisch is true desperation. Has the columnist ever covered a trial? 


It doesn't sound like it from the lead paragraph, where he claims Andy Pettitte has "memorized what to say on the witness stand." 


(How often does a witness named Pettitte appear before a petit jury?) 


Judging from the coverage of the murder trial in Orlando, you'd think Florida is New Jersey's 22nd county. 


The likely explanation for the acquittal of Casey Anthony is another flawed investigation by local police, though that's not really discussed in the story.


Dig to find the pain


The pain of the budget for struggling cities and middle- and working class families is left for A-3, and a story on Senate President Stephen Sweeney refusing to apologize for calling Christie "a rotten bastard."


Sweeney should get some credit for not calling the governor "a rotten, fat  bastard."


More details on the state budget's downside can be found in a letter to the editor from Arnold Korotkin of Little Falls (A-8) -- another example of how readers often learn more from other readers than from the paper itself.


Another budget cut, for Urban Enterprise Zones, is discussed in a story on the first Business page (L-9).


Scandale's job is to pull this together for readers. It's called packaging the news. Instead, he just collects his six-figure salary and relaxes on the golf course. What a disgrace.


God forbid, The Record should criticize our wonderful governor or call his budget "cruel and mean-spirited," as Sweeney did.


Another car column


On the front of Local, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' hand-picked Road Warrior columnist tells readers something they don't know -- cars are not boats.


There is news from many towns, plus an unusual four pages of death notices, but nothing from Hackensack or Teaneck.


A brief on L-3 reports a missing 14-year-old Englewood girl -- subject of two earlier stories -- returned home more than four days ago.


Senior road kill


Another brief, on L-8, reports that Aleksander Shlahet, 77, of Allendale accomplished nothing in life before a car driven by a 73-year-old woman struck his bicycle and killed him on Monday.


Who was Shlahet? Had he been a scientist or a poet? Did he have a wife, grandchildren? Oh, he's over 70. He's of no interest to the youth-oriented assignment editors.


The Record has always treated seniors who kill or die in auto accidents as worth nothing more than briefs or maybe a photo and caption.


The challenges facing older drivers? Help available for them, maybe from all those North Jersey police departments headed by chiefs making more than the governor? 


The editors just don't care.