The Borgs' hand-picked editor fiddles while N.J. burns

The Panera Bread Bakery-Cafe in Queensbury, N.Y., on July Fourth.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The front page of The Record today carries another so-called ANALYSIS, reporting the sad state of the New Jersey economy:

Governor Christie's "latest state budget," Staff Writer John Reitmeyer reports, contains more borrowing and more business tax breaks; higher property tax bills and no money for "transportation upgrades and open-space preservation" (A-1).

Why didn't this frank discussion of the mess Christie has made of the Garden State -- while catering to the rich -- appear before he vetoed the Democrats' budget proposal on June 30?

In a familiar story, Christie cut funding for women's health care, a tax-credit for low-wage workers and legal services for the poor, and delayed property tax relief to next year, according to a front-page story on July 1.

Silent endorsement

Yet the editorials that ran July 2 and 3 make no mention of the GOP bully's mean-spirited balancing of the state budget for the fifth year in a row.

Similarly, today's lead story on the woes of North Jerseyans struggling to rebuild their shore homes doesn't even attempt to assess whether Christie bungled federal Sandy aid, just as he tried to sabotage the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in New Jersey (A-1).

Editor on vacation?

I've been on vacation out of state, but what is Editor Martin Gottlieb's excuse?

The onetime cub reporter for The Record went on to a stellar career at The New York Times, including a Paris posting, before he was hand-picked by the Borg publishing family to run their flagship daily paper in early 2012.

Not much has changed

The Brooklyn-born Gottlieb, 66, has been running the Woodland Park newsroom for nearly three years, but readers could be forgiven if the only changes they notice are longer stories, a relentless focus on politics and an even greater emphasis on front-page sports than his incompetent predecessor.

Readers are still ill-informed by a local-assignment desk filled with the same old, lazy sub-editors and stale, burned-out columnists that have been around for decades.

More lazy reporting

One of those lazy columnists appears on Page 1 today, trying to peddle a commuting story that affects only a few hundred people, if that (The Road Warrior, A-1).

Road Warrior John Cichowski and the paper's other transportation reporter, Karen Rouse, have labored in recent years to ignore growing mass-transit congestion, including a lack of rush-hour seats on trains and buses, and the delays faced by commuters trying to return to their North Jersey homes from the antiquated midtown-Manhattan bus terminal.

How does today's column on "a cheaper commute" over the George Washington Bridge benefit the vast majority of commuters, who are victims of Port Authority toll increases that amount to highway robbery?

Out of whole cloth

Cichowski is so lazy he will grasp at any straw as an excuse to write a column, such as his lame Page 1 effort on June 27 to tie the deaths of three men trying to fix a disabled truck on Route 287 to the average motorist whose car breaks down on a busy highway.

I pity the driver and passengers who follow his advice to stay inside a car with their seat belts on as trucks and other traffic flies by -- instead of getting the hell out of there.

The Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers notes that advice is definitely not posted on the AAA web site, aaa.com, as Cichowski claimed. 

Bankrupt section

Today's Business front story on mergers and acquisitions among community banks (B-1) makes no mention of Spencer Savings Bank assuming NJM Bank's deposits and loans, according to a letter sent to customers in late June.

The Business editors presumably are waiting for a press release.

The SMALL BUSINESS story today focuses on a restaurant in Conshohoken, Pa., not one in North Jersey (B-7).

Bring lots of dough

In Better Living today, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz and Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung continue their breathless promotion of expensive restaurants -- in a form of payback to those big advertisers (BL-2).

Food coverage has gone decidedly upscale in recent years, with no attempt to report on casual restaurants where four can eat for $50.

Lame local reporting

Today's Local front carries a story on Fort Lee trying to prepare for a steep rise in school enrollment (L-1), but no one has reported that Hackensack faces the same problem.

With hundreds of new apartments already built, under construction or proposed, the Hackensack City Council and Board of Education have yet to address the issue.

Dissing Hackensack 

Looking through the papers I missed since I left Hackensack on June 26 is a chore I'm trying to avoid, but the lead front-page element on June 29 caught my eye:

"Change isn't easy for Hackensack"

Is Columnist Mike Kelly responsible for this trite sentiment or does he tell readers where reform has come easily?

One look at his dated column photo -- with the same unflattering, shit-eating grin -- shows change doesn't come easy at The Record.

Negative spin

I saw Kelly at a Hackensack City Council meeting last month, and he has a nice head of gray hair. 

Isn't it time for The Record's editors to update his column photo, just as they did for TV critic Ginnie Rohan (BL-1)?

Kelly's column criticizing Hackensack's "unseasoned newcomers" is inaccurate and inflammatory, but it is typical of The Record's overwhelmingly negative coverage of the city it once called home.

Editors surrender to Christie on taxing the wealthy

The Engine 5 Firehouse on Main Street in Hackensack is one of the most distinctive around.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Democratic lawmakers are renewing the debate over taxing wealthy residents and corporations to balance the state budget at the end of the month, but The Record's editors have already made up their minds.

How can Editor Marty Gottlieb run today's front-page story on a plan to avoid Governor Christie's drastic cuts in the state contribution to the pension system (A-1)?

Only six days ago, an editorial called a millionaires tax "a political non-starter" (A-18 on June 13).

Is this objective journalism or are the editors just taking their marching orders  from the GOP bully and the wealthy Borg publishing family?

Don't expect Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin to revisit the viability of higher taxes on the wealthy, especially if he can't find a Broadway show, book or song to compare them to.

Christie-proofing budget

Today's Page 1 story reports the proposal by Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg would generate $1.6 billion, "which is the same amount Christie has proposed cutting the planned state pension contribution for the fiscal year that begins July 1" (A-4).

A Christie spokesman referred to millionaires as "overburdened New Jersey taxpayers," and said "raising taxes drives businesses and citizens out of New Jersey and makes our problems worse."

Who in their right mind would move out of New Jersey, which is just across the river from the financial and cultural capital of the United States?

Animal farm

Today's edition is dominated by animal news -- on Page 1 and L-3 in Local.

The A-1 story reports the suspension of mail delivery for more than a month to four homes in Rochelle Park after a dog attacked a mail carrier, "leaving six severe bite wounds up the man's arms."

Why not put down the dog and fine the owners so it doesn't happen again?

Roast duck

Good luck trying to follow the story on "a mama duck and her four ducklings" in Ridgewood (L-3).

A big photo shows four ducklings, and the smaller photo shows a large duck, presumably the mother, and only three ducklings.

But the text says "the mama ... couldn't be found."

This is typical of the sloppy editing under six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton and her sleep-deprived staff.

The village could have saved taxpayers money by alerting the many downtown restaurant chefs and letting them take care of the ducks.  

Another story on the same page reports a house fire in Saddle Brook killed seven cats and an eighth cat is missing.

Pat who?

Meanwhile, more poor editing on the Local front likely puzzled tens of thousands of readers (L-1).

A photo caption reads, "June Nakayama wiping away a tear after Pat Kinney presented her with a bouquet on Wednesday."

Readers learn Nakayama was being thanked for starting a "Pre-Mom Club for young Japanese women who move to North Jersey with their businessmen-husbands."

But Kinney is never identified.

Of course, newsroom veterans know Kinney as a freelancer who once wrote the "Neighbors from Japan" column for The Record.

Consumers lose

Staff Writer Elisa Ung does a poor job representing consumers in her fine-dining restaurant reviews.

So why did the editors think she would do any better on supermarket purchases (BL-1)?

Today, she touts pricey bottled pasta sauce made by Jon Bon Jovi's father, but doesn't mention that you get only 24 ounces for $5.99 or barely enough for a half-pound of dried pasta.

I found the same bottled Bongiovi Marinara, Garden-style and Arrabiata on sale today at the Paramus ShopRite for a more palatable $2.99. 

NJMG retirees, employees have own pension woes

The Record's old headquarters on River Street in Hackensack, in a photo taken before North Jersey Media Group leased parking spaces to Bergen County, replacing those lost to construction near the courthouse.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record has been filled lately with bad news for the public employee pension fund, which has been raided by New Jersey governors who can't balance their budgets any other way.

Now, Governor Christie is drastically cutting the contribution to the underfunded public employee pension system, plus making other cuts totaling $128 million, to balance the budget by June 30.

The Record's stories are filled with numbers, but no explanation of how this will affect public employees.

Meanwhile, I wonder what retirees and employees of the Woodland Park daily are saying about the annual notice sent out last month by the North Jersey Media Group Pension Plan.

I recall newsroom employees -- Corny, Vinny, Ron and other suckers -- who are close to or past retirement age and working under a pension system that was frozen "for participants who were actively employed on March 31, 2007," according to the annual notice.

"Benefits as of that date remain intact," the notice states, "but will not increase beyond their value as of March 31, 2007."

I left in May 2008 and now receive a monthly NJMG pension of less than $1,000 -- this after more than 29 years at the paper as a reporter, copy editor and food writer.

My pension was reduced -- I can't recall by how much -- because I chose the option of allowing my wife to receive half of my monthly benefit after my death.

Unfunded liabilities

As of Jan 1, 2013, the NJMG Pension Plan had total assets of $71,711,475 and liabilities of $86,607,254.

"This figure is the estimate of the amount of assets the plan needs on Valuation Day to pay for promised benefits under the plan," the notice states.

The funding shortfall is listed in the notice as $14,895,779 to $31,657,952, and the minimum required contribution to the plan by NJMG is $4,855,096 to $7,355,065.

Let's hope the greedy Borgs don't do a Christie on their workers and retirees.

The total number of participants in the plan is given as 1,903, including 465 active participants, 746 retired or "separated from service" and receiving benefits, and 692 retired or "separated" and entitled to future benefits.

Today's paper

The story on A-3 today -- a roundup of jokes about the George Washington Bridge scandal -- only reminds commuters of how Governor Christie screwed them royally through a combination of higher tolls everywhere and no expansion of mass transit.

In the last few days, The Record has been revising the total contribution the GOP bully will be withholding from the public employee pension system.

First, it was reported as $900 million. Then, that was upped to $1.57 billion.

Today, Staff Writer John Reitmeyer reports on A-4, Christie plans to take funds allocated for the pension system -- "nearly $900 million this fiscal year and $1.57 billion in the fiscal year that begins on July 1"(A-4). 

Heavy Teaneck news

Today's Local section continues recent heavy coverage of Teaneck, with a glowing story on the high school prom, complete with three photos (L-1 and L-6).

Did Hackensack High School hold a prom? Why wasn't that covered? 

The only Hackensack "news" is an obituary for Joseph Bracchitta, 86, "one of the finest ballplayers" from the high school (L-6).

Also on L-1, Staff Writer Colleen Diskin reports on the reaction  of seniors to another postponed state property tax rebate Christie is hogging to balance the state budget.

More than 1 million residents enrolled in the Homestead program are affected.

Noisier jets?

On the first Business page, Staff Writer Richard Newman reports on current and planed longer-range business jets at Teterboro Airport (L-8).

But as usual, Newman has his heads in the cloud, never mentioning whether the new aircraft are any quieter than those that terrorize Hackensack high-rise residents and wake up everyone else in towns near the airport that caters to the rich and famous.

Pigging out

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung bestows 3 stars on Lan Sheng, a Chinese restaurant serving spicy Sichuan food in an industrial area of Wallington (BL-14).

But Ung didn't make much of an effort to sample non-meat dishes, mentioning only three, including a fish with "a skimpy amount of flesh for the $22.95 price tag."

Even the tofu dish she liked contains pork.

She quotes a friend, who sounds retarded:

"I'm afraid to try the white rice. What if it's a revelation?"

Christie's budget hits middle class, spares millionaires

First Student school-bus drivers taking a break this morning in the outlying parking lots of Bergen Town Center in Paramus, above and below. On Tuesday morning, a heavy set woman appeared to be sleeping in the driver's seat of one of the buses, her arms folded across her chest, her head down and her eyes closed.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You've got to love the Trenton press corps, including The Record's reporters, for never challenging Governor Christie on balancing yet another state budget on the backs of the middle class (A-1).

The Woodland Park daily's lead story today delivers more bad news for long-suffering property tax payers as the GOP bully scrambles to balance a budget without asking millionaires to pay a little more.

And there is no sign Christie is cutting hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks wasted on wealthy business owners who don't create jobs in a state with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

No reporter at Christie's news conference on Wednesday asked whether he will now agree to a tax surcharge to raise an estimated $1 billion from millionaires.

In fact, judging from The Record's story, no reporter challenged Christie on anything he said; they merely regurgitated his cockeyed reasoning for cutting state employee pension contributions by $1.57 billion, and postponing the small property tax rebate.

Maybe, none of these so-called journalists own a home in New Jersey or they see their role as stenographers.

Instead of any hard questioning, The Record brings us another long, boring Charles Stile column on the "politics" of Christie's decision to nominate Chief Justice Stuart Rabner for tenure (A-1).

A banana peel and what appeared to be part of a baked potato were left behind in a locker at 24 Hour Fitness in Paramus. As an indication of how poorly the gym is run, they were still inside the locker, with the door open, more than 30 minutes after an employee was informed.

Hospital news

In Local today, the lead story on The Valley Hospital in Ridgwood is more evidence of how The Record screwed Hackensack residents who objected to the many expansions of Hackensack University Medical Center, which owns hundreds of millions of dollars in tax exempt property.

In contrast to numerous stories on the Ridgewood hospital's plan to expand within the boundaries of its campus -- 

first unveiled in 2006 -- there were many fewer stories about HUMC's uncontrolled expansion in Hackensack.

Today's Local section contains two stories from Paterson (L-2); two large filler photos of minor accidents in Wyckoff (L-6) and Englewood (L-3), with captions that supply little real information, but nothing from Hackensack.

I didn't even see a reporter for The Record at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

Deirdre Sykes must be back and running the local assignment desk again after a long absence.

Second look

Road Warrior John Cichowski's Sunday column on major construction projects contained the usual errors, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

For example, Cichowski confused the cost of repaving the New Jersey section of the Palisades Interstate Parkway in 1996 and this year ($7 million and $14.5 million, respectively).

He said it cost $14.5 million in 1996.

He also gave the wrong location for a new service road in Woodland Park. See:

Confused Road Warrior makes more errors

Editor Marty Gottlieb has defended Cichowski, despite these and hundreds of other errors the reporter has committed in the past decade, trying to fill the shoes of Jeff Page, the original commuting columnist.

These are the kinds of errors that would never be tolerated at a serious newspaper or go uncorrected, especially at The New York Times, where Gottlieb worked for many years.

His tolerance of repeated errors by the Road Warrior and the news and copy editors under six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton may go a long way toward explaining why Gottlieb is no longer at The Times.

Utility pole news undercuts new editor

Every North Jersey utility pole has a special place in the heart of Editor Deirdre Sykes, who is determined to chronicle their demise with photos in The Record's Local section.

Editor Marty Gottlieb delivers another strong front page in The Record today, but the Local news section's continued reliance on photos of vehicles hitting utility poles makes a mockery of his efforts.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her incompetent flunkies have run numerous photos of fender benders, roll overs and vehicles damaging utility poles as fillers in the Local section in a desperate scramble to find local news.

Sykes, her minions and her local columnists, Mike Kelly and John Cichowski, are the personification of laziness, and they seem little changed since Gottlieb arrived last month from The New York Times.

A utility pole in Englewood Cliffs apparently was so revered that Sykes ordered her layout editor to place a  small photo and some text on L-1, directing readers to the earth-shaking news on L-3.

There, readers find a blown-up photo of an SUV and the pole, which "took a beating in an accident on Hudson Terrace in Englewood Cliffs on Friday," according to the caption.

Gee whiz.

Ring worm

Also on L-3, a story on Jay Patel, a Mahwah millionaire who allegedly cut down 221 trees on a neighbor's lot to improve his view, doesn't say whether the judge can order him strung up from any remaining branches in the vicinity.

There is no Hackensack news today.

Exposing Christie

The respected Standard & Poors rating agency exposes Governor Christie's voodoo budget economics, saying his revenue projections are much too rosy (A-1).

The story suggests Christie's proposal to cut income taxes will form a major plank in his re-election campaign next year.

A story on A-3 reports the governor wants to loot a Clean Energy Fund to the tune of $210 million to help him balance the budget, which would give a big tax cut to millionaires.

Old wives' tales

Back on Page 1, a story on streamlining elder-care services continues The Record's heavy coverage of seniors who are destitute and eager to stand in line for free lunches.

The paper basically ignores all of the wealthy seniors in Bergen County, as well as older drivers who need information on where they can go to improve their driving skills.

Three embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today.

'It's downhill from here'

Image via Wikipedia

Compare reading The Record with the exhiliration of skiing.

It's downhill from here

That headline on the weather-skiing package on Page L-1 today could easily describe the state of local news in The Record of Woodland Park. 

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes gives readers quite a ride around North Jersey, but Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and other major communities are deemed not worth the municipal-news detour.

The arrest of a Clifton councilwoman on an assault charge is the off-lead on Page 1 today, but  Editor Francis Scandale still hasn't provided readers with a preview of cuts Governor Christie will reveal in his budget address today.

That pre-budget address story has been a mainstay in past years. Sunday's piece was long on conflict between Christie and the Democratic-controlled Legislature, and short on specifics. 

A Star-Ledger story on A-3 today reports the governor's staff refused to release details -- yet another sign of Christie's success in managing the news since he took office 13 months ago.

Three embarrassing corrections appear on A-2 today.

Travelogue of local news

On Sykes' Local front, you'll find stories from several towns, including West Milford, and inside, you can take your pick of police news on almost every page.

The section specializes in long stories previewing future events, such as an April referendum on how to fund a regional school district (L-1) and possible expansion of a school to accommodate preschool classes (L-3).

Englewood reporter Giovanna Fabiano and Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado manage to come up with a single story each -- the former reports a drug arrest from Saturday, the latter car break-ins in Maywood (L-2).

Alvarado hasn't had a single story on the budget process in Hackensack, a subject she completely ignored last year, although Fabiano and other municipal reporters have written about it in their towns in recent weeks.

 

What the story doesn't tell you

Image via Wikipedia

Hudson County, where many Hispanics live, wasn't included in a story on how Asians and Latinos have fared in New Jersey politics. The Record once covered the county as part of North Jersey.

How does Editor Francis Scandale lead the paper with a state budget story that doesn't mention how Governor Christie blew $400 million in federal education funds and turned his back on hundreds of millions dollars from a tax surcharge on millionaires?

The Page 1 report by Staff Writer John Reitmeyer also doesn't explore the nearly bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund, which could have been replenished by raising the low gasoline tax. But that would have angered Christie supporters in their gas-guzzling limos and SUVs.

In the second paragraph, Reitmeyer comes up with a euphemism for the governor's all-out assault on programs for the middle and working classes. The reporter calls them "a series of unpopular spending cuts" in Christie's first year in office. 

Now, Christie may again pander to the wealthy with cuts in business taxes.

No room on the front

There are a few other A-1 stories in the paper, but they were shut out by a large photo of a Super Bowl celebration in Wisconsin that sports-loving Scandale slapped on the front page, even though it's so yesterday.

On A-3, we learn Christie vetoed an offshore liquefied natural gas pipeline. Who knew a Republican could care about the environment? That story should have been outside, not a sports-related photo or yet another story on the clean-out of a sewerage commission.

The freeing of the young leader of the uprising in Egypt also is worthy of Page 1, but ends up on the back of the section (A-12).

Snow on the brain

Road Warrior John Cichowski's brain has been frozen by all the snow that fell. Today, he gives us another column on the state's new flying-snow law. I'm waiting for a half-dozen or so columns when the broken record discovers all the potholes that have developed in the last few weeks. He needs to get out more.

Hackensack municipal news appears in head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section today for the second day in a row. There are two stories on L-3, as well as a Teaneck story, but the section hasn't had any Englewood municipal news since Jan. 22.

Image via Wikipedia

Rep. Albio Sires

A second look

On Sunday's front page, the sub-headline with the census story said:

Asians, Hispanics show little gain in N.J. politics

Well, what about U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Rep. Albio Sires? They are Hispanic, from Hudson County, which The Record once covered, but which wasn't included in the story for some reason.

How sloppy can they get?

Image via Wikipedia

Kerry Collins is now with the Tennessee Titans.

A sports fan e-mailed me to point out the photo of the Giants quarterback with the northjersey.com story on the Giants-Redskins contest today shows Kerry Collins, who left the team seven years ago.

Meanwhile, the huge error on the size of the state budget that appeared in an editorial and online Friday hasn't been corrected. The Record said the budget was $29.4 million, when it is, in fact, $29.4 billion.