Another sad day for New Jersey journalism

Will The Record's coverage of the Christie administration's politically inspired George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee, above, win the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize, the highest achievement in journalism? Prizewinners and nominated finalists will be announced April 14 at Columbia University in Manhattan.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Newspaper veterans rubbed their tired eyes today as they read of more drastic cuts in the news-gathering staff at The Star-Ledger, the onetime behemoth that once cast a shadow on The Record and every other newspaper in New Jersey. 

The Woodland Park daily is reporting that 40 more jobs will be lost in The Star-Ledger's non-unionized newsroom, cutting the staff to 116, down from a high of 350 before the first buyouts in 2008 (A-1 and A-3).

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Star-Ledger, hit by the newspaper industry's nationwide drop in readership and advertising, claims a circulation of 167,600 daily, compared to 473,000 in 1993.

Outsourcing

A total of 306 will be laid off at The Star-Ledger and other daily and weekly papers owned by Advance Publications Inc. in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and at the company's NJ.com Web site.

Advance plans to create a new company based in Woodbridge that will provide advertising, marketing and news content to The Star-Ledger, its other newspapers and its Web site.

Outsourcing news gathering is sort of like a school board outsourcing janitorial services: 

Both deal with a lot of shit. At New Jersey newspapers, that takes the form of bullshit from Chris Christie, the GOP monster who has turned out to be state's worst governor.

Second thoughts

The Star-Ledger has done a better job than most of seeing through Christie's bluster, and in February, the paper called its endorsement of his reelection "regrettable."

"...Yes, we blew this one," wrote Tom Moran, the former Record staffer who is now on The Star-Ledger's editorial board, mentioning both the Bridgegate and Sandy aid debacles.

The Record's story today is strangely silent on how the flagship North Jersey Media Group daily has weathered the downturn in the industry.

The Woodland Park daily has been hiding its circulation decline by issuing numbers that include the Herald News, which is called an "edition" of The Record.

After a major downsizing in 2008 and the abandonment of its Hackensack headquarters in 2009, many new reporters have been added, likely at much lower salaries than newsroom veterans.

But the merger of the NJMG daily papers' newsroom staffs in Woodland Park has resulted in a decline in the quality and quantity of local news; poor writing and editing, and a dramatic increase in errors. 

Page 1 profiles

Three of today's Page 1 stories read like profiles:

Virginia Rohan's column on David Letterman, who announced his retirement from late-night TV; a story on Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, called "a mystery" in the headline; and an obituary for Vincent Lamberti, a Lever Bros. researcher who is called the "father of Dove soap," a synthetic compound (A-1).

I just skimmed the headlines and first few paragraphs of the column about Letterman, who will be missed by insomniacs, drunks who live in bars and The Record's long-suffering news and copy editors, who work late into the night putting out the error-filled paper.

Ditto for the long, boring story on Guadagno, a non-entity who was chosen as a running mate by Christie because she was a woman, had a pulse and wouldn't dare challenge the governor in anything.

Christie was already henpecked by his overweight wife, who later got him to kill the Hudson River rail tunnels because the connection to the New York City subway was too far for her to walk.

But I read and enjoyed every word of the Lamberti obituary, saying to myself, Now, that is a life well-lived, something I'm sure I will never say about Letterman, Christie or Guadagno. 

Hackensack news

The Record's Local section today has a follow-up on Polifly Towing, a Hackensack company that has been using city owned land rent free, but has been paid $20,613 for towing illegally parked vehicles in the past three years (L-1).

The Record has had nothing so far on whether there is a school-board election this month.

But today's edition of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle reports the school board has presented a proposed 2014-15 operating budget that raises taxes $116 for a home assessed at $240,329.

Neither paper has reported the ups and downs of the elevator at Hackensack High School, where the cafeteria is in the basement, and classes are held on upper floors.

The elevator was out of service for more than two months, until a new part was fabricated, but it continues to break down periodically, stranding disabled students and an athlete recovering from a broken leg. 

Dog food

Is any reader eager to dine at The Dog & Cask in Rochelle Park, where a "pathetic" 5.5-ounce burger was "cooked into oblivion," the toast with charcuterie was burnt, and cod and pasta were oversalted (BL-16)?

Elisa Ung, the dessert-obsessed reviewer, even hated three of the four artery clogging treats she sampled. 

The poorly edited review describes the pub as "upscale ... with food that veers more fine dining," but a word is missing (data box on BL-16).

Leave it to Ung to find awful places to eat, then neglect to tell readers whether any of the meat served is grass-fed or raised naturally.

The Dog & Cask replaces Bistro 55, where former Food Editor Bill Pitcher was given a send-off several years ago.

If you eat at the new place now, good luck surviving the drunks in the parking lot or the ones racing by on Route 17.

The Record's telephone reporting cheats readers

On Wednesday morning, I saw freshly patched potholes on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack, near the Camelot high-rise, but Euclid and Prospect avenues, above, looked like this on Wednesday afternoon and today.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

A front-page headline in The Record today declares, "It's too soon to assess health law."

But Staff Writer Colleen Diskin, one of the least productive veterans in the Woodland Park newsroom, apparently did her news gathering with a telephone and a computer.

Diskin and her assignment editor saw no need for the reporter to leave the building and interview North Jersey residents in search of answers to all of the questions the story raises  (A-1 and A-8).

"Time will tell if it lowers

costs, adds subscribers"

That's the awkward sub-headline on the story, which cites "a paucity of data on a number of key questions."

Gee. What about going to a mall, and interviewing people who signed up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and seeking answers to those "key questions"?

That's Reporting 101. This tortured story cheats readers.

To complicate things, the story is labeled an "ANALYSIS," and filled with talking heads -- so-called experts and others who caution against drawing quick conclusions. 

One source's title consumes three lines on the continuation page.

Money talks

The Supreme Court has reaffirmed that money talks, freeing wealthy donors to give to as many political candidates and campaigns as they want (A-1).

An editorial appears to be displeased with the high court declaring that campaign contributions are a form of "free speech" (A-18).

But The Record covered Governor Christie's last campaign against Democrat Barbara Buono based almost totally on how much money each candidate raised.

The editors anointed Christie, who had a huge lead in fund-raising, as the winner months before the November election.

Sloppy reporting

In many cases, Buono's campaign appearances were buried inside the paper, while Christie hogged Page 1 time and again.

Somehow, the Christie-loving editors, columnists and reporters never discovered just how desperate the GOP bully was, judging from this year's allegations of political retribution against Democrats who refused to endorse him for a second term.

For example, another Page 1 story today reports state employees sought Christie campaign endorsements from the same public officials they worked with in their taxpayer-funded jobs (A-1).

The Tesla Model S, an all-electric, four-door luxury sedan. The company is fighting a proposed ban on direct sales in New Jersey.

Law & Order

For the third or fourth day in a row, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza relies heavily on police, fire and court news to flesh out another thin local report (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Instead of running a photo of a traffic jam caused by the lack of mass transit, Sforza runs a photo of a fuel spill in Fair Lawn that tied up traffic in several towns, thanks to our antiquated road system (L-2).

In Tuesday's Road Warrior column on L-1, Staff Writer John Cichowski made major errors in reprising parts of an interim state report on the benefits of red-light cameras.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

DOT makes a fool of the Road Warrior

Cheap reporting

The lamest form of business reporting is the anniversary story.

Today, Staff Writer Joan Verdon profiles Tony Conza, who copied an Italian hero sandwich and helped start the Blimpie fast-food chain 50 years ago (L-7).

Why waste the space? It's not as if Blimpie's low-quality, preservative-filled cold cuts broke any new nutritional ground.

In other business news, California-based Tesla is appealing the state Motor Vehicle Commission's decision to bar direct sale of the all-electric Model S after April 15 (L-8).

Tesla has showrooms in Paramus and Short Hills.

Our bankrupt state, towns can't fix potholes

All of the pothole photos on today's post were taken on Tuesday on one block of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, above and below. Drivers who took the George Washington Bridge exit for the Palisades Interstate Parkway on Tuesday encountered a minefield of potholes between the bridge and Exit 1 in Englewood Cliffs that were so numerous, they could not steer around them.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Our state and our towns appear to be so broke they cannot afford to fix potholes -- nasty reminders of the bitter winter we barely survived.

After a flurry of columns and stories, The Record has been ignoring the increasing number of potholes and the rising chorus of curses from drivers, as well as the lack of repairs.

Up close and personal on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack.

The front page today carries another story on the state's severe financial problems under Governor Christie, the GOP bully who refuses to raise taxes on millionaires and throws away hundreds of millions more on tax breaks for wealthy business owners (A-1).

Christie also has refused to raise the low gasoline tax, which could revive the bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund, which is used to repair potholes on Route 4, Route 17 and other state highways.

Zisa Family Memorial Potholes on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, above and below. Members of the current City Council argue they can't afford fix streets because of all of the financial problems caused by the former administration, allied with the Zisas, who ruled Hackensack for decades. Those problems range from millions of dollars lost because bills were never sent out to many more millions of dollars spent to defend and settle lawsuits against Ken Zisa, the former police chief who was convicted of official misconduct and insurance fraud.

Today's paper

President Obama says 7.1 million Americans signed up for health coverage, and that "doesn't include enrollments through 14 state exchanges or people who started the process and weren't able to finish because of technical problems," according to today's Page 1 story.

"The Affordable Health Care Act is here to stay," Obama said.

Let's hope The Record's negative coverage isn't here to stay.

The Woodland Park daily and its medical writers virtually ignored any success stories, including reporting on people who saved money by signing up for federal health care.

The federal program is expected to lower health-care costs, as well as depress the profits of the insurance companies who have donated millions of dollars to the GOP's disinformation and repeal campaign.

Exploding cars

Readers who remember exploding Ford Pintos and Crown Victoria Police Interceptors or Toyota vehicles that accelerated out of control aren't surprised by today's front-page report on cost-cutting at General Motors that killed at least 13 people (A-1).

On A-2 today, the editors correct two of the many reporting, grammatical and other screw-ups that appeared in the paper recently.

Bridgegate costs

A story on A-3 reports state officials don't know how much they will be billed for the self-serving whitewash Governor Christie commissioned to clear him of wrongdoing in the George Washington Bridge lane closures.

Last week, news stories and columns put the damage to taxpayers at $1 million or more. What were they based on?

Christie was skewered on the Bridgegate scandal and his weight at a 90th-birthday roast of Brendan Byrne, a former governor (A-3). 

Of course, as with anything involving Christie, the joke is really on middle-class taxpayers, especially those who gave him a second term in November.

Local news?

On the Local front, an accident photo carries a caption that is unusually complete, including the name of a driver killed by a tractor-trailer on the New Jersey Turnpike (L-1).

But Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza continues to rely too heavily on police and court news to flesh out his thin local-news report.

He still hasn't answered a nagging question on the mind of residents:

Why is no one fixing thousands of annoying and dangerous potholes? 

More bad news for procrastinators, speeders

Sharp stones I assembled and other debris thrown off when potholes aren't repaired can damage tires, above and below. These photos were taken on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The Record's front page today brings us another tale of woe on how the federal health-care Web site crashed as thousands of procrastinators rushed to meet Monday's enrollment deadline.

The Woodland Park daily continues to hide the role of Governor Christie and conservative governors in 35 other states who refused to set up state Web sites, ensuring failure of the overburdened federal site (A-1).

How many of the people who waited until Monday to enroll for coverage under the Affordable Care Act
believed Republican propaganda about expensive policies? Today's story doesn't say.

Bad caption

The big photo on Page 1 today includes a poorly written caption.

The photo shows "a full waiting room of the Englewood Recreation Center" and as you'd expect in a waiting room, people were "waiting to sign up" for health care, according to the caption.

Waste of space

Why does Editor Marty Gottlieb think Staff Writer Charles Stile has to write a column to interpret Christie's every statement or action, as if readers can't see through the GOP bully's mean-spirited politics?

Today's piece channels Christie's alleged desire to reform the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (A-1).

Commuters don't need separate transportation agencies in each state. They need one agency to run and expand mass transit, and another to operate and maintain the crossings that collect tolls from drivers.

Bad news for speeders

The Local front today delivers bad news for speeders caught by red-light cameras and good news for property taxpayers who are hoping their towns get lots of revenue from violators (L-1).

In an interim report, state transportation officials continue to endorse the use of red-light cameras to cut down on intersection crashes, deaths and injuries.

Without explanation, Road Warrior John Cichowski says the report was given to Christie's office "last spring" and was released on Friday -- a year later (L-1).

New Jersey is years behind New York City, which has had red-light cameras for years and is installing speeding cameras near schools.

More bad writing 

Another badly written photo caption appears on L-1 today under a photo of cars in a Hackensack tow lot.

Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports the city is evicting Polifly Towing for not paying rent on city owned land for more than a decade -- apparently in an arrangement with the Zisa-allied City Council that was thrown out of office last year.

The caption says Polifly Towing has been using a Green Street lot "across the street from their business [italics added]" (L-1). 

Is six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, who is supposed to catch this and other stupid errors, on vacation again?