Looking for something relevant to read

A packed NJ Transit Waiting Room at Penn Station in New York on Nov. 16 suggests service was disrupted after Sandy damaged more than 300 rail cars and locomotives.

It's Sunday again and here's another ho-hum front page from Editor Marty Gottlieb of The Record of Woodland Park.

The recovery from Superstorm Sandy. Check. More financial problems at Atlantic City casinos. Check. Analyzing Governor Christie's B.S. on halfway house escapes. Check.

But at the bottom of Page 1 today, I started reading a story on a rock band made up of surgeons who treat gynecologic disorders, and thought, Gee whiz.

Women rock

The headline from Editor Liz Houlton's tongue-tied copy desk is such a stretch: "The healing power of rock."

The reporter, Mary Jo Layton, makes no such claim in the third paragraph on A-1:

"They're on mission to make searing music and raise awareness about some of the deadliest diseases that strike women."

That's certainly notable in New Jersey, where Christie loves to cut health programs for women so he can propose big tax cuts for his wealthy, overwhelmingly male supporters.  

I kept on reading to the continuation page and then lost interest in what essentially is a story about a bunch of rich doctors trying to relieve stress. 

Sandy is no lady

The paper seems to have finally abandoned the illogical "Digging Out from Sandy" and introduced "Rebuilding Lives" in the main element on A-1 today.

Another Sandy story appears on the Local front, but the rest of the section is a local-news disaster.

Drought on local news 

Readers won't find any news of Hackensack or many other communities, and Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to ignore the twin crises of rush-hour traffic and mass transit (L-1).

Today, he revisits issues he's written about many times before, including Richard Kreimer, the home-hating man who has appeared under Cichowski's byline so many times they might be related.

The Local front also carries a fractured photo caption from Houlton's desk:

"Mommad Atyat, 11, with juggler Fred Collins on Main Street in Paterson, who was promoting shopping downtown [italics added]."

And I wondered if the name "Mommad" is correct.

Mass abandonment

In Opinion, an editorial on Sandy ravaged rail cars and locomotives continues the paper's most intensive coverage of mass transit in the last decade (O-2).

Unfortunately, commuters who use NJ Transit's trains and buses were virtually ignored by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, Cichowski and other transportation writers before Superstorm Sandy.  

And even the recent attention to the damaged NJ Transit rolling stock hasn't included any attempt to measure the impact on already strained services.

   

Photographers' talents are being squandered

"Black Friday," a 1940 film. (Wikipedia)

If you search today's Page 1 photos of Black Friday shoppers, you won't see any crowds or any pushing or shoving for all those so-called bargains the editors have been trying to sell for the past few days.

Maybe Black Friday was a bust -- as residents ravaged by Superstorm Sandy sought distraction at the movies or just stayed home and enjoyed the warmth of having their family around them, with the lights and heat on and plenty of fresh food in the refrigerator.

The Record's front page has earned a reputation in the last several years of being available to the highest bidder, as readers know from all those expensive ads wrapped around Page 1. 

Horse manure

If sending photographers to the mall is a waste of time and talent, how do you explain the photo of steel girders on the front of today's Local section, which carries a breathless update on grandstand construction at The Meadowlands Racetrack for a small minority of gambling addicts (L-1).

Below that is a photo of a minor accident in the  parking lot of a Paramus mall that feeds into the negative stereotype of Asian drivers (L-1).

Fender benders

I've lost count of all the minor accidents Record staffers have photographed in recent years as the assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, reduced them to the role of ambulance chasers.

What happened to the enterprise photos that showed off the photographers' talents while providing a glimpse into North Jersey's suburban lifestyle?

Sandy at the shore

And why were there so few photographs of Sandy's havoc on the Jersey shore?

Did Publisher Stephen A. Borg put the kabosh on hiring a helicopter for one of those double-page photo spreads that would have captured the widespread damage?

Did Borg need the money to meet his mortgage and tax payments on that $3.65 million McMansion he bought several years ago with money from North Jersey Media Group? 

The purchase came only a few months before Borg -- in 2008 -- got rid of Rich Gigli, the paper's longtime photography director, and said sayonara to four of the best photographers on the staff.

See previous post

on more Road Warrior problems 

Road Warrior spins out of control

After Superstorm Sandy, caravans of utility trucks slowed traffic on the Garden State Parkway. (Wikipedia)

Editor's note: With every column, the Road Warrior seems to be spinning more and more out of control -- with scant attention to the facts and inaccurately reporting all those statistics he uses to pad his work. Here is another e-mail from a concerned reader who found numerous flaws in the latest piece.

Once again, the Road Warrior misleads, confuses, and misdirects readers with answers to readers' questions in his Nov. 23 column.

His Nov. 23 column is the 17^th article with problems I've brought to the attention of The Record's management & the Road Warrior, starting with his 9/12 article, without indication of any preventive actions to address these problems and only two or three published corrections.

The Road Warrior starts misleading and confusing readers with his statement below.

1.  Misleading false statement - "Today's complaints range from overturned cars and gas-siphoning to E-ZPass and estrogen."

CORRECT FACTS - There were NO complaints or questions about E-Z pass. The column included a complaint about why there was a long row of out-of-state utility trucks stopped [waiting] at cash lanes on the Garden State Parkway (GSP) after the Sandy storm. There were NO complaints or questions about estrogen. The column included a complaint/question about whether testosterone in males causes most road rage.

Road Warrior has a frequent habit to NOT directly address a reader's specific question.   Instead, a response is provided with unrelated or somewhat related info, as noted below.

1. Question (after reading reports of stolen fuel after Sandy) - "Aren't gas tanks now built to prevent siphoning?"

Road Warrior Answer - "They are. But thieves don't need siphons if they drill directly into the tanks."

PROBLEMS WITH ANSWER - Practically all reports about gas theft after the storm were based on gas siphoning and NOT drilling into gas tanks, which is also good for readers to be aware of.  Road Warrior simply did NOT address the issue of frequent reports of gas siphoning from modern cars and whether there are different anti-siphoning designs, many of which make it more difficult, but are not foolproof against all types of siphoning.  Please be aware that modern cars also have hardware, which makes it more difficult to siphon gas, but which is designed to prevent gas from spilling out of the fuel tank in a crash.  Road Warrior could also have mentioned add-on hardware or parking methods to make it harder for others to siphon gas or drill into gas tanks.

2. Question - "I saw a long row of out-of-state utility trucks stopped on the GSP cash lanes. Since we were all waiting for them to restore our power quickly, why couldn't the state waive the tolls and allow them to pass?"

Road Warrior Answer - "The Turnpike Authority insisted payment was waived, but that required a toll collector to hit a button on a touch screen for each vehicle. So, it can take time for big trucks in long lines to stop and pass through one at a time."

PROBLEMS WITH ANSWER - Road Warrior should have asked and provided the Turnpike Authority answer on why they could not have made an adjustment to waive through the trucks without requiring a toll collector to hit a button for each vehicle.  Christie asked authorities to avoid procedures that would unnecessarily slow down emergency responses.  Good reporters follow up w/questions when an official's answer does not fully address the problem. 

3. Question - "Women drivers are more careful because we often have children in our cars, but my husband drives most when we're together. It's the macho thing to do. After all, isn't most road rage driven by testosterone?"

Road Warrior Answer - "That's a good theory. But some research shows spatial skills, like map reading and parking, may be difficult for some women because of their lack of testosterone." Road Warrior then goes on to explain about the benefits of estrogen effects on women drivers.

PROBLEMS WITH ANSWER - Road Warrior NEVER answers the reader's question about the relationship between men, road rage, and testosterone. There are an overwhelming number of reports that the Road Warrior could have referenced in providing a proper answer about this issue.  Any question can be considered a "good theory," but readers are interested in the facts that prove or disprove that "good theory".  Instead, the Road Warrior went off on an unrelated tangent about the effects of estrogen and testosterone on women drivers, none of which has anything to do with road rage. 

=========

While I greatly appreciate my honorable mention in this column based on a cited correction to the Road Warrior's 11/14 column about women drivers, the bigger questions is why the 3 remaining out-of-date or false facts, which I also identified, were not also corrected in this column. 

Here's hoping for change and better fact-checking, corrections, and oversight of proper answers to readers' questions by The Record's editors, columnists, & reporters based on more reliable, accurate, and common sense info prior to publication.
     

Page 1 story on police spying raises questions

Teaneck residents can only guess what two cops were discussing on Nov. 2, four days after Sandy closed many streets and darkened hundreds of homes and traffic lights.

Today's Page 1 story on the role of local police departments in a federal anti-terrorism program raises a lot of questions.

For decades, The Record's editors have been humoring the many small departments in North Jersey, fearing that any tough reporting would cut off the paper from crime and other Law & Order news.

This is especially the case with head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, who have been relying more and more on crime, court and accident news and photos to fill local-news pages.

The A-1 story mentions four departments in Bergen County that have car-mounted night-vision technology and recording equipment, including tiny Harrington Park, where Sykes lives.

Residents of those and many other towns likely want their police to store the spy gear and pay more attention to stopping house burglaries, updating the driving skills of senior citizens and justifying the bloated salaries of police chiefs, many of whom earn north of $200,000.

Why haven't readers seen any stories exploring how many home-rule police departments come up short or why Governor Christie hasn't capped the salaries of small-town police chiefs, as he did for school superintendents?

What a sport 

In an A-1 photo today, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn resembles a beached Noah's Ark, an appropriate image given how many sports fans are overweight, beer-guzzling animals.

Editor Marty Gottlieb should know the majority of North Jersey readers' only interest in that sports venue is to keep as far away as possible from the surrounding, gridlocked downtown Brooklyn traffic at rush hour.

Sandy victims

The major element on Page 1 today is a story and photos on Sandy victims in Little Ferry and Moonachie enjoying traditional Thanksgiving meals (A-1).

A small photo and refer with that story sends readers to a pre-Black Friday shopping story on the Local front, not an L-2 story about Salvation Army Thanksgiving dinners for storm victims in Hackensack. 

Why separate Thanksgiving stories on victims in the three towns?

Black mark

Doesn't all this attention to Black Friday and naked capitalism -- including the recycling challenge of numerous sales inserts in the paper -- seem inappropriate only weeks after one of the worst storms ever to hit New Jersey? 

Notable locals

The Local front also carries an obituary for Phillip Varisco, 89, the former Hillsdale police chief -- the fourth local obit in a row from the prolific Jay Levin.

This week, Levin's death profiles included:

Singer and retired schoolteacher Benjamin W. Harris, 83, of Hawthorne, who died in a fall down a dark flight of stairs four days after Sandy hit; Mike "Jersey Mike" Van Jura, a colorful music promoter from Hasbrouck Heights who died of a heart attack at 36;  and Catholic girls high school teacher and coach Toni-Marie Hals, who died of ovarian cancer at 41.

The lives of these and other locals are far more interesting to North Jersey readers than all of the other stuff Gottlieb apparently obsesses over for Page 1, including the Rutgers football team, the Barlcays Center and all  of the other sports crap that runs outside day after day. 

Mass what?

Even though Sandy exacerbated the crisis in mass transit, Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to ignore commuters and again mindlessly explores  funeral processions today (L-1).

He also addresses "today's complaints," including one on "estrogen," an apparent reference to women drivers.

Rare corrections

Cichowski also publishes a rare correction in the last paragraph of his column (L-10):

"The column that inspired this question [on women] noted that licensed women drivers now outnumber males by 0.8 percent in New Jersey.

"But  sharp-eyed Hackensack critic Jeff Ross was good enough to correct my poor math. Let the record show that the margin favors women by a full 1.8 percent." 

On Thursday, The Record published another Road Warrior correction on A-2, leaving scores of errors in past columns that have never been acknowledged or corrected.

The assignment editor who handles Cichowski's column before it is sent over to the legally blind copy editors apparently knows less about any subject than the Road Warrior himself, and is a totally ineffective backstop.

Rolling over on reader

Cichowski also answers a reader's question on why Sykes and Sforza run so many photos of rollover accidents (L-10).

Instead of telling the reader, Dan Browne of Montvale, that local editors are desperately trying to fill the space of local-news story they're too lazy to gather, Cichowski claims most of the photos showed "SUVs whose high center of gravity makes them easier to tip."

Of course, what about the cars that rolled over, despite their lower center of gravity? 

Readers should be told about Sykes' low center of gravity, which keeps her planted in her chair in the Woodland Park newsroom and totally uninterested in covering Hackensack and many other communities.

GOP follies 
 
An editorial today mildly criticizes conservative scumbag Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, the only member of the state's congressional delegation who is against seeking additional federal aid in the wake of Sandy (A-22).

Readers, of course, clearly remember how Sykes and Sforza, the top assignment editors, wrote off Teaneck Deputy Mayor Adam Gussen, Garrett's Democratic challenger in the Nov. 6 election, and knocked themselves out to slant coverage against Gussen.

Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson wrote a long, flattering profile of Garrett, one of the most regressive forces in Congress; and Signature Editor Alan Finder made sure to run three large photos of the arch-conservative with it. 

Gussen was never profiled, none of his campaign stops were covered and his photo didn't run in the paper until a couple of weeks before the election.

'Quality' lies

In Better Living, a review of La Bottega, a fancy takeout shop with tables, notes "prices are on the high side, though most ingredients are high-quality" (BL-16-17).

But as usual, Staff Writer Elisa Ung leaves readers guessing as she stuffs a couple of sugary desserts down her gaping mouth.

Is the salmon wild-caught or artificially colored farmed fish? What about the prime rib? Is it free of harmful animal antibiotics, growth hormones and animal byproducts?

You'll have to call the Ridgewood restaurant to find out. Ung throws around the word "quality," but rarely backs it up.

That is a continuing disservice to readers, and leaves profit-hungry restaurant owners and chefs off the hook.