Parting shots at Governor Corzine

Image by lesliepear via Flickr

In what is apparently its last story on Governor Corzine, The Record of Woodland Park doesn't hide its long-held bias against the outgoing Democrat by reporting in a Page 1 story today that "improvements he says his administration made" include education policy and school funding, the child welfare system and expansion of health care.

That's how State House Bureau  reporter John Reitmeyer (or in this case, Wrong-meyer) makes it clear to readers the paper thinks this is only Corzine spin -- in other words, the governor accomplished nothing in office. Reitmeyer also focuses on the weird notion that the wealthy Corzine should have used his money to build homeless shelters and schools. Has The Record ever asked any other politician to build a school or homeless shelter?


Indeed, in another Page 1 story today, about the inauguration of Republican Chris Christie as governor, there is no suggestion he should build a homeless shelter or school with his money. But political Columnist Charles Stile says the "organizing principle" of Christie's administration will be a battle against public school teachers. (The Record has long blamed the "high salaries" of teachers and police officers for towns' financial woes and high property taxes.) Some of Stile's purple prose suggests he hates the teachers union even more than Christie. Why is Stile being assigned to the Christie story in place of a supposedly objective reporter?

Does Christie really care about public school children? I don't see anything in the Christie story about the new governor attacking the obesity epidemic by making sure public schools give children the right food to eat.

The continuing bad news from Haiti occupies the bottom of the front page today, but fashion-plate Editorial Page Alfred P. Doblin has yet to complain in the week since the quake hit about the slow, heart-breaking pace of getting food, water and medical care to survivors, the turf battle over the single airport runway, the breakdown of law and order or any other issue raised by the glacial pace of recovery.

In the editorial today on Christie, The Record says he takes "office at a time of national discontent with government." Really? Didn't the banks bring the economy to the brink of ruin? It's government that is trying to fix the mess caused by their greed. It's government that is trying to extend health care to 30 million Americans without it, while employers like The Record cut employee and retiree health-care benefits. What about discontent with The Record, which has turned its back on readers in Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood, which has segregated elementary and middle schools?

In the Local section today, there are stories from Pompton Lakes (two), Paterson (two), Passaic County, Woodland Park and Ringwood, but nothing but police news from Hackensack and Teaneck. Englewood reporter Giovanna Fabiano covers Haiti relief efforts in her town, but, except for the swearing-in of the new mayor, she hasn't written an Englewood story for about a month. Where is head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Laughs A Lot Sykes" and the rest of the lazy, incompetent editors who are supposed to be supervising Fabiano?

By relying on the Chicago Tribune rather than doing it himself, food and recipe editor Bill Pitcher offers readers an unhealthy recipe to increase their intake of cabbage, one of the most nutritious vegetables around.

Image via Wikipedia

 He's too lazy to call a restaurant in North Jersey for one of their great cabbage recipes -- such as Jamaican cabbage and salted codfish or Korean soft-tofu stew with cabbage kimchi -- so you get a recipe for cabbage and sausage, packed full of mystery meat and preservatives; and told the meal should include buttered potatoes and ice cream. Now that's a healthy meal. Way to go, Pitcher.