Editors love TV, anniversaries

A 9/11 reflecting pool in lower Manhattan. The stalled museum building is behind the pool, right, and the New World Trade Center is under construction, left.

What would the editors of The Record do without the junk on TV to cover or such anniversaries as 9/11?

In the second day of reports on the "Hell's Kitchen" finale on Fox, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung today claims Justin Antiorio "really represented New Jersey," in the words of the sous chef's godmother (BL-1).

Well, state residents must have sunk pretty low, if an unemployed chef who smokes and curses, and who lost the expletive-filled competition, is all we can find to represent us.

Another trite column

Today also marks another day of covering the 9/11 anniversary, and the editors produce the same predictable stories and Mike Kelly column.

But Staff Writer Justo Batista deserves praise for scooping the national media with a Monday night deal on funding the stalled National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum (A-1).

Even National Public Radio was reporting as late as this morning that a financial dispute had stopped the museum project.

Talented photographer

And look at the gorgeous front-page photo by Staff Photographer Mitsu Yasukawa, who was sent to the 9/11 Memorial in Jersey City (A-1).

But the big news on Page 1 today is a new legislative report putting the state $254 million behind in tax collections, throwing more cold water on Governor Christie's proposed income-tax cut.

Christie -- who unfortunately does represent New Jersey -- denounced the report, continuing to peddle the myth that tax cuts create jobs.

Little local schmooze

The Local news sections today and Monday are more disappointing work from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her chief flunkie, Dan Sforza.

The last Hackensack municipal news -- a planned streamlining of zoning laws to encourage downtown redevelopment -- appeared Sept. 2.

Even with 9/11 stories to help fill the paper, Editor Marty Gottlieb came up with a real clunker on Monday -- an eye-glazing, A-1 account of tax sharing in the Meadowlands that is of absolutely no interest to anyone outside the 14 towns involved.