All of a sudden, Christie is sensitive about his weight

Hackensack's new City Council at a meeting in July. Did The Record cover the council meeting on Tuesday night, and, if so, when will it tell readers what happened?

By Victor E. Sasson

Editor

In his first three years in office, Governor Christie's waistline ballooned, he was hospitalized on a hot summer day in 2011 after an asthma attack and he refused to tell the national media how much he weighed.

The Record and other state media never asked how much Christie weighed nor have they bothered reporting what, if anything, his administration has done to fight the childhood obesity epidemic.

Meanwhile, he was the butt of jokes by late-night TV comedians, and even pulled out a donut and crammed it into his mouth during an appearance on David Letterman's show.

400-pound bully?

Letterman guessed Christie weighed 400 pounds. Finally, early this year, Christie gave up pretending to control his eating, and had weight-loss surgery.

Now, the GOP bully is objecting to a seemingly innocent comment by state Sen. Barbara Buono, D-Middlesex, about his appearance in TV ads promoting the Jersey shore after Superstorm Sandy (A-1 and A-3).

"I'm very disappointed that she has decided to go down that road for me and other folks across New Jersey, many folks who are challenged by their weight," the governor told Staff Writer Melissa Hayes (A-3).

Easy choice

What a joke. Christie has been in denial for decades, as are the grossly overweight local editors at The Record who have refused to launch a series on obesity.

In the November gubernatorial election, voters have a simple choice between a fit woman who cares about the middle class and an overweight governor who does the bidding of the wealthy and other fat cats.

Going national

Editor Marty Gottlieb has fashioned another front page -- for The Times or another national newspaper -- with local stories playing second fiddle.

What are readers supposed to make of the boring ANALYSIS about Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., supposedly "on [the] world stage" during the debate over attacking Syria (A-1)?

Is The Record grooming him for an invasion of communist Cuba and the presidency of the Caribbean's biggest island?

Below the fold, a story about saving a plot of land in the Meadowlands falls into the "that's nice" category, but can readers visit and see for themselves (A-1)?

On A-2 today, 3 of the many errors that have appeared in recent days are corrected.

Go home, LG

When is The Record going to stop pretending that a new LG Electronics' corporate headquarters -- which would be an indelible scar on the Palisades north of the bridge -- will by itself lift the economy of Bergen County (A-1 and A-4)?

This is nothing more than an irresponsibly selfish grab by ratable-hungry officials in Englewood Cliffs, and a South Korean conglomerate eager to put the company logo in view of millions of New York consumers.

More local slop

Readers of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section have become accustomed to accident-photo captions supplying no information on the possible cause or other important information.

But today's sensational coverage of a Route 17 crash that killed a 31-year-old mother and seriously injured a father -- while their baby was left home alone -- is a new low for the copy desk and Production Editor Liz Houlton (L-1).

The L-1 photo caption says "a car broke into three pieces after hitting a thick metal pole on Route 17 in Lodi," but that's contradicted by the story:

"The impact of the accident and the rescue attempt [italics added] left the car mangled and broken into three pieces" (L-2).

Putting aside the awkward phrase "impact of the accident," readers are left with questions about what caused the car to break up.

Was speed a factor? Why doesn't the story address that?

Are Houlton and her copy editors doing anything more than spell-checking stories and slapping headlines and captions on them?

Back to school

Also on L-1, Road Warrior John Cichowski is so desperate to get readers interested in another column that has nothing to do with commuting (school-bus inspections), he begins with a total non-sequitur about car owners too busy for emissions testing (L-1).

Of course, readers in Hackensack and other towns without school busing just turned the page. 

Two local obituaries appear today, apparently marking the end of a vacation for Staff Writer Jay Levin (L-6).

One reader I heard from on Monday thought The Record had missed the death of former Freeholder and Midland Park Mayor William Van Dyke, but the obit appears today, albeit 8 days after the fact.