Finally, editors are focusing on the uninsured

Signs provide plenty of reading along River Street in Hackensack, where The Record prospered for more than 110 years before the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group abandoned the city for the sticks, precipitating a slide in local-news coverage that persists to this day.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

On Page 1 of The Record today, Editor Marty Gottlieb drops the filter of politics to focus on the people who have been living without health insurance.

For the first time since selfish Republicans again tried to derail the Affordable Care Act, the paper carries profiles of North Jersey residents who hope to find affordable health care. 

Now, where are the stories about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering by health insurance company lobbyists, and the millions of dollars in contributions flowing into the campaign accounts of Tea Party radicals and other conservative Republicans?

Lazy reporting

But lazy journalism still dominates the front page in another column citing polls that claim Democrat Cory Booker now holds only a 13-point lead over Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan in the U.S. Senate race.

Lonegan, you may recall, recently kept a straight face when he compared governing Newark to his years running tiny, dysfunctional Bogota. 

And what about all those polls predicting a close race between President Barack Obama and GOP candidate Mitt Romney last November, when, in fact, the Mormon was blown out of the water?

Politics are the refuge of scoundrels like Staff Writers Charles Stile and Herb Jackson, who don't have the stomach for covering the issues that affect voters.

Errors pile up

Staff Writer John Cichowski is another so-called journalist who refuses to do the legwork to cover the issues of most concern to commuters in his Road Warrior column.

On the Local front today, Cichowski acknowledges the column started 23 years ago this week, written by a different reporter, Jeff Page, but doesn't admit he's no Jeff Page, despite 10 years of trying.

Cichowski's laziness is well-known, including his refusal to cover mass transit or report on declining enforcement by the state police of speeding, tailgating and other reckless driving.

Morons define issues

The addled Cichowski also allows drivers to hijack the Road Warrior column, and spin exaggerated tales of problems -- from highway detours to glare to red-light cameras.

And Cichowski has committed so many errors and given so much inaccurate advice on road rules, toll discounts and other subjects that a reader in Hackensack started a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Local news? Nothing from Hackensack and Teaneck for yet another day.

More failures

On the Opinion front today, another failed columnist claims the health-care exchanges "flopped" after they went online last week -- even though consumers have three months to buy coverage (O-1).

Of course, it's Staff Writer Mike Kelly who flops, especially with the shit-eating grin evident in his dated column photo.

On the Better Living front today, the imbalance in food coverage is evident -- the challenges of feeding a family on assistance shares the page with Staff Writer Elisa Ung's obsession with dessert (BL-1).

Ung again goes far afield in The Corner Table column, which is supposed to be devoted to restaurant issues, by stuffing her pudgy face with a new line of scones, muffins and croissants at Starbucks.

Hotel promoter

What are readers to make of Travel Editor Jill Schensul's gushing cover story today on new hotel "amenities" (T-1)?

Here's another major travel piece without prices, suggesting Schensul was comped by the big hotel chains or she agreed to write the lavishly promotional copy to land more advertising for her pathetically thin, 4-page section.