An indictment of Record Columnist Mike Kelly

The aftermath of a minor accident on South River Street in Little Ferry on Monday. I expected to see a photo of the crash used as filler in The Record's Local section on Tuesday, but the editors got excited over a trash fire in Westwood instead.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Columnist Mike Kelly takes the prize for most irresponsible journalist at The Record with his third attempt to smear the name of Richard Shoop, 20, the Teaneck man who chose a crowded mall on Nov. 4 for his very public suicide.

I recoil every time I see Kelly's dated column photo with his shit-eating grin, as I did on Tuesday's front page, which was dominated by his account of the funeral at a Teaneck church (A-1).

This was Kelly's third column about Shoop, who didn't intend to harm anyone but himself and even looked shoppers in the eye and told them "they were not his target," The Record reported on Page 1 last Wednesday.

Apparently inspired by statements from Prosecutor John L. Molinelli that Shoop had extra ammunition on him, as well as in his car, Kelly claimed in Tuesday's column the man was "seemingly intent on mass murder."

Isn't Shoop's story sad enough without Kelly linking him to the mass shootings at Columbine High School and Newtown, Conn., as he did in this and two previous columns?

Time to retire

Could it be that Kelly completely missed other angles -- the incredible show of force by police that set off panic at the Paramus mall and the total lack of meaningful security provided by the Australian owners?

On last Thursday's front page, a story reported the mall reopened amid "heightened security and assurances that New Jersey's largest mall is safe."

Unfortunately, the only evidence the editors could provide was a large, laughable photo of two Paramus cops patrolling inside, without automatic weapons or body armor, one with his hands in his pockets.  

In more than 20 years of column writing, Kelly has demonstrated one thing only: He does a superb job of filling space with his long, rambling, sensationalized accounts. 

Sadly, his lame reporting is as dishonest as that dated column photo. Few readers would miss him, if Editor Marty Gottlieb busted him back to reporter or simple fired his sorry ass.

Why taxes are so high

Today's front page is dominated by the story of James Brady, the formerly homeless man in Hackensack who was denied welfare benefits because he failed to report $850 he found in the street (A-1).

Brady, who appeared at Tuesday night's City Council meeting, said the homeless shouldn't be targeted unless they are doing something wrong -- a pointed reference to city Police Director Mike Mordaga's policy of cracking down on those with criminal records.

Mordaga has blamed the homeless -- attracted by three free meals a day at the county shelter -- for street crime, drug use and other problems.

Brady's undoing by the city bureaucracy has revealed that Agatha Toomey, the head of the Hackensack Human Services Department, is making an astounding $133,000 a year and has the use of a city car (A-6).

Governor Christie is paid $175,000 a year. No wonder my Hackensack property taxes are so high. 

More liabilities

Kelly isn't the only thing that's rotten in Woodland Park, as a letter to the editor from Dianne Douthat of Wayne shows.

She criticizes Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin for using his Nov. 8 column to pin voter apathy on people, but not accept "the role the media played"  (A-8).

"You could fit the amount of fair, balanced and unbiased reporting in this [gubernatorial] election from New Jersey's newspapers and periodicals on the head of one computer keyboard key," Douthat wrote.

Radio and TV news have been "obscenely biased for many years -- now it seems our local newspapers are following suit. No wonder so few people came out to vote," her letter said.

She called on Doblin and other journalists to examine their consciences and accept responsibility for their role in turning voters off.

Don't hold your breath, Dianne.

You may want to read my Nov. 5 post on voter apathy:

In New Jersey, apathetic morons stifle real change

Road litter

Another major liability at The Record is Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski, whose idea of a major commuting issue is a piece on gas station renovations (L-1).

He focuses on ExxonMobil stations, even though millions are boycotting the oil company responsible for environmental damage in Alaska from the Exxon Valdez spill.

Today's column is the latest based on e-mails from readers who pepper him with questions instead of going to accurate sources of information, hoping they will see their names in print.

In his Sunday column, Cichowski reported that drivers "submitted" to testing for blood-alcohol concentration in fatal accidents, but failed to mention that the drivers were dead.

Read about the other flaws in the column on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Spotlight on the clueless Road Warrior

More sloppy work

Two more corrections ran on Tuesday's A-2, but today's paper has a few problem captions and at least one out-of-focus photo, suggesting that it wan't a good idea seven or eight years ago to stop checking the first copies off the press:

A story and photo of a new streetcar in Kenosha, Wis., has a caption that tells readers power comes from "overhead" (A-5).

At the bottom of L-1 today, a photo of two men is cropped so tightly neither is shown completely. The photo on L-2 has an out-of-focus background.