Playing doctor, greedy homeowners, bad journalism

The George Washington Bridge as photographed through a tinted windshield.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Today's Page 1 story about an anesthesiologist who performed spine surgery goes on and on in the tradition of Editor Marty Gottlieb, who brought to The Record his former paper's practice of writing incredibly long stories.

Here, more than two full pages of the paper are devoted to Dr. Richard Kaul and the cases of 11 North Jersey patients he operated on (A-1, A-10 and A-11).

24/7 phone line

Maybe medical writer Lindy Washburn should be exploring whether the 24/7 phone number for getting insurance under the Affordable Care Act (1-800-318-2596) is working better than the federal Web site.

Instead, Gottlieb is running another negative story about President Obama's "legacy" -- this one from McClatchy Newspapers (A-1).

In a couple of years, when tens of millions of uninsured Americans are covered for the first time -- easing the burden of emergency room care on taxpayers -- no one will remember all of these roll-out glitches.

Football greed

If you lose interest in the "pain doctor" story -- as I did after just a few paragraphs and a glance at the continuation pages, wondering what relevance it has to me -- you can shake your head over greedy homeowners who are charging out-of-town football fans as much as $10,000 a night during the Super Toilet Bowl in February.

Let's hope that Bobby Adamo's North Arlington home, which will cost $30,000 for a week, is trashed by the bunch of slobs he will be exploiting (A-1).

Is The Record trying to say there are no municipal regulations that bar renting out your house to people you aren't related to?

And what about the liability homeowners face, if one of the fans consumes too much alcohol at dinner and mows down a neighbor?

And that's it for Page 1 of  the Woodland Park daily. Another disappointing Sunday edition. But there's more.

Despite all of  the errors in Saturday's Record, no corrections appear on A-2 today.

Seeing red

On the Local front today, the Road Warrior column is the latest attempt to demonize red-light cameras (L-1).

Staff Writer John Cichowski, aka The Addled Commuter, doesn't tell readers the cameras are the last line of defense against speeders -- those lead-footed drivers who believe they have a constitutional right to go as fast as they want to and, in the process, maim or kill pedestrians and other drivers.

But driving is a privilege, not a right, and the cameras surely will proliferate amid a dramatic decline in traffic enforcement, bringing towns sorely needed revenue as property taxes continue to climb.

We'll all be safer when hundreds of red-light cameras are in use around North Jersey.

Top of his game

A far better read is Staff Writer Jay Levin's masterful portrayal of Michael Oprihory, a former Elmwood Park police lieutenant who died on Nov. 3 at 89 (L-1).

Read that first paragraph, and ask yourself why the drivel from Cichowski and The Record's other columnists, most of whom can't put together a coherent sentence, get so much better play than Levin's local obituaries.

Word pusher

Wow. Mike Kelly attended President John F. Kennedy's funeral 50 years ago, and here he is today, complete with his dated column photo and shit-eating grin, to bore readers with his recollections (O-1).

Zisa family

An editorial endorses Governor Christie attempt to end payouts for unused sick and vacation time, including the $4.7 million Hackensack had to fork over to public workers in 2010 (O-2).

A photo of the city's famously corrupt former police chief and state assemblyman, Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa, appears with the editorial.

Imagine if the sports-obsessed Record paid as much attention to Hackensack during the many years the Zisa family ran the city and sucked it dry.

From hunger

In Travel, a story about Vancouver's natural splendors ignores its reputation for culinary splendors and dining out, one of the joys of exploring the world (T-1).

And the 2014 Dine Out Guide is mislabeled "a reader's guide," when it should be called an "advertiser's guide."

Dozens of North Jersey restaurants are missing, presumably in retaliation for not advertising in the guide.