If you do nothing else today, please get out and vote

Hackensack attorney Roy Cho is seeking the seat in the House of Representatives from the 5th Congressional District, which includes Bergen County. Your other choice is Tea Party Republican Scott Garrett, who has done little more than wage war on the middle class and raise campaign funds to keep himself in office for six terms. Polls are open until 8 p.m.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's editors, who slanted most of their election coverage toward candidates who raised the most special-interest money, show once again they don't care if you vote for U.S. senator, congressman and a host of municipal and school-board offices today.

A single paragraph on Page 1 today notes "New Jersey voters "can head to the polls today."

But if you ever get to the Editorial Page, the editors note, "Today is Election Day, the time for citizens to exercise one of the most cherished rites in a democracy" (A-10).

Shouldn't that statement be published on every front page for weeks before an election to make inroads on the immense amount of voter apathy, much of it generated by the paper's lackadaisical coverage?

News for the young

Nearly all of Editor Martin Gottlieb's front page is devoted to the young, even though the vast majority of his readers are well-off baby boomers:

Today, you'll find more drivel on high school sports, teen drivers and community college students who study abroad (A-1). Boring!

Today's lead front-page story doesn't mention plaintiffs' lawyers will be the biggest winners in a $1 billion settlement of lawsuits against a Mahwah-based manufacturer of allegedly defective hip implants (A-1).

Fully one-third of the $1 billion -- about $333 million -- will be going to the attorneys to pay their legal fees and expenses for expert witnesses.

Another screw-up

On A-2, an embarrassing correction notes some moron in the newsroom misspelled the name of Louis Hunter Sr., bishop of Varick Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church in Hackensack, in a photo caption on the Local front Monday.

The caption called him "Louis Hinter Sr." His name was spelled correctly in the text of the story.

But there was an unacknowledged second problem in the caption:

Hunter is shown "lighting the mortgage," according to the caption. You light a candle, but "burn" a mortgage.

Many non-organic foods, such as these Smart Balance spreads, are labeled "Non-GMO."

Sloppy reporting

The Better Living cover piece on "the GMO debate" is basically a he said/she said story that never answers the question of whether genetically modified organisms in food are harmful, which is the consensus of many experts (BL-1).

Staff Writer Steve Janoski refers to "GMO" as a "buzz acronym." 

But he doesn't make clear two things: 

All foods certified organic are free of GMOs, and so are many non-organic foods that carry a "NON-GMO Project Verified" label.

Janoski sounds like he has never gone food shopping.

Or he might have suggested readers switch to olive oil for cooking to avoid GMOs in the vast majority of corn- and soy-based oils.

The story also doesn't include any reference to other sources, such as the Non-GMO Project.