Editors are covering Cuba with the same tired old eyes

In a 2004 photo, a Havana resident standing near a beautifully restored 1956 Chevy in a parking lot off of Calle Carlos III.

Belarmino Rico, left, and son Joseph carving roast pork for Cuban sandwiches at La Pola, a busy West New York cafe. The elder Rico's crispy sandwiches, moistened with a garlic sauce, have earned him the title of "King of the Cuban Sandwich."

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

U.S.-Cuba relations may be improving, but little has changed in the way The Record's cynical editors are covering the story.

A large photo on Page 1 today shows jubilant residents of Havana after President Obama announced the resumption of diplomatic relations.

Still, Editor Marty Gottlieb managed to find an 82-year-old hag who vows not to return to the island she left in 1965 until Fidel Castro dies (A-1 and A-10).

Ana Pulido Nordelo is the same type of hard-liner The Record has been quoting prominently in Cuba stories for ages. 

The photo of a moderate should have been used on the front page and his or her quotes are the ones that should be leading the local Cuban-American reaction story on A-10 today.

Exile coverage

Today's coverage is only slightly better than when The Record assigned reporters Miguel Perez and Liz Llorente, who were rabid anti-Castro Cuban exiles, to every major story about the island.

In one of her stories, Llorente even referred to Cuba as "tiny," apparently unaware that it is, in fact, more than 775 miles long and the biggest island in the Caribbean.

7 trips to Cuba

When I was working at The Record, I made seven trips to Cuba as a journalist.

I was the first staffer to write a Travel section cover piece, "Many faces of Cuba," published on March 26, 2000, after two years of resistance from then-Editor Glenn Ritt.

I followed that with two Food section cover stories on Cuban cooking, including one on the best Cuban sandwich in North Jersey that appeared on Feb. 26, 2003.

My story followed a New York Times story that focused exclusively on Cuban sandwiches in Miami.

Little crime

On my trips to Cuba, I found an island with little violent crime and no drug problem, and one where school shootings were unheard of.

I recall walking all over Havana at night without fear, even when frequent blackouts plunged streets into darkness. 

I would never do that in Manhattan or even my native Brooklyn. 

Before the 1959 revolution condemned by so many in the exile community, wealth was concentrated in the hands of a white ruling class, farmers were not allowed to own the land they worked and rural areas had no schools or medical clinics.

Of course, you never read any of this in The Record or other media, which continued to demonize Fidel Castro even after the United States climbed into bed economically with two other hard-line communist countries, Vietnam and China.

Also on Page 1

The only angle chief word pusher Mike Kelly could find to explore is Joanne Chesimard, who escaped to Cuba after she was convicted of the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state trooper (A-1).

Of course, Kelly can't even manage to craft a logical lead paragraph:

First, he has "animosity between the United States and Cuba seemed to thaw" followed by "another old and painful memory in New Jersey heated up."

"Thaw" and "heated up" are basically the same thing. The contrast he intended isn't there. 

You're left to stare at the shit-eating grin in his photo, and wonder if Kelly is showing any sign of brain activity.

After New Jersey's disappointing experience with casinos in Atlantic City, why would any resident who is not a gambling addict approve games of chance in North Jersey (A-1)?

Check out the three embarrassing corrections on A-2 today -- no surprise with six-figure Editor Liz Houlton in charge of production.

Dog lovers

The lazy assignment editors managed to find another dog-rescue story for the Local front today, following the one on Wednesday (L-1).

What about cat lovers? Don't they deserve to have their heart strings tugged?

Forgive me, but who can feel any sympathy for luxury car owners who allege they were cheated out of many thousands of dollars by a flashy Ramsey auto dealer whose last name rhymes with "con"?

Today's L-1 story reports the FBI is asking for the public's help in finding Bobby Kahn, and the federal agency's phone number appears in the second paragraph.

Give me a break. What kind of crime busters are these?

Tenafly news

Does Tenafly get more coverage than other towns because Publisher Stephen A. Borg lives there?

On L-3 today, a story on the borough's success in luring businesses downtown is unlike anything The Record has reported for Teaneck, Englewood or Hackensack.

Stories on Hackensack focus exclusively on the hopes of officials that apartment development will bring many more residents and potential downtown shoppers and restaurant customers, a strategy that has already failed in Englewood.

'False' post?

A careful reader of Eye on The Record claims my Dec. 10 post was wrong when I reported the younger Borg "moved the printing of The Record and Herald News to a printing plant in Rockaway Township, and ordered a major downsizing of the staff in 2008."

"Mr. Borg played no role in those decisions," the reader says.

The younger Borg became publisher of The Record and Herald News in June 2006, supplanting his father, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg.

Stephen Borg was named president of North Jersey Media Group in late 2007.

It's hard to see how, in view of his commanding positions, he  "played no role" in those major decisions.