 |
| The landmark Church on the Green in Hackensack. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
As tributes continue to pour in two days after the death of former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, many readers are wondering why such a princely politician is so rare.
The Associated Press story on A-4 of The Record today compares Cuomo to FDR and Adlai Stevenson, claiming "liberals have lost one of their last, best champions."
That seems premature.
But even more troubling is the media's failure to compare Cuomo and his son, Andrew, the current New York governor, to Governor Christie and all of the other mean-spirited politicians whose sole mission seems to be protecting millionaires from higher taxes.
(The caption with today's A-4 story on Mario Cuomo shows "Matilda Cuomo, center," but there are a total of four people in the photo.)
Cuomo v. Christie
Andrew Cuomo, who took the oath for his second term on Thursday just a few hours before his father died, has governed his state far better than Christie has New Jersey.
The younger Cuomo said that since he took office, New York has turned a $10 billion deficit into a $5 billion surplus, expanded health care to cover 1.5 million more people and reversed gridlock and dysfunction in government by getting Republicans and Democrats to work together (Friday's A-4).
Instead of trying to get the two parties to work together, Christie simply vetoes any legislation passed by the Democratic majority, then has lackeys like Columnist Charles Stile portray the GOP bully as a "compromiser."
Friday's front page
Staff Writer Todd South, who is assigned to cover Hackensack, reported and wrote two strong stories, and they appeared on Friday's Page 1.
The centerpiece focused on Alon Millet, a 16-year-old Bergen County Academies student whose research promises to ease world hunger with faster-growing mung beans.
Once he's perfected that, let's hope Alon turns his attention to ending the flatulence caused by eating too many beans.
Todd's second story is on Rutgers University's Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, which has developed a program that focuses intensely on health care for combat veterans.
Contrast those two stories with the drivel from The Record's sports, news and transportation columnists that Editor Martin Gottlieb often plays on Page 1.
Eating in a stable
If the restaurant's name doesn't turn you off, then read the lukewarm review of Valley Stables in Oakland in Friday's Better Living tab (BL-12).
Staff Writer Elisa Ung complained about the "wild [G]ulf shrimp" in a pasta dish, reporting "they were rather thin and insipid, not any meatier or flavorful [sic] than your average farmed shrimp ($23)."
Does she expect wild shrimp, which are free of antibiotics and preservatives, to jump off her plate and into her mouth?
Maybe the menu misrepresented the shrimp in the dish. Did she ask the owner or chef? God forbid.
Food coverage
Thankfully, readers starving for intelligent food coverage don't have to rely only on Ung, as shown by an inspirational profile of Chef Vaughn Crenshaw of Hackensack.
Crenshaw, 29, executive chef at Ridgewood's Pearl Restaurant, grew up next to a crack house in Paterson and lived in a car as a teenager.
Staff Writer Steve Janoski's feature on Crenshaw appeared on Wednesday's Better Living front.
The story continued on BL-3, opposite Coffee with the Chef, in this case, Filomeno Vuocolo of Cenzino in Oakland (which happens to be across the street from Valley Stables, the restaurant reviewed on Friday).
Vuocolo is another chef who offers nothing to the home cook, claiming that to prepare perfect pasta you must avoid using a metal strainer, because "once you use another metal, it changes the taste" (Wednesday's BL-2).
What is it about chefs and pasta?
In a previous Coffee with Chef, Adam Weiss of Due in Ridgewood urged home cooks to throw caution to the wind and salt pasta water "like the ocean."
Today's front page
The Record's news coverage focuses mostly on the young -- even though the vast majority of its readers are 50 or older -- a bias some critics have seen in North Jersey Media Group's promotion policies.
Today, Page 1 carries a long story on a couple's battle with an insurer on behalf of their autistic son.
The story is by Staff Writer Stephanie Akin, whose byline has been scarce in the past few months.
Desperate editors
The Better Living editors were so desperate for food copy today, they ran a story about a restaurant in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, on the same page as two pet columns (BL-4).
Your only comment is that you found one typo in my post?
ReplyDeleteYou should put those eagle eyes to work where they are really needed -- in the Woodland Park newsroom.