Week after blown forecast, hardly a peep about new storm

More snow fell on Hackensack overnight than a week ago, when the widely predicted Blizzard of 2015 fizzled, shaming The Record and other media after they indulged in hysterics that prompted people to panic shop for food and other supplies.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When this reader awoke today, there were two surprises -- more snow had fallen than a week ago, when a blizzard was widely predicted, and I found a copy of The Record in a bag on top of the white stuff in the driveway.

Go figure.

The Woodland Park daily's front page on Sunday carried only a few words in small type about today's storm, and even though more snow fell, North Jersey Media Group was able to deliver the print edition I never saw last Tuesday (see L-2 today). 

Boring page

Not there is much to read on Page 1 today, given all the space wasted on Super Bowl game coverage and an obituary for Anna Mara, "the matriarch of the New York Giants" (A-1).

We've all heard about elderly people falling and fatally injuring themselves, as the 85-year-old Mara did.

But instead of just mentioning the cause of her death in passing, how about a sidebar on the phenomena, and what seniors can do to prevent such misfortune?

Gone with the wind

And if Editor Marty Gottlieb expected to grab readers who didn't see the end of the game or who have little interest in the sport, the last writer he should put on Page 1 today is Columnist Tara Sullivan.

She sounds like she is writing a novel, not describing the dramatic end to a great contest (A-1).

Another surprise

Sending Staff Writer Melissa Hayes to cover Governor Christie's visit to London is a colossal waste of money, assuming NJMG paid for the trip and other expenses (A-3).

All she got was a no comment on Mitt Romney's withdrawal from the 2016 presidential race, and lots of nonsense about a trade mission, foreign policy and the GOP bully attending his first soccer game instead of the Super Bowl.

Big influence

Christie's expenses are being paid by Choose New Jersey, a non-profit formed at his behest in 2010 that has many big businesses on its board in return for a $450,000 contribution.

Most of them do businesses with the state, some have received tax breaks from the Christie administration and since last month, the non-profit's leader is Michele Brown, former head of the state Economic Development Authority and the governor's adviser and friend.

Brown, who was a federal prosecutor under Christie, when he was U.S. attorney for New Jersey, is getting a $450,000 salary, double what she earned with the EDA.

In Sunday's Page 1 story about Choose New Jersey, Brown's first name was incorrectly spelled with two l's and the EDA was incorrectly called an "agency."

Hackensack news?

Why is a story on a Hackensack apartment developer saving $1 million by using a "rotary carousel parking tower" the biggest element on the Local news front today (L-1)?

Such a rotary parking system was used in Manhattan in the 1960s.

The rotary parking system doesn't benefit the public or property tax payers.

Real news would be city officials announcing they are getting $1 million in givebacks from such non-profits as Hackensack University Medical Center, which pays no taxes on more than $100 million in property.

The parking carousel was even promoted in a streamer at the top of Page 1 -- a sure sign of desperation from the local assignment editor who got stuck working on Sunday.

(201) magazine

A well-known Hackensack fast-food restaurant appears on the cover of (201) magazine's "The Best of Bergen" -- results of its 9th annual Readers Poll.

A strange choice, because White Manna on River Street serves not one of the best, but one of the lowest-quality beef "sliders" around.

No copy editor is listed among the magazine's editorial staff on Page 10, so it's no wonder that under Fine Dining, the Best Korean Restaurant, So Moon Nan Jip, is misspelled two out of three times (Page 93).

Under Specialty Food Shops, Peter's Fish Market in Midland Park is chosen best for the ninth time (Page 87), even though the Seafood counter at Whole Foods Market in Paramus puts it to shame.

And to show how little the magazine's well-heeled readers know, Seafood Gourmet doesn't even rate a mention.

The Maywood favorite goes small fish markets one better by having a great cook and a dining room where you can enjoy all of that fresh fish and other delights.

Christie is gorging on fish and chips while Jersey starves

The 47-story luxury residential tower at the center of Fort Lee's Hudson Lights project, as seen from the parking lot of a small downtown shopping center. The building, dubbed "The Modern," is shaped like a tombstone, and I can see it from the car while driving on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, now that the trees have lost their leaves.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today is another lame effort that holds hardly any relevance for residents of North Jersey.

A third international trip for Governor Christie, who is flying thousands of mile to London for takeout fish and chips, has readers wondering how New Jersey's ailing economy benefited from his previous junkets to Mexico and Canada (A-1).

At least Editor Marty Gottlieb finally is running a Page 1 story on the group bankrolling the GOP bully's foreign trips:

Choose New Jersey has the backing of the "largest public utilities, labor unions, law firms and contractors -- some that have received multi-million contracts and tax breaks from the state," a front-page story reports in an awkwardly worded, poorly edited first paragraph (A-1).

For one thing, I don't think the labor unions have received any of those benefits.

Today's largely favorable Christie coverage shows how Gottlieb, Columnist Charles Stile and other staffers have been sitting on the edge of their seats for at least two years, promoting the governor's White House dreams.

On Saturday's front page, Stile's boring political column discussed how the pathetic Mitt Romney's decision not to run for a third time in 2016 might affect Christie.

Media vultures

Again, today's Page 1 image from an Islamic State video "in the slaying of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto" only encourages more terrorist brutality.

Why does the irresponsible Gottlieb keep on running the story on the front page?

The rest of A-1 today is wasted on the Super Toilet Bowl.

Municipal news

Today's Local section is filled with legitimate municipal news for a change, but stories from Hackensack and Teaneck have been conspicuously absent lately.

Four out of five stories on Saturday's Local front reported on employment issues in Paterson and Emerson, and on the police in Glen Rock and Lodi.

The fifth story was about the sentencing of a former Paterson auxiliary officer who tried to cover up the death of a motorcyclist.

The rest of Saturday's Local section was mostly Law & Order and court news, as if the municipal staff and local assignment editors in Woodland Park took Friday off.

Kelly on 'Sniper'

Hard to believe New Jersey columnist Mike Kelly couldn't find anything else to write about today except "an extraordinarily subtle but deeply significant fact" in the film "American Sniper" (O-1).

The punch line?

"The hero at the center of the story, Chris Kyle, served four tours in Iraq." (%$&!!!*()@???)

'Rape' or not?

If a grand jury voted against indicting four William Paterson University students on charges of sexual assault, or rape, why did the banner headline on Friday's and Saturday's front page refer to a "rape case"?

It wasn't, after all, a case of rape. The headline should have used the phrase "rape charges" or "alleged rape."

Free country

I guess emergency room doctor and pilot Christopher Okechukwu of Paramus has every right to commute in a 1976 Cessna 150 (Friday's gee-whiz story on A-1).

But after the engine sputtered and he landed on a highway in West Milford, shouldn't he reimburse the town and any other first responders?

Property taxpayers shouldn't have to subsidize the wealthy doctor's joy rides.

Blizzard fizzled

Last Tuesday's "Blizzard of '15" edition was really embarrassing, though not quite as bad as the incorrect banner headline that ran in The Chicago Tribune on Nov. 3,  1948:

"DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN"

The Record's stories, under the banner "READY FOR THE WORST," called the storm potentially one of the biggest in decades and reported a virtual lockdown on transportation.

Maybe, it's a good thing The Record wasn't able to deliver the paper to subscribers -- even though fewer than 6 inches of snow fell in some places -- telling them in an e-mail to look at a digital version online.

Next time, instead of swallowing whole all that hysterical TV news hype, The Record should put a story on Page 1 explaining just how many times forecasts have been right and wrong to put the developing storm in perspective.

Snowstorm coverage you never see in your daily paper

My guesstimate is that 6 inches to 8 inches of snow fell on the Fairmount section of Hackensack, above and below, far less than relentless media hype led all of us to believe. On Monday, The Record's front page warned the storm "may dump 2 feet or more."

Editor's note: I didn't receive The Record's print edition today. Instead, I looked at the digital edition. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When I think of how The Record covers big snowstorms, I can't shake the image of one of the paper's obese local assignment editors trying to climb over a snowbank in the Hackensack parking lot many years ago.

Despite the effort, she flopped on her well-padded posterior and injured her back, then stayed out of work for weeks.

The Record certainly has made the effort, but always comes up short, forgetting just how important good snow plowing is to readers.

Broken Record

On Monday, The Record's front page blared:

North Jersey bracing

for The Big One

Today's Page 1 banner headline is similar and doesn't advance the story much:

READY FOR THE WORST

One bright spot on today's front page is a bit of colorful writing from the copy desk and Christopher Maag, who describes how just about all transportation was cancelled.

The headline:

Can't get there from here today 

"If it flies, rolls or floats, don't expect to see it moving today," Maag says in his second paragraph.

That sentence is just about perfect.

Snow clearing

Unless the editors grow a large set of balls, The Record tomorrow will shrink from rating Hackensack and other towns on how well they do in clearing streets, intersections and bus stops.

Nor will the paper go after property owners who shrug at the snow and refuse to clear their sidewalks or pay someone to do the job.

This has been going on for decades, even though uncleared intersections, crosswalks, sidewalks and bus stops endanger drivers and pedestrians.

Hackensack DPW

Some people you hire don't do windows; in Hackensack, property taxpayers can't get the Department of Public Works plows to do corners.

Bus stops along Main Street usually remain uncleared, forcing riders to stand in the street -- inches from passing cars -- or climb over a snowbank to get to the bus.

Quarterly property taxes in Hackensack are due in two weeks. 

But if the past is any guide, residents won't get their money's worth, and snow clearing will be as sloppy as ever.

The same can be said for Teaneck, Englewood and many other towns.

This sounds silly

When you work for a paper, with early deadlines and all the other impediments to timely coverage, you should avoid labeling a developing storm the "Blizzard of '15," as today's front page does.

If you are Road Warrior John Cichowski, you can't help just making up things or, as he does today, cite a 2013 blizzard in Wyoming in advising North Jersey drivers on how to prepare for being stranded in a big storm (L-1).

In his Jan. 20 column on the front page, Cichowski repeatedly misquoted state officials on why they want to raise the gas tax to replenish the state Transportation Trust Fund, which repairs roads and bridges.

The incentive to raise the gas tax is that the fund is months away from running out of money, not that gasoline has fallen to less than $2 a gallon.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

The Road Warrior has run out of gas again

Today's photos

Two photographs in the digital edition of The Record today are notable:

An AP photo of Governor Christie speaking to Iowa conservatives, crackpots and racists shows the GOP bully to be as ugly as his policies in New Jersey (A-2).

On the Local front, a photo by staffer Danielle Parhizkaran perfectly captures the grief of relatives gathered around the coffin of Vincent Capuana (L-1).