Editors allow partisan politics to shape Trenton coverage

In Englewood, Mayor Frank Huttle is pushing the City Council to buy a building next to a Korean supermarket and develop it as a community center, The Record reports today. The plan comes many years after the city dropped plans to buy the shuttered, 100-year-old-plus Lincoln Elementary School for a community center, eventually selling the land and building to an apartment developer.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's editors and owners refuse to provide the leadership readers are looking for as Governor Christie butts heads with Democrats over an "extensive" list of problems facing the state.

As they did after Christie took office in early 2010, the editors continue to focus on the nasty partisan politics dividing the conservative governor and the Democratic majority in the state Legislature (A-1).

Today, The Record announces a groundbreaking "tracker graphic" as key issues move through the Governor's Office and the legislative process in 2016.

Of course, the original "Christie Tracker" was started by WNYC-FM, which told listeners where Christie was traveling as head of a GOP governors group or when he was campaigning.

Real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson, left, is a top adviser to Governor Christie, and a personal friend of Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, chairman of North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record.

He said, she said

But if the past is any guide, Editor Deirdre Sykes' bad-hair days will mean bad-news days for readers, who will have to slog through endless he said/she said stories on such issues as transportation, public worker benefits and taxes.

Since she took over in January, Sykes has failed to provide any editorial leadership in Woodland Park, repeating the same failures readers know from the many years she ran the local-news section.  

Seven other daily papers in New Jersey called for Christie's resignation after he endorsed and campaigned for racist Donald Trump. 

But the Woodland Park daily didn't even report the state's biggest daily, The Star Ledger, and the other papers want the GOP bully to leave Trenton for good.

Readers' eyes roll

Charles Stile, the biggest Christie apologist on staff, today has readers' eyes rolling with a front-page column on the Republican Party in New Jersey more than 50 years ago (A-1).

Meanwhile, as limp as they are, the last four lines of Mike Kelly's Opinion front column on Christie should have been the first four lines (O-3):

"He says he's 'back to work'. Yet, he skips a state trooper's funeral for a political campaign.

"He's the butt of belittling jokes.

"He thinks this is all just a good time."

And on the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski is writing about "us older folks" who don't buckle up in the back seat (L-1).

Mazel tov

Congratulations to Hackensack Mayor John P. Labrosse Jr., who became a grandfather twice on Friday (L-1).

Flay's burgers

Food writer Elisa Ung has been a big fan of Bobby Flay ever since she reported a decade ago "chef's quality" beef is used in the hamburgers sold at his Bobby's Burger Palace in Paramus.

Today, the sell-out continues to blow smoke in another elaborately promotional piece on Flay and his burger restaurants (Better Living front).

Of course, nothing could be farther from the truth. Flay uses Certified Angus Beef, which is raised on harmful antibiotics and who knows what else.

Stick with the salads, if you know what's good for you.

Now, here's a local chef worthy of celebration

For the print oriented, signs are impossible to ignore, including this one in the men's room of a business in Allendale, above, and another on the West Side of Manhattan, below. Thanks to Rosh Hashana celebrations, there were fewer traffic jams and more seats on NJ Transit trains on Friday. 

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

I read every inspirational word of today's Page 1 story in The Record about Darryl Dela Cruz, a chef  who will be teaching former drug addicts and the homeless in Paterson skills they can parlay into a steady kitchen job (A-1).

Since Publisher Stephen A. Borg folded The Record's Food section in 2007, there have been few such stories, but lots of mindless promotion of so-called celebrity chefs and their restaurants.

I recall in 2009, Staff Writer Elisa Ung purportedly gave readers an inside look at the launching of Bobby's Burger Palace in Paramus, praising the use of "chef's quality" beef. 

But in truth, Chef/Owner Bobby Flay was intent on ignoring the welfare of his customers and using low-quality Certified Angus Beef raised on antibiotics and growth hormones to fatten his bottom line.

Ung is still at it, breathlessly reporting on Friday's Better Living cover that the new owners of the Saddle River Inn "take ambitious risks."

But her review doesn't bother saying whether the $42 filet mignon or the $45 sirloin are naturally raised.

More 9/11 lies

Today's front page is weighed down by a Mike Kelly column that appears to kick off the paper's 9/11 anniversary coverage (A-1).

A few photographs would suffice to update readers on the long-delayed opening of the 9/11 Museum, not the thousands of words pushed around by "The Shit-Eating Grin."

A second 9/11 story on today's Better Living cover skillfully ignores the most shameless day in the history of the newsroom on River Street in Hackensack (BL-1).

"The story behind a photographer's iconic image" is the headline over a report on "The Flag," a CNN investigation of what happened to the American flag that was raised over the rubble of the World Trade Center by three firemen on Sept. 11, 2001 (BL-1).

The real story

The Record's story never reports then-Editor Frank Scandale blew it by running Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin's photo of the flag raising on the back page of a section -- not on Page 1, as he was urged to do by Rich Gigli, the paper's photo editor in 2001.

That decision likely killed any chance of Franklin winning the Pulitzer Prize for Photography.

It's no wonder Franklin declined to be interviewed for the CNN documentary.

Today's story reports:

"The photo, published first in The Record on Sept. 12, 2001, subsequently ran on the cover [front page] of the New York Post -- without crediting Franklin -- and the cover of Newsweek. 

To add insult to injury, the story ends in mid-sentence (BL-3), another great job by Production Editor Liz Houlton, the six-figure "Queen of Errors."

In recent years, Vice President/General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg has spent tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees to sue anyone who uses the Franklin photo -- even with full credit -- claiming violation of the newspaper's copyright.

That's noteworthy, because higher-ups cited the high cost of remaking  the front page on Sept. 11, 2001, as the reason the iconic photo wasn't run on A-1 -- in one of the biggest journalistic blunders ever.

More missing

An editorial on A-11 today reminds readers how The Record has completely ignored the issues in the gubernatorial campaign as it has cranked up the public relations machine for Governor Christie's second term.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, apparently took a 3-day weekend, judging by today's Local section.

Readers looking for local obituaries instead find an incredibly long story about a Hitler bodyguard who escaped the firing squad and lived to 96 (L-6).  

Error addict?

The Road Warrior column on Friday was filled with mistakes, and a concerned reader suggests Staff Writer John Cichowski -- "The Addled Commuter" -- has become addicted to error:

"In his Friday column, the Road Warrior repeatedly and deliberately misquoted a judge and misrepresented clearly stated assessments and facts in a court decision.

"The case was about whether a remote cellphone texter can be held partially liable in a civil suit if a person who read the text while driving caused an accident involving injuries or property damage.

"The Road Warrior introduced a crazy assessment that implied the texter knowingly promoted addictive texting behavior by the driver, even though the plaintiff's lawyer and none of the four judges hearing the case ever raised such nonsense.

"The Road Warrior's misstatements of quoted text from the court's decision is cause for even greater concern that a reporter is unable to do his job and is intentionally misleading his readers.

"The Road Warrior incorrectly reported or made up figures about the National Safety Council 2011 estimate about cellphone-related crashes.

"Some psychiatrists consider excessive and frequent misrepresentations to be addictive behavior.  Is The Record's management encouraging such behavior by the Road Warrior?"

To read the entire e-mail to editors and management, go to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:


Road Warrior can and does tell lies

Related Articles

• Editor should hang his head in shame
• Good riddance to bad rubbish
• Stephen Borg fingered as 'the real problem'
• On 9/11 anniversary, newspaper stumbles

Local news boycott continues

 Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood residents will search in vain for municipal news in The Record today. Even the two restaurants featured prominently in Better Living are in Passaic County, seemingly a reflection of the paper's move to Woodland Park.

Image via Wikipedia

Although it was clear last month that legalization of same-sex marriage didn't have a chance, the former Hackensack daily kept the issue alive and today, devotes most of the front page and one inside page to its defeat. The other "big story" on Page 1 is the Cablevision-Scripps battle over the Food Network -- a non-story to tens of thousands of readers with other television services.

In the Local section, the paper assigns three reporters to the murder of a Garfield businessman and runs two large photos of law enforcement officials announcing an arrest.

For Hackensack news, you'll have to look to the weekly Hackensack Chronicle, which is also owned by North Jersey Media Group and which is delivered with The Record on Fridays. The weekly paper reports the city manager asked union workers to forgo their scheduled raises in 2010 -- a hike of about 3%.

Thumbs up to Columnist Kevin DeMarrais for acknowledging on Page L-8 that The Record is profiting from the cable TV dispute by selling full-age ads outlining each side's spin, but shame on him for gratuitously plugging Bobby Flay's hamburger restaurant in Paramus, where the chef chooses to serve lower-quality beef to fatten his bottom line.

'Stupid' food coverage

Image via Wikipedia

If you live in Hackensack or many other towns in Bergen County, you stopped long ago relying on The Record for municipal news. In the more than two years since I moved to River City, which was the onetime local newspaper's home for more than 110 years, I can't recall seeing a story about what the City Council did the night before.

You just have to drive by the paper's landmark building at 150 River St. and count the relatively few cars in the sprawling parking lot to realize The Record has virtually abandoned the city, moving printing and staff as far as 30 miles away. The consolation prize for local news hounds is the copy of a low-quality weekly called the Hackensack Chronicle that is delivered with the daily paper on Fridays. (The Chronicle is also owned by the powerful North Jersey Media Group.)

In The Record's Local news section today, I count four stories from Paterson, two from Wayne and one each from Kinnelon, Clifton, Morris County and Montclair (total of 10 stories). That's twice the number of  Bergen stories in the paper that missed landing in my Hackensack driveway.

In Better Living, food coverage is a 15-minute recipe from the Miami Herald, a list of cooking classes and a highly promotional, staff-written story about a new cookbook by a chef from Cleveland.
 
Does anyone pay $109 to learn how to cook Thai food? For that money, a family of three (two adults and a child) could have two great meals at Wondee's, the best Thai place in Hackensack. The recipe, unlike many the paper runs, looks like you might just be able to prepare the meal in about 15 minutes.

But of what value to readers is the story about the chef's book? This story, written by restaurant reviewer Elisa Ung, is just another in a series of gushing pieces about so-called celebrity chefs. Recall the ringing endorsement Ung gave Bobby Flay (photo top) when he opened a hamburger restaurant in Paramus -- without mentioning that the nail-biting Flay put profits before his customers' well-being by settling for beef raised with antibiotics, growth hormones and animal by-products.


It's no wonder Eric Levin, senior editor of New Jersey Monthly magazine, has called The Record's food coverage "stupid."