A truly boring newspaper -- from front to back

As a resident of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, what do I get for the third-quarter property tax payment of $3,765.65 I made today? Mine was the only block of Euclid that wasn't repaved this month. I do thank Police Director Mike Mordaga for a newly invigorated Police Department, but other agencies fall short. The Building Department, in particular, has turned a deaf ear to neighbors' complaints about 177 Euclid Ave. and 311 Euclid Ave., two homes with numerous violations that have been evident for years.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

What is the point of the front-page story on how onetime inner-city deli owner Pedro Quezada is spending the $338 million he won in the lottery?

The multimillionaire moved out of his 2-bedroom walk-up in Passaic? That's Page 1 news?

What readers and former employees of The Record really want to know is how Publisher Stephen A. Borg has spent the many millions he has drained out of North Jersey Media Group, and whether that money could have preserved jobs or improved local news coverage?

If you think the front page is bad, you won't find much else in the paper that reflects life in North Jersey.

Cairo at night?

I read and re-read the hundreds of words on a curfew in Cairo (no, not the city in Illinois), and couldn't find anything on what time it goes into effect (A-6).

The story by The Associated Press also doesn't address how night workers in the sprawling Egyptian city get to their jobs and then home during the curfew.

When is The Record going to do a story about night workers in North Jersey, including the faceless drones who work on the Woodland Park daily's copy desk under the incompetent supervision of Production Editor Liz Houlton, "The Queen of Errors"?

Christie idolatry

Looking for a good laugh?

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin -- the paper's Chief Bullshit Artist -- can't hide his affection for Governor Christie in an editorial claiming $1 million in federal seed money is "another example of Christie bipartisanship working for the good of New Jersey" (A-10).

Unfortunately, development of "smart-grid" technology for NJ Transit won't add a single rush-hour seat to overcrowded buses and trains.

And thanks to the GOP bully, expansion of the rail and bus systems is a decade away -- despite nightmarish traffic jams at the Hudson River crossings.

More road kill

Staff Writer John Cichowski, aka "The Addled Commuter," wastes another Road Warrior column on Don Quinn, the moron who tried to warn speeders about police radar (L-1).

Cichowski is breathing a sigh of relief that he was able to fool his clueless editors into running another silly column that didn't require him to leave the office and explore real commuting problems.

Still selling out

With the state's economy in such poor shape, you'd think the editors of the Business pages would have lots of localized stories for readers.

But that assumes they aren't lazy good for nothings who run stories promoting the Borg family's friends and business associates.

Today, they filled their pages with a big photo of a Mazda assembly line in Japan (L-8) that refers readers to another big photo and a long, wildly exaggerated story on the same subject on the facing page (L-9).

The claim that Mazda rolls out a vehicle "every 54 seconds" at a  plant in Hofu, Japan, couldn't possibly include the time it takes to stamp fenders and other body parts, and paint them.

Check the lost-and-found for all those jobs

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

People wait on line to speak to job recruiters at a career day program.

Is The Record of Woodland Park trying to hide its role and the role of every other employer in the dismal jobs picture -- a main issue in next month's congressional elections? On Page 1 today, a refer carries the headline:

Jobs not growing
in Garden State

Gee, if you could grow jobs like tomatoes or corn, New Jersey would be in great shape. But the text below the headline says "the state lost 20,200 jobs" last month as the rest of the U.S. added them. How did it "lose" jobs? Did anyone check the employment lost-and-found?

Of course, the Borgs and every other employer would like nothing more than if readers believe jobs could be "lost" and "found." Publisher Stephen A. Borg is especially sensitive about this issue because of the $3.65 million he sucked out of North Jersey Media Group in the form of a mortgage for his 8,000-square-foot home in Tenafly.

If Greedy Stevie had stayed in his $2 million home, could he have postponed the downsizing that followed several months later or made it less severe? 

The quality of the paper had been going downhill under the incompetent leadership of Editors Francis Scandale, Deirdre Sykes, Tim Nostrand, Jim McGarvey, Barbara Jaeger and others, but when Borg jettisoned many experienced workers and moved to Woodland Park, the decline gathered great speed.

In the employment story on L-8, the first Business page, Staff Writer Hugh Morley does not use the word "employers" or "companies" or "businesses" or "small-business owners" anywhere. Jobs are identified as "government" and "private sector." It's other-worldly. 

So, if you read between the lines, you learn that businesses in New Jersey fired, downsized, laid off or otherwise royally screwed 9,400 more people in September than they hired. How many thousands of families saw their lives turned upside down, while Stephen sipped a great Bordeaux at the Englewood wine bar in which he and his big sister have invested?

Recently, the Business pages had a Q&A with an executive from Ramsey who said it was "too expensive" to hire employees. What goes unsaid by this moron, Borg and others is that the worker who remains standing is expected to do the work of two, three or more who have been shown the door, while the executives keep more of the money for themselves.

The L-8 story reports "the state lost 10,800 government jobs." Was that because of Governor Christie's state aid cuts, which have fallen most heavily on the middle and working classes? Not a word on the cause of the jobs "loss" appears in the story.

This is Zisa's defense?

On A-1 today, the defense attorney for suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa complains  the investigation of him was one-sided and he was denied the chance to testify before the grand jury. He also proclaims his innocence, but if this is all his attorney has, he'll soon be going down in flames. 

Why is this on Page 1, in place of the debate between Bergen County executive candidates?


Monsy catches up to the weeklies

Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado has a second story in the paper today, an L-1  report on  zoning and other changes proposed for Main Street that are many months old. 

She buries on the continuation page that one of the changes sought is a return to two-way traffic, and omits any mention of how The Record's abandonment of Hackensack has affected businesses.

Better Living


Thursday's Better Living section has been missing food coverage for years, but a Starters column appears today, moved up from its usual Friday slot. Unfortunately, this first look at a new restaurant in Tappan, N.Y., completely omits prices, making the piece sound suspiciously like an advertisement.

 

Eight reporters, no information

Image via Wikipedia

 
Why did eight reporters at The Record of Woodland Park work on a single story about school board candidates? And why does the story, on the front of Local, contain only one paragraph about Hackesnsack with nothing more than the hopefuls' names?

That one paragraph appears to be the only mention of Hackensack in the entire paper today except for the erroneous listing of the paper's address on Page A-2. (Photo: The Meadowlands.)


The lead Page 1 story -- "Cop shot; woman killed" -- is so poorly edited, readers don't know if she is an innocent or a suspect until they pore over the continuation on A-6. The story came in late? That's no excuse.

Given outrageous ticket prices and exorbitant fees on their purchase, is anybody really upset by the $25 million ticket scam that is all over A-1 today? The only problem is that the ticket sellers might raise fees to make up the lost revenue, if they weren't insured for the theft of 1.5 million tickets.

On A-8, an editorial gives Staff Writer Michael Gartland well-deserved credit for exposing financial abuses at Bergen County school districts, a story he won't let drop.

Why does the front of Business carry a wire service story about the credit and job woes of an auto mechanic in Wisconsin? Is no one in North Jersey in a similar fix?