Is Big Oil running the newsroom?

The car-pool lane on the New Jersey Turnpike was full Monday evening, and it moved noticeably faster than the other lanes during the rush hour.

Leave it to The Record to emphasize all the negatives of car-pooling, just as it ran down the proposed extension of light-rail service to Englewood and Tenafly.


Flacks for Big Oil or the Big Three automakers couldn't have written a more discouraging article than Monday's Page 1 story by one of the so-called transportation reporters.


Assignment error


Much of this coverage seems to be inspired by Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, who ignored mass transit -- including defective NJ Transit buses -- and wrote about "highways of the future" when he was a transporation reporter.


Readers also are well-acquainted with the Road Warrior's obsession with the MVC and his desperate reliance on drivers' e-mails to put out three columns a week.


The car-pool story dominated a mostly ho-hum front page on Monday, but didn't tell readers how many car-poolers there are in the Garden State, nor list car-pool lanes.


And the editors failed to mention how car-pooling saves the environment and reduces our dependence on foreign oil.


Full car-pool lanes


Even the choice of car-poolers is suspect: 


What are these morons doing driving a gas-guzzling BMW sport-utility vehicle? They could save a lot more moola in something really fuel-efficient.


During the rush hour Monday afternoon and evening, the car-pool lanes on the New Jersey Turnpike and Route 280 were full, so there are plenty of other car-poolers to choose from, if the paper wanted to put car-pooling in a good light.


The attitude of Sforza, Editor Marty Gottlieb and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes appears to be that car-pooling  and light rail are evil forces that depress gasoline and auto sales, and as crusading journalists, they are going to do their utmost to put a stop to it.


Mike Wallace


Monday's A-1 wire-service obituary of Mike Wallace, the "60 Minutes" newsman with "a fearsome reputation," reminded me of when I covered the federal courthouse in Newark for The Record in the 1980s.


Reporters in the press room got word that Wallace would be taking the stand to testify in a lawsuit against the investigative news show over a story on fast-food franchising.


On the stand, Wallace was nervous under questioning by the plaintiff's attorney -- more nervous than many of the witnesses I had seen during several years of covering state and federal courts.


His demeanor was in stark contrast to his reputation, but showed another side of him few people knew.


Now, look at the editorial cartoon on A-10 today, showing a "gulp" from God when an angel announces, "Mike Wallace is here to see you."


Today's paper


Today's front page is just as boring as Monday's.


If you're going to run a Page 1 story story on wind-whipped fires in North Jersey, why in God's name would you use an A-1 photo of one that was set by children playing with matches?


Another A-1 story -- "Raising the curtain on suburban prostitution" -- doesn't mention the story broke in Harrington Park, where Sykes lives with her husband, Kevin O'Neil, a graphics director who was laid off for unknown reasons several years ago.


Since Gottlieb came over from The New York Times, he seems to have "discovered" that North Jersey's suburbs are filled with the homeless and prostitutes.


Nothing wrong with that -- unless you turn that new-found knowledge into greatly exaggerated front-page stories, as he has been doing.


An A-2 correction today fixes a headline on Saturday that said "Englewood" had installed a red-light camera. It is Englewood Cliffs.


Zisaville news


Cross-examination of a witness who testified against suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa on Monday is all Hackensack readers will find in Local today.


In Better Living, a cover story on the revival of the Three Stooges (F-1) is based on "the kings of lowbrow journalism" at The Record: 


Editors Gottlieb, Sykes and Liz Houlton, head of production and supervisor of the error-prone news copy desk.

Editors take a long holiday weekend

Delays common to many criminal proceedings have become major news in The Record's blanket coverage of suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa's trial.

The Good Friday edition of The Record isn't very good for readers.

Editor Marty Gottlieb and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes appear to have scrambled for legitimate news and struck out -- again.

Many readers will simply pass over the dull stories on Page 1. But they won't find much else to read elsewhere in today's edition.

Just look at the A-1 headlines: 

"Inflated SAT scores," "Soaring sales of pain pills," "Latest airport breach forces evacuation" and "Two more gift card providers will stop selling in N.J."

The front-page photo is a real yawner: Opening Day for the Mets.

This is niche journalism, pitched at small segments of the readership. 

The vast majority of readers simply don't give a shit about these minor -- very minor -- slices of life or the Woodland Park daily's doomsday predictions.

In the front-page column of briefs, a photo of Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg was inadvertently substituted for Charles Manson.

Zisaville trial

The headlines on the front of Sykes' Local news section today hint at what readers are going through:


The coverage of the Ken Zisa criminal trial in Hackensack has turned "into a test of patience" for readers, who were hit with stories nine days before testimony began this week (L-1).


The latest delay is due to the illness of defense attorney Patricia Prezioso. A photo of her with Zisa, the suspended Hackensack police chief, shows teased Jersey Girl hair (L-6).


Despite the dated headline on jury selection, coverage of the Zisa official misconduct trial in today's Hackensack Chronicle fills in a lot of the holes in The Record's stories.


Prezioso, for example, is quoted in The Chronicle as saying she is not being paid by the city to defend Zisa -- unlike the $700,000-plus going to the lawyer defending the errant chief from civil suits.


And The Chronicle reports Zisa and onetime girlfriend Kathleen Tiernan turned down two plea offers from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office.


Another dead end


Road Warrior John Cichowski has yet another column about drivers 16 to 34 (L-1). 


Cichowski's survey rewrites -- which he has done for years to avoid doing original reporting -- are "getting old" -- very old.


Sykes and her lazy, incompetent flunkies on the assignment desk came up with so little local news she had to run three weather photos (L-2, L-3 and L-7).


Gut check


In Better Living, Staff Writer Elisa Ung serves another tepid restaurant review, this time for M & E Caruso's Ristorante in Totowa.


She recommends only four dishes at the 2-star BYO with "gut-busting portions," and two of them are desserts.


Whose "gut" is she referring to? Certainly not hers. Her stomach has been stretched and stretched by all the artery clogging dessert she consumes every week.


Blinded by the sun


Travel Editor Jill Schensul's April 1 cover story on the new Revel Resort and Casino in Atlantic City was an April Fool's joke on readers who might want to stay there.


She goes on and on, but never divulges room rates.

More hard-luck seniors on parade

Image via Wikipedia

Editor Francis Scandale runs far more on autism than on Alzheimer's disease.

Editor Francis Scandale of The Record is of two minds when it comes to seniors: 


He either ignores them, as in his pathetically poor coverage of Alzheimer's disease and programs to help older drivers.


Or he portrays them as down-on-their-luck old people who line up for a lousy meal at senior centers or live out their last years in grim nursing homes.


Today, Scandale's front page delivers a double senior salvo -- with the elderly breathing a sigh of relief at a tiny increase in Medicare premiums, while others are victims  of a "consistent rise in thefts" and abuse.


Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes love to have their staffers do easy stories taken from the 2010 Census, so why not find out how many seniors have investments, take river cruises in Europe and regard Social Security as a nice supplement to their incomes.


In affluent Bergen County, active, well-off seniors likely outnumber the sad sacks who have been making Page 1 news in the Woodland Park daily lately.


And Scandale continues to ignore a do-nothing Congress while running stories about a presidential election that is more than a year away.


Flood of stones


An A-1 photo of flooding in northwest Italy shows rocks, not water. What about the far-more-serious flooding in Thailand? Did Scandale run the Italy photo because he once visited the region?


The writer of an editorial on A-20 jumps through many hoops to avoid naming Governor Christie, who apparently killed state funding for an after-school program for low-income children.


Shame on Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin for not noticing the omission or editing out the name of the GOP bully.


Toiling on the toilet 


In Sykes' Local section, today's Road Warrior column on traffic deaths is written from press releases and reports, allowing Staff Writer John Cichowski maximum seat time in the bathroom or in front of the TV (L-1).


A Teaneck story on L-2 is about the Police Department, not the township, as was the L-1 story that ran on Wednesday.


News of Hackensack, Englewood and many other towns is missing today.


Room for sweets


Don't look to Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung to help you find healthy eating when you're dining out.


In her appraisal of Al Cavaliere in Clifton, she reports a good-three course meal would include artery-clogging tiramisu for dessert. No salads or greens sauteed with garlic are recommended.


She also doesn't bat an eyelash over the Italian-American restaurant serving fresh Florida grouper in a butter sauce (Better Living centerfold).


The paper's resident food snob doesn't tell readers whether veal, pork and chicken were raised naturally, but goes out of her way to ridicule the restaurant for calling the beurre blanc (hot butter sauce) "pure blank."


Related post

• Editors trot out pathetic seniors (eyeontherecord.blogspot.com)

Editors ignore people Christie screwed

Image via Wikipedia

Editor Francis Scandale has portrayed Silk City as Sin City, where drugs and prostitution have corrupted scores of Bergen County suburbanites.


 

When is the last time The Record ran an interview with advocates for abused children or the parents of a child denied an after-school program?

Have you seen anything on women whose grandmothers are in nursing homes facing $29 million in cuts proposed by Governor Christie? 


What about the views of low-income parents whose children no longer get a nutritious, state-subsidized breakfast at school?


Sixteen days into the state's new fiscal year, Editors Francis Scandale and the clueless assignment editors working under Deirdre Sykes don't care about any of those people or the thousands of others suffering under Christie's mean-spirited budget.


What do you want from them? They never talk to readers, just sit in the office all day long, eat lunch and move their bowels. 


Hey, they're journalists at a once-great suburban daily. Do you really expect them to send reporters out to measure all the pain the GOP bully of a governor has inflicted and put it into words?


But someone is giving a voice to Christie's victims.


You can read all about the cuts in the letters to the editor that keep on pouring in, such as the three on Page A-11 today from Dianne Douthat of Wayne, Duane Ross of Waldwick and Jessica Cheng of Cranbury under the heading:

Series of attacks

on N.J.'s poor

Kudos to Letters Editor Charles Saydah, a lifer, for printing these letters and others. Keep them coming.


Of course, printing letters from readers doesn't fulfill the responsibility of Scandale, Sykes, Dan Sforza, Christina Joseph, Rich Whitby and other editors to bring the budget cuts to life.


Page 1 sleeper


What do readers get instead?


The lead Page 1 story reports more mea culpas from media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, who lost two loyal editors in the growing phone-hacking scandal.


I wonder how much soul-searching is going on at The Record's Woodland Park headquarters among Scandale, Sykes and their minions for all the questionable tactics they've employed?


Look at that deadly dull, bureaucratic process story on curbing the state's nearly 600 local authorities, boards and commissions at the bottom of A-1. 


The third paragraph begins, "It will be a year from now and likely much longer before the authorities, board and commissions must upgrade their online transparency ...." 


OK. They spend $5 billion annually, but why is this snoozer on A-1?


More 'woops'


Page A-2 has the second correction in a row on a Paterson story, though this one is labeled a "clarification."


Someone should clarify how everybody missed a typo in the A-1 photo caption with the soccer story. "In" appears instead of "is."


Sykes' Local section is filled today with Law & Order copy ad naseum, including yet another study of two towns merging their police departments and a plan to have the superfluous Bergen County police patrol three towns.


Twelve precious inches on L-2 are wasted on a stolen landscape truck with fake plates in Oradell. Why isn't this a brief?

Marc Schwarz


On Page F-2 of Better Living, Marc Schwarz is listed in the Contact Us box without a title above his name -- a change from when he was listed as assistant features editor under Features Editor Barbara Jaeger, who was shown the door earlier this month.


Is he the new features editor?

Hey, Monsy, what about the new signs?

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Hey, Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado, aren't you going to be writing anything about Hackensack in The Record of Woodland Park outside of the case of suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa? What about all the new signs the city has put up in the past couple of months, directing visitors to the Bergen County Courthouse, the Academies, the shopping district, parking, the medical center, and so forth? Isn't that a legitimate story? Maybe even a photo or two? They're gold and blue, and dress up the city.


What about the proposed city budget and tax hike, reportedly more than 7%? Isn't that worthy of coverage? Are you that busy with the Zisa coverage -- and so under the thumb of clueless head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes -- that you have failed so miserably in your assignment: Hackensack.


What about the Police Department's continuing use of gas-guzzling cruisers? Don't you have time to ask the city manager about whether he plans to replace them with more efficient, six-cylinder cars, like the ones being used for parking enforcement? What about solar power for city buildings and schools? In fact, a couple of years ago, in a roundup, you quoted the official as saying Hackensack had taken only "baby steps" on alternative energy. Did you ever follow that up?


Do you still call yourself a reporter, Monsy? How much time do you actually spend in Hackensack? How many residents do you talk to? We know you don't cover City Council or school board meetings, so what do you do to justify your existence? Why is there no Hackensack news in the former Hackensack daily today? Why are you and Sykes giving the royal F.U. to Hackensack residents?

I know you're afraid of Mother Hen Deirdre, Monsy (so is everyone else, including Editor Frank Scandale). And I don't expect you to sacrifice yourself to expose how bad Sykes and her minions are for local news coverage. Where are the Borgs? Counting their money?


The lead story today on A-1 is about the proposed dissolving of Teterboro, which has 38 residents and 23 city workers. I doubt it will come to pass, but if it did, businesses would have to pay higher taxes, and that presumably includes the incredibly annoying airport and jet charter companies.


The Record continues to ignore all the noise Teterboro Airport visits on residents in Hackensack, Maywood and other towns, but can't help promoting business jet sales and travel at the airport, as Staff Writer Richard Newman does today on L-7. Thousands of readers groaned to read about an increase in flights, but Newman did his best imitation of a public relations man on the airport's trade show.


How can The Record be objective about Teterboro? Do you recall how the aviation museum there once was a pet project of then-Publisher Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg. Before the museum was established, Mac couldn't stop promoting it, even when he invited to lunch in his private dining room a new executive director of the Port Authority, which owns the airport. It was the first thing out of Mac's mouth -- expletive deleted.

An alleged sexual assault after a prom? Is that A-1 news? A barn fire in Pequannock (might as well be Wyoming). Is that A-1 news? 


On the front of Local, the road-building lobby continues to call the shots for Road Warrior John Cichowski. Hey, John, ever hear about mass transit?

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is the latest staffer to accept protesters' claims that expanding The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood may endanger the health of students in a nearby school (A-22). Did The Record express similar concerns when the FiveSix School was built next to Hackensack Middle School?

The Record supports the hospital expansion -- without acknowledging the potential gain in advertising revenue from a bigger medical center. (I just threw away some copies of the paper, including Food and Go! sections, from 2005 and 2006. They were incredibly fat with advertising when compared with today's pathetically thin papers.)

I'm glad Food Editor Bill Pitcher -- who is obsessed with eating meat -- finally has reviewed a  seafood restaurant in Better Living (a few weeks ago, he sampled only meat dishes at a Turkish place). But he pans McCormick & Schmick's, a chain restaurant. Why one star? It sounds awful. Are you protecting an advertiser, Bill? Copy editors left a problem in the second paragraph, and the ending makes no sense.

Next time, Bill, try Sea Shack in Hackensack or a more casual choice, Seafood Gourmet in Maywood.


Pitcher still has not explained to readers why restaurant sanitary inspections from Wyckoff never appear in Friday's column. Are you protecting someone, Bill?

(Photo: Church on The Green, Hackensack)