Far more scrutiny of Christie on trail than he got in Trenton

The senior round-trip fare on an NJ Transit express bus to Manhattan from Hackensack is one of the biggest travel bargains around.

These NJ Transit buses outside the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel are among hundreds parked in New Jersey during the day, awaiting the afternoon rush hour. Then, they'll be driven bumper-to-bumper through the tunnel to the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, causing huge delays for home-bound commuters.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's scrutiny of Governor Christie on the presidential campaign trail is unprecedented, especially when you compare the coverage to his years in Trenton.

The GOP bully has been in office since early 2010, but it wasn't until this year -- in his second term -- that the editors bothered to add up the hundreds of vetoes he has used to get his way with the state Legislature's Democratic majority.

Still, Staff Writer Charles Stiles, among the first to promote the governor's presidential ambitions, wrote one upbeat column after another supporting Christie's claim of being a compromiser who was able to work with Democrats.

Isn't it rich?

Yet, as today's front-page analysis shows, most of Christie's initiatives have hurt the middle class, and he has completely failed to fund the pension system for state employees or back a tax to pay for road and bridge repairs (A-1 and A-10).

Even in the wake of the attacks in Paris, touting his years as U.S. attorney prosecuting terrorists rings hollow in view of all the time he has spent out of state, and the mess he has made in Trenton. 

"Spending in the state budget has grown every year. So have New Jersey's high tax bills for homeowners ...," Staff Writer Salvador Rizzo reports deep on the continuation page. "Private-sector job growth has been among the slowest in the country." 

Out of the bubble

The Record's local editors gave reporters a rare assignment on Wednesday: Ask people what they think about an issue.

Three reporters worked on today's Page 1 story to gather reaction to Christie and other governors who want to keep Syrian refugees from coming to their states.

But they quote only two people, both immigrants, and report on only one Syrian refugee, who arrived in 2013.

On Tuesday, a story included an interview with another Syrian refugee who moved to Paterson.

About 75 Syrian refugees have moved to the state since January.

Shouldn't The Record make some attempt to report if any of them have acted in a way to justify Christie's racism and xenophobia?

Local news?

The lead story on the Local front today reports the estate of Mahwah Public Works Director Ed Sinclair is seeking $20 million in a lawsuit, claiming officials "caused his death through stress" (L-1).

There is no mention of Sinclair's obesity, and the challenge facing his lawyer to prove he died from being fired and reinstated, and not from a condition related to his tremendous weight.

On Aug. 13, Cliffview Pilot.com reported Sinclair, 57, died of a massive heart attack, but that isn't mentioned in The Record today.

The Sinclair suit is only one of the crime and court stories that dominate the local-news section today.

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza were so desperate for local news they had to run a story on Comcast dropping a sports network (L-3).

Death of Mahwah DPW chief may be related to his obesity

You don't find bike lanes or room for joggers and walkers in many Bergen County towns with narrow, antiquated street systems. These digital signs were set up Wednesday on two-lane Sussex Road in Teaneck, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Anyone who saw the March 21 photo of an obese Ed Sinclair in The Record's Local section isn't surprised Mahwah's public works chief died unexpectedly on Thursday at 57.

And readers weary of the lazy, incompetent local assignment editors also aren't surprised the cause of death -- "a massive heart attack" -- is being reported today by Cliffview Pilot.com, not the Woodland Park daily.

In effect, Sinclair dropped dead.

See: 'Our hearts go out to family'

Obesity news

Sinclair, who was fired by the mayor and reinstated by the Township Council, got a lot of coverage in The Record, but not the kind that may have helped him with his health problems.

Even as some of The Record's own editors struggled with obesity, coverage of the epidemic has been sporadic and routine.

And the paper's chief food writer, restaurant critic Elisa Ung, gets paid to explore her own obsession with artery clogging desserts, and other unhealthy food -- just the kind that can lead to a heart attack.

Ken Zisa

One thing is clear from today's Page 1 follow-up on former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa's claim to the top job in the city's Police Department (A-1).

Zisa, part of a family dynasty that ruled the city for decades and ran it into the ground, will be spending a lot of time in civil and criminal courts, and racking up tens of thousands of dollars in additional legal fees.

No matter what happens to Zisa, who faces a second trial on an official misconduct charge, lawyers always win. LOL.

But Hackensack readers are angry The Record continues to allow Zisa to dismiss all of the lawsuits filed against him by police officers as "baseless" (A-6).

By one estimate, the suits cost the city $13 million to fight and settle.

Among other allegations, they cited retaliation against officers who exercised their First Amendment rights, "that Zisa used his office for financial and political gain, and [asked] city cops to back his candidacy in legislative races and other candidates in public and union offices" (A-6).

Weak journalism

Road Warrior John Cichowski, already the laughing stock of younger newsroom staffers, has another weak column today on all of the utility work in Hackensack, Maywood and other towns (L-1).

The detours aren't much of a problem for any driver with a navigation system in their car or on their smart phones.

The real problem is the sad condition of many streets and roadways after they are dug up and crudely patched by PSEG's $1.2 billion "Energy Strong" project.

Call this latest Cichowski column "Journalism Weak."

County steal

Hackensack readers and taxpayers likely will be upset by the upbeat story on the Local front, describing a campaign by Bergen Executive James Tedesco to "brand" county government (L-1).

The county will spend tens of thousands of dollars to put the county seal on uniforms, cars, letterheads and Web sites, Tedesco says.

Gee. Wouldn't it be nice if the tax-exempt county government did more to help out the city it calls home with programs and other in-kind contributions?

The same could be said for two other tax-exempt entities that use city services: Hackensack University Medical Center and Fairleigh Dickinson University.
   

Behold the Columnist Mike Kelly Memorial Toilet Seat

Four days ago, a dirty snowbank at the Bergen Town Center mall in Paramus was an unwelcome reminder of the bitter, storm-filled winter we experienced. By Friday, the snow still hadn't melted completely.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The biggest critics of The Record's editors, columnists and reporters aren't the readers, many of whom pay little attention to bylines.

They are the copy editors -- faceless newsroom employees who work the night shift in a thankless job of trying to enforce standards of accuracy, style and grammar.

At the Woodland Park daily, they are last line of defense before the paper is printed in Rockaway Township. 

Before Publisher Stephen A. Borg put into motion a major newsroom downsizing in Hackensack in 2008 -- prelude to North Jersey Media Group moving to the sticks the following year -- I was one of those copy editors.

We worked without meal or coffee breaks and were allowed to pick the stories we wanted to edit and write headlines for unless they were destined for the front page or a section front.

Inside Kelly

In those days, columns by veteran reporter Mike Kelly ran inside the paper, on Page A-3, and were literally shunned by the highly experienced copy editors.

We hated editing Kelly's verbosity and endless ruminations on 9/11; former Governor Tom Kean; his pal, ex-New York Police Commish Bernie Kerik, and all the other crap the reporter began churning out after he was promoted to columnist in 1988.

It got to the point where our supervisors would literally have to order us to edit Kelly's column.

Some of us named the fourth stall in the men's room -- the copy desk was conveniently placed next to it -- the Columnist Mike Kelly Memorial Toilet Seat.

How appropriate. Kelly's shit copy found a parallel in the men's room.

Memorial column

Today, Kelly's column is on the front page, and it's a lame attempt to find humor in naming schools and other buildings after living public officials, some of whom go on to betray the public trust (A-1).

Until the old 150 River St. headquarters of The Record is torn down, we former copy editors will always have a really appropriate memorial to journalistic excess.

What could be more fitting then a toilet seat memorializing the columnist whose dated thumbnail photo radiates a shit-eating grin?

Desperate editor

Editor Martin Gottlieb must have really been desperate to put another boring Kelly column on Page 1 today.

Below that is Staff Writer Jim Norman's spin on a wild turkey that has made an A&P parking lot home and is being fed by customers (A-1).

But The Record continues to follow up on the 100-year-old Elmwood Park man who killed his 88-year-old wife with an ax before killing himself (A-1).

This story and earlier ones amount to the paper's only coverage of dementia and other forms of Alzheimer's disease.

Local news?

Mahwah Public Works Director Ed Sinclair has agreed not to sue the township, if officials pay his legal fees up to $35,000 after he was fired and reinstated in March (L-1).

Township officials also might consider paying for surgery to help the obese Sinclair lose weight, and lower their health-insurance premiums.

Today's Local-news section is dominated by crime news, court stories, a fire in an unoccupied house and other filler. 

The Record's weekly, Paterson Press, also keeps Bergen County readers abreast of the number of gunshot wounds in the Silk City, though there is no suggestion they are the fault of its sorry Police Department and do-nothing police director (L-3).

Chickening out

Don't bother rushing out to try five of the six "must-try chicken dishes" on the Better Living front today (BL-1).

The only one raised without harmful antibiotics is the whole rotisserie chicken from Le Bon Choix in Ridgewood.

But even with two sides, two sauces and cornbread, $28 for a whole chicken, raised at Goffle Road Poultry Farm in Wyckoff, is a rip-off.

This cafe is near Whole Foods Market, where two antibiotic-free rotisserie chickens cost a total of about $15.

Elisa Ung, the restaurant reviewer who wrote the piece, could care less. The paper pays for all of the food she samples.

Bergen editors' three-day weekend robs us of local news

Spring getting a chilly reception in Hackensack's Fairmount section on Friday.

A winter scene only a block or so from the former Little Ferry Circle, as seen from the bus to Manhattan on Thursday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you live in Bergen County and subscribe to The Record, do you really have any interest in two court cases involving the Passaic County superintendent of elections and the legal bills of an imam at a Paterson mosque (L-2)?

Or the extended registration for a new all-boys elementary school in Silk City (L-8)?

The local Bergen County editors must have stayed home on Friday, forcing the layout editors to scramble for just about any old story to fill today's Local news section.

Page L-8 also carries wire service obituaries for the inventor of ceramic body armor, a drummer for a heavy metal band and an astronaut trainee no one has ever heard of.

Another dead rocker, Michael Brown,65, of Englewood Cliffs, "who helped put the Bach in rock," gets a royal send-off from Staff Writer Jim Beckerman, himself a musician (L-1).

Cool reception

Sticking with the Local front, who is the moron who wrote the photo-package over line, "Winter Overstays Its Welcome," and what incompetent supervisor approved it?

Did anyone in North Jersey "welcome" the brutal winter we've just experienced?

One of the captions with the weather package also doesn't make sense: 

"Jessica Silva of Ramsey leaving the Route 17 train station as she headed to work" (L-1).

Why would a Ramsey resident be leaving the NJ Transit station in the same town? Did she take the train one stop from the downtown Ramsey station?

Obesity news

One of the few Bergen stories in the section ignores the elephant in the room, an obese Ed Sinclair, the director of public works in Mahwah (L-3).

His photo might remind former staffers of overweight local Editors Deirdre Sykes and Tim Nostrand in their heyday, when they did their best to keep news of the obesity epidemic out of the paper.

More corrections

Two of the four corrections on A-2 today try to fix editing screw-ups in local stories.

Also on A-2, a photo of schoolchildren in London has readers wondering whether local kids tried to see Friday's solar eclipse.