More evidence many N.J. politicians are rotten to the core

The Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack, the sixth built for the county, celebrated its 100th birthday in 2012.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The front page of The Record today once again is consumed with the defense cases of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and Joseph Ferriero, a former Democratic Party power broker in Bergen County (A-1).

In the past few weeks, Editor Martin Gottlieb has been pushing back against federal prosecutors, a federal grand jury indictment and, on Thursday, a guilty verdict against Ferriero.

Is this any way for the editor of a supposedly objective daily newspaper to be acting?

The indictment of Menendez and trial of Ferriero have exposed both men's greed while representing the party of the middle class.

A developer, builder, supermarket owner, Port Authority commissioner and others have given Menendez $1.3 million to pay for his legal defense on federal corruption charges.

Do these contributors expect anything in return or are they paying some "debt" to the senior senator from New Jersey? 

Ferriero can't appeal his racketeering conviction until he is sentenced, but The Record is already working hard to lay out losing defense lawyer's Michael Baldassere's legal arguments.

Today's story repeats much of what Baldassere told a gullible Mike Kelly for his Friday column.

Christie P.R. 

Gottlieb gives better play to Governor Christie's return to New Hampshire (A-3) than to another downgrade of New Jersey's credit rating (A-4).

An editorial notes the ninth credit-rating downgrade in six years and a loss of jobs is "not good news for a governor thinking about running for president" or residents (A-11).

Royal carriage

And will you get a load of the horse-drawn carriage bearing the casket of Cliffside Park Mayor Gerald Calabrese, who died at 90 (Page 1 photo)?

The story on the Local front doesn't report whether New Jersey's longest serving mayor turned borough hall into an employment agency for relatives, friends and cronies in the best tradition of home rule (L-1).

Calabrese's son, Thomas, is council president and acting mayor. 

Local news?

Law & Order news is so prevalent in today's Local section, a story about a man getting five years in prison for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl gets better play than Calabrese's funeral (L-1).

The lead story from a weekly, Paterson Press, reports the family of Nazerah Bugg, 14, wants the three teenagers held in her shooting death to be tried as adults (L-1).

A related story on L-6 quotes Superior Court Judge Bruno Mongiardo lamenting "the street violence that has consumed Paterson's streets."

But the judge, like The Record, does not blame the Police Department, Police Director Jerry Speziale or the country's gun culture.

Hackensack reporter Todd South does a nice job covering an Earth Day celebration at the Fanny Meyer Hillers School -- a rare education story from the county seat (L-3).

Page 1: Dead and dying politicians, murder and mayhem

In the Fort Lee Public Library, a display on the bitter World War II battle against 21,000 Japanese troops dug in on Iwo Jima notes that "256 men [U.S. Marines] went up to Mount Suribachi to place the flag on top" and "only 22 men came back down."  In the 2010 census, about 1,300 Japanese residents were counted in Fort Lee.

By VICTOR SASSON
EDITOR

Nearly the entire front page of The Record today is devoted to dead and dying politicians, a motorcyclist who lost part of a leg on a poorly engineered highway and a businessman murdered in South Hackensack.

What was Editor Martin Gottlieb thinking when he assembled this schlomozzle?

I can certainly see the obituary for Gerald Calabrese of Cliffside Park, New Jersey's longest serving mayor, as front-page news (A-1).

But it doesn't look like his death will bring to end the Calabrese family dynasty that continues to rule the borough, and that point isn't made forcefully enough.

Look what a sorry mess the Zisa family made of Hackensack, where reformers struggle to repair the damage to the city's treasury from defending and settling lawsuits filed against a corrupt police chief and former state assemblyman.

But what about the lawsuit over a poorly engineered stretch of S-curves on Route 23 in West Milford, where Jim Smetana crashed his motorcycle and lost part of his left leg (A-1)?

Why is that on Page 1 today? 

Ditto for another boring Charles Stile political column, this one on twice-failed former presidential candidate John McCain, a war hero long past retirement.

Corrections

Two major editing errors are corrected on A-2 today. 

In one, the lame assignment and copy editing staff couldn't get right the name of a kid who donated his organs to three others after his death in October.

Local news?

Most of the stories on  the Local front today are from the courts or the police blotter (L-1).

Instead of according Mayor Calabrese a privileged place on A-1 today, the editors could have given better play to the death of actress and director Judith Malina, whose credits include "Dog Day Afternoon" and "The Sopranos" (L-1).

You'll find more Law & Order news inside the local-news section.

Hard landing

As an example of how out of touch the editors are, a photo caption on L-3 today of a corporate jet landing at Teterboro Airport notes low aircraft are "an all-too-common site for motorists."

But it's homeowners in Hackensack, Teaneck and other towns near the airport who endure the noise of those jets around the clock, a quality of life issue The Record has ignored for many decades.

More national, state and local politics on A-1

Fort Lee's latest sore thumb.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Does President Obama really have to come to New Jersey and point out that state Sen. Barbara Buono is the Democrats' best chance to end Governor Christie's mean-spirited campaign against the middle class (A-1)?

The Record's front page report today on Cliffside Park Mayor Gerald Calabrese -- an 88-year-old with big health problems -- is the most persuasive argument yet for dismantling the state's home-rule system of local government.

Missing in the seemingly comprehensive report on Calabrese's 50 years in power is the long list of the relatives and cronies who have enriched themselves with public jobs and contracts.

Friday's Page 1 carried another Charles Stile column fine-tuning Christie's squatting position over the toilet bowl of conservative Republican politics.

Editor Marty Gottlieb keeps on bombarding readers with boring politics, but little on the policy making or issues that really affect voters.

Keystone kops

Today's paper also includes reports on seemingly incompetent police departments in Paterson and Fort Lee (L-1).

Readers long have known the police in Paterson don't bother to protect minorities from gun violence.

Now, it appears they couldn't care less that a 2-year-old was killed last Monday by an SUV in the predominantly Middle Eastern South Paterson section (L-1).

The Record missed this story until Friday, when an initial report on L-2 said Adam Sheikh was riding a tricycle on the sidewalk when a "black truck" hit him.

Law and disorder

In Fort Lee, an unmarked police car was stolen from a motel lot, where, presumably, it was left running or with the key in the ignition. LOL.

Today's Local section is packed with Law & Order news and filler photos of accidents -- more evidence head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her incompetent minions can't find enough real news to fill their pages.

A photo caption on L-3 is barely coherent, ending with this sentence: "The teenage driver had made her way home and was taken to a hospital for observation."

The vehicle, described as "an SUV," appears to be a minivan.

Friday's paper 

The Road Warrior column on Friday relied completely on reports, surveys and e-mails from readers (L-1) -- with no guarantee the data was quoted accurately by the addled John Cichowski.

Cichowski's Wednesday column on the George Washington Bridge Bus Station in Manhattan was filled with many reporting errors, according to a concerned reader.

"The Road Warrior has reached the unimaginable milestone of 100 columns filled with an overwhelming amount of implausible and inexcusable mistakes in less than a year's time," according to an e-mail the reader sent to management and the editors.

The full e-mail can be seen on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior bus is out of service 

Also Friday, The Record continued to use "email" in a story about NJ Transit and Christie (A-4) instead of the far more common "e-mail," which was the paper's style for many years.

On Friday's Better Living cover, the editors hailed  "authentic flavors" at Thai Palace in Teaneck, but readers who turned to the review found themselves staring dumbly at a slice of chocolate pecan pie (BL-18).

Staff Writer Elisa Ung allowed her obsession with dessert to get the best of her once again.

Searching for news in the Sunday paper

Image via Wikipedia
In a recipe column in The Record today, Chef Mario Batali says meat is "overused."

Once you get past the riveting Page 1 story about a 58-year-old Dumont woman bankrupted by her illnesses, there isn't much to read in The Record's once-special Sunday edition.


People like Frances Giordano eventually will be helped by national health-care reform, so can you imagine what would happen if selfish Republicans succeed in repealing the law?


The two other stories on the front page are follows to previous reports on a former police officer who is charged with killing his childhood friend, and a onetime lawyer at that shadow government known as the Port Authority. Who cares?


He needs editing


On the front of Local, former sports reporter John Brennan uses the wrong verb in the first paragraph of the weather story, and nobody on the assignment or news copy desks caught it. He wrote:


"North Jersey sloughed off the winter's first measurable snowfall Saturday...."


"Sloughed off" means "discard as undesirable, get rid of or remove." Brennan meant to say "shrugged off."


Despite all his years in the business and his hard sell to the editors of every one of his stories, Brennan writes at the level of a high school journalist.


Red-light cameras have proven to be life savers, but you wouldn't know that from today's poorly edited story on L-7 that quotes unnamed critics.


Food follies


In Better Living, contrast the columns by Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung (F-1) and restaurant owner and Chef Mario Batali (F-3).


Ung promotes low-quality food at chain restaurants, including mystery chicken and farmed salmon. Batali reports meat's reign is waning, and offers a healthy pasta recipe without cream or butter.


After more than a decade as a columnist, Mike Kelly still doesn't get it that readers look to him for strong opinions, not rhetorical questions. 


In his assessment of Cliffside Park Mayor Gerald Calabrese on the front of Opinion, Kelly should have condemned the politician for being propped up by a corrupt system for nearly 50 years, not seek to balance his column with opposing views.

See how far this paper has fallen

Image via Wikipedia
A Fort Lee bribe scheme in 1974 is front-page news today.

From today's huge front-page play in The Record to Columnist Mike Kelly's overwriting to the wildly exaggerated headline, you'd think Burt Ross was the only honest politician in New Jersey.


Is this headline deserved or even accurate?

N.J. icon moving on 

Of course, we should respect Ross, who turned down a $500,000 bribe offer when he was mayor of Fort Lee and then informed the FBI, but that was 37 years ago, for crying out loud. Is he really an "icon"?


The untold story, which Kelly only hints at, is the incompetency of Fort Lee officials, who in all of that time haven't been able to develop the forlorn expanse of empty land at the center of the bribery scheme.


And while Kelly blames resentful politicians for Ross being unable to win higher office, he completely ignores voter apathy. Finally, is it really Page 1 news that Ross and his wife are moving to Malibu from Englewood to live near their daughters?


Failed columnist


If you want to know how far The Record has fallen in recent years, consider that Kelly is the Woodland Park daily's lead columnist, even though he gives the impression he is just pushing words around.


Look at the writing in today's column: Referring to the California move, Kelly says Ross "faces the consequences of a new decision."


Does Kelly mean earthquakes or the Golden State's horrendous traffic jams, worse than anything we have in the Garden State?


Later, Kelly says the land at the center of the bribe scheme "now seems to be home to more broken concrete slabs than broken dreams." Huh? 


At Ross' Englewood home, Kelly notes, "Cardboard boxes lined a wall in one room. A computer screen blinked in another." This is truly great journalism. Kelly has incredible powers of observation.


Judging from the level of editing, Kelly's column once again put his assignment editor to sleep -- as well as his readers. 


Lifer news


Interim Editor Douglas Clancy and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes have been around so long, they've worn ruts in the newsroom floor.


So, it's no surprise the biggest news on the front of Sykes' Local section is the swearing in of Gerald Calabrese, 86, for yet another term as mayor of Cliffside Park, where his son, Thomas, is a councilman (L-1).


Of course, there's no discussion in this upbeat account of whether Cliffside or any other town deserves the dubious distinction of having any one official in office for more than 48 years.


Fish stories


In Better Living, the owner of a seafood restaurant apparently duped the writer of the Starters feature on F-1, Joyce Suss.


She quotes Alfred Ianniello of Brigantine Seafood Eatery and Market in Hawthorne as saying he is "promoting sustainable, organic fish" (F-4), but that's impossible, because there are no organic standards for seafood.


Suss also doesn't say whether the salmon he serves is artificially colored farmed fillets or wild-caught, nor does she identify the fish used in the fish and chips or fish tacos.


Since the clueless Suss was assigned to Starters, the feature has been expanded, with more text and more photos, so now this first, non-critical look at new restaurants resembles free advertising.


After praising Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill for publishing a healthy recipe for vegetable soup on Wednesday, I actually looked closely at the ingredients, only to discover a full stick of artery clogging butter and a recommended garnish of crumbled bacon.


Sherill continues to show how out of touch she is with readers who take healthy eating seriously, and may be inadvertently contributing to poor eating habits and all the subsequent heart disease.