Sucking up to Governor Christie

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Amid all the negative reaction to Republican Governor Christie's proposed cuts -- which would affect just about everyone but the Borgs and other rich families -- Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is blaming the Democrats and the people for the fiscal mess we are in.

In his poorly written column on Page A-23 today, this popinjay conveniently ignores how The Record and just about every past administration -- Democratic or Republican -- have tried to preserve the ruinously expensive home-rule system against any attempts to consolidate services and eliminate duplication.

How much support did the Woodland Park daily give Governor Corzine's attempts to make the system more efficient? Does anybody believe Christie is going to be able to cut our property taxes? Isn't cutting school and municipal aid just going to ensure our taxes go up?

Parting shots at Governor Corzine

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In what is apparently its last story on Governor Corzine, The Record of Woodland Park doesn't hide its long-held bias against the outgoing Democrat by reporting in a Page 1 story today that "improvements he says his administration made" include education policy and school funding, the child welfare system and expansion of health care.

That's how State House Bureau  reporter John Reitmeyer (or in this case, Wrong-meyer) makes it clear to readers the paper thinks this is only Corzine spin -- in other words, the governor accomplished nothing in office. Reitmeyer also focuses on the weird notion that the wealthy Corzine should have used his money to build homeless shelters and schools. Has The Record ever asked any other politician to build a school or homeless shelter?


Indeed, in another Page 1 story today, about the inauguration of Republican Chris Christie as governor, there is no suggestion he should build a homeless shelter or school with his money. But political Columnist Charles Stile says the "organizing principle" of Christie's administration will be a battle against public school teachers. (The Record has long blamed the "high salaries" of teachers and police officers for towns' financial woes and high property taxes.) Some of Stile's purple prose suggests he hates the teachers union even more than Christie. Why is Stile being assigned to the Christie story in place of a supposedly objective reporter?

Does Christie really care about public school children? I don't see anything in the Christie story about the new governor attacking the obesity epidemic by making sure public schools give children the right food to eat.

The continuing bad news from Haiti occupies the bottom of the front page today, but fashion-plate Editorial Page Alfred P. Doblin has yet to complain in the week since the quake hit about the slow, heart-breaking pace of getting food, water and medical care to survivors, the turf battle over the single airport runway, the breakdown of law and order or any other issue raised by the glacial pace of recovery.

In the editorial today on Christie, The Record says he takes "office at a time of national discontent with government." Really? Didn't the banks bring the economy to the brink of ruin? It's government that is trying to fix the mess caused by their greed. It's government that is trying to extend health care to 30 million Americans without it, while employers like The Record cut employee and retiree health-care benefits. What about discontent with The Record, which has turned its back on readers in Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood, which has segregated elementary and middle schools?

In the Local section today, there are stories from Pompton Lakes (two), Paterson (two), Passaic County, Woodland Park and Ringwood, but nothing but police news from Hackensack and Teaneck. Englewood reporter Giovanna Fabiano covers Haiti relief efforts in her town, but, except for the swearing-in of the new mayor, she hasn't written an Englewood story for about a month. Where is head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Laughs A Lot Sykes" and the rest of the lazy, incompetent editors who are supposed to be supervising Fabiano?

By relying on the Chicago Tribune rather than doing it himself, food and recipe editor Bill Pitcher offers readers an unhealthy recipe to increase their intake of cabbage, one of the most nutritious vegetables around.

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 He's too lazy to call a restaurant in North Jersey for one of their great cabbage recipes -- such as Jamaican cabbage and salted codfish or Korean soft-tofu stew with cabbage kimchi -- so you get a recipe for cabbage and sausage, packed full of mystery meat and preservatives; and told the meal should include buttered potatoes and ice cream. Now that's a healthy meal. Way to go, Pitcher.

Does The Record care about Haiti?

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On a day when The Record of Woodland Park could finally deliver an honest front-page assessment of Governor Corzine and prepare readers for the financial misery ahead for New Jersey, do the editors actually expect us to believe they care about Haiti? The Record doesn't even care about blacks who live in Bergen County, and the editors have a miserable record of hiring and retaining minorities.

But here on Page 1 is a hand-wringing story about the fate of thousands in the poorest nation in the hemisphere, displacing most of the coverage of Corzine's final State of the State message and showing the paper's long-held bias against the governor. The Corzine story, shoved down to the bottom of the page, isn't even a dispassionate news story, but rather a political column.

This allows the lazy, incompetent, desperate editors to splash all over the front page a huge, "banger" headline and a dramatic photo -- two elements required for a front-page story, no matter how relevant to North Jersey readers. 

The Record doesn't cover the Caribbean or even the Caribbean communities in North Jersey. When was the last time you read a story about the large, hard-working, church-going Jamaican community in Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and Paterson outside of an occasional crime story? Stories about Cuba, if you  see them, are not assigned to an "objective" reporter; they are covered by a Cuban exile staffer who hates Castro (the paper had two at one time). There are so few Spanish-speaking newsroom staffers, so-called Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado had to be pulled off her beat last week to cover a murder in the city.

The bias against Corzine is even clearer in the editorial on Page A-10. "For the majority of New Jerseyans, his record is clear," the paper thunders. "Property taxes are too high, public schools aren't uniformly good, the state is drowning in debt and too many public officials -- many from the governor's political party -- have gone to jail."

Of course, what goes unsaid is that property taxes are too high because of the home-rule system The Record vigorously defends (for example, does the 14-man Northvale Police Department really need a chief who is paid $130,000?; see Page L-3). That Corzine has done more for children and public schools than any of his predecessors. That the state is drowning in debt, because of the recession and the fiscal slight-of-hand of governors who preceded him, including one of the paper's favorites, Christie Whitman. That with so many petty, home-rule officials putting their hands out, corruption in both parties is guaranteed.


In the Local section, the drought of municipal, development and education news from Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and many other towns continues.


Does The Record really need all those overpaid editors to turn out a paper like this? The news editors, those minions who spend their evenings drawing squares and headline specs on page layouts, could do just as well. Why doesn't the Borg family give walking papers to Frank Scandale, Frank Burgos, Deirdre Sykes, Alfred Doblin and all the other scoundrels they employ, instead of cutting back retiree medical benefits?

It's because Stephen and Jennifer Borg, the spoiled siblings who are now running the paper, don't care about the quality of The Record, and former Publisher Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg is so out of it, he no longer is a factor.

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Stephen Borg, who took over from his father in mid-2006, is more concerned about the size of the house he lives in, and keeping his children out of Englewood's segregated elementary and middle schools, than about local news coverage.You'd think Borg, a marketing wizard who ordered the editors to print food and education coverage "every day," would also have asked them to duplicate USA Today's daily listing of news from every state by running a bit of news from every one of the 90 or so towns in The Record's circulation area. Even a meeting notice might convince readers the paper gives a shit about them and what's happening in their towns.

Wasting the front page on sports

As has been the practice on too many days in recent years, a big part of  The Record's front page today is wasted on a sports story.

When I was still there, Editor Frank Scandale, at a staff meeting, shared the results of the latest reader survey. What has stuck in my mind is that readers listed sports in 12th spot among what they wanted to see most in the paper. But before and since, sports often dominates Page 1.

You can almost imagine Scandale and the other jocks among the male editors slapping each other on the ass at the end of the afternoon news meeting, which determines the "play" of stories.

Today's Page 1 story, which continues onto more than a half page inside, concerns a ticket stub from a 1923 World Series game at Yankee Stadium. Unfortunately, Staff Writer John Brennan fails to say how much the ticket cost anywhere in this unusually long story. You have to squint at a photo to barely make out the price.

A story on A-4 reports that Governor Corzine again has outspent his opponents by a wide margin. This is news? As far as I know, The Record has never examined a system that bars everyone but the rich from running for county, statewide and nationwide office. In fact, it's lack of investigation on this issue is tantamount to supporting a system corrupted by money.

A letter to the editor on A-12 seems to draw a comparison between former Republican Gov. Christie Whitman and another (Chris) Christie, the lawyer and former prosecutor who is the Republican candidate running against Corzine. Have The Record's reporters drawn that parallel before?

Whitman defeated the incumbent, Democrat Jim Florio, by promising to cut taxes drastically, then had to loot the pension fund of state workers and borrow heavily, according to the letter, which warns readers to be wary of "politicians who yell about our high taxes."

On another aspect of the campaign, The Record has criticized the governor for mentioning Chris Christie's "weight." But the paper hasn't asked whether as governor, Christie would serve as a good example to both children and adults during the obesity epidemic (another subject the paper does its best to ignore).

The Local section contains no news of Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood, the three most diverse towns in the paper's circulation area. Or Ridgewood. Or Wayne.

In Better Living, on F-2, we read about an "authentic" Greek place that serves burgers, mozzarella sticks and Buffalo wings. I and many other North Jerseyans shop frequently at Korean markets, but an item about Korean black garlic lists no Korean store that stocks it.

These two food reports, an illustrated recipe and a story about wine ($12 a bottle and higher) are all the newspaper could muster on a Wednesday, when readers in the past could feast on an entire Food section.

The Food section was dropped by Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who promised readers food coverage "every day." Unfortunately, despite an occasional house ad touting "every day" food news, there is no food coverage on Thursdays and a vast majority of Saturdays. Monday's coverage usually consists of a single recipe for vegetarians.