Food warehouse flier is more gripping than front page

The Main Street entrance to the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack. Today's front page of The Record is dominated by the possible closing of another building that has far less architectural or human significance.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record must be pretty desperate for news, judging by a story on the possible closing of the Izod Center that covers three-quarters of Page 1 today. 

You'll find more interesting reading in the flier from the International Food Warehouse on Essex Street in Lodi (one of today's inserts).

A story on A-3 today reports overnight PATH service won't be cut, but The Record has ignored the Port Authority's refusal to expand rail and bus transit to ease increasing traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings.

Readers speak out

Two letters to the editor reacted negatively to Governor Christie's State of the State address (A-10).

But the only opinion piece on the speech is from Carl Golden, a former Record reporter who went on to work as the mouthpiece for two of Christie's Republican predecessors (A-11).

Clifford Hamblen, a retired Ridgefield Park police officer, objected to Christie calling pensions an entitlement or "something that is given to you, such as a welfare payment or a grant" (A-10).

Hamblen said he "earned" his pension over 30 years, and paid "a larger percentage of my salary into it over time."

An entitlement, he wrote, is Christie spending millions of taxpayer dollars to insulate himself from blame in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal.

Andrew Abraham of Teaneck calls Christie "an ambitious bully who cares only for himself and little for the people he is supposed to serve" (A-10).

Weak editorials

The Record's editorials, on the other hand, have been only mildly critical of Christie and have barely taken notice of what probably is his record number of vetoes since he took office five years ago, including killing a tax surcharge on millionaires.

Could the Woodland Park daily's editorials be influenced by North Jersey Media Group Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg's close friendship with the governor's chief fundraiser, Jon F. Hanson?

A fund sponsored by Hanson's Hampshire Cos. just made a sale-leaseback deal for NJMG's Rockaway printing plant.

Brain teasers

A follow-up to the minor accident involving Bergen County Executive James Tedesco leave at least one question unanswered (L-3).

Tedesco was driving a county owned vehicle and dropping off his chief of staff, Michele DiIorgi, at her car Tuesday evening when the official was involved in a 4-vehicle crash on Route 17 in Rochelle Park.

Why didn't DiIorgi meet Tedesco at the county offices in Hackensack, and car pool to Trenton from there?

On the same page today, readers must fill in the blanks left by a caption for a photo showing a six-car crash on Route 208 in Fair Lawn.

The local assignment editors have devised this method of brain teasing -- incomplete stories and photo captions -- to help readers avoid dementia.

Unfortunately, that hasn't worked with at least one staffer, Road Warrior John Cichowski.

Bergen's executive-elect can't get any respect from editors

I had an uneventful trip into the city on Veterans Day, boarding NJ Transit's No. 165 Local in Hackensack, above, and arriving at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan in under an hour.

The return trip on the 165 Turnpike Express to Hackensack and Westwood also went smoothly, but about 50 people lined up to board the bus, which left at 3:05 p.m., well before the rush hour started. The Record reported on Wednesday that lines at the antiquated terminal appear to be shorter.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's readers are witnessing a near-total breakdown in the checks and balances that produce an accurate and credible newspaper.

Today, Page A-2 carries the same correction it did on Tuesday -- a photo of Bergen County Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato was incorrectly identified as James Tedesco, the county's executive-elect.

This time, the photo of Stellato was a small thumbnail showing only his head -- apparently taken from the larger photo of the powerful pol that ran on Sunday -- but the double chin and glasses clearly set him apart from Tedesco.

The error likely was made by a lowly layout editor who was completely oblivious of the earlier embarrassing error with the larger Stellato photo in Sunday's Opinion section.

If you add these errors to the hundreds of uncorrected screw-ups in the Road Warrior column in recent years, it's a sad commentary on the editors' seeming inability to produce a reliable newspaper.

Forced busing

For example, on Wednesday, the front page carried a long story from transportation reporter Christopher Maag, heralding small changes that have eased afternoon rush-hour delays at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in midtown Manhattan.

For years, The Record's lazy transportation editor and reporters ignored those delays, but they were finally roused by angry letters from bus commuters at the end of last year.

Maag chose to observe at 5:30 p.m. Monday -- "the height of the rush hour" -- when, he says, "a few short lines formed and disappeared almost immediately into waiting buses."

Later in the story, he concedes "this week was an anomaly," given that some commuters may have stayed home for a four-day weekend that included Veterans Day on Tuesday.

So, can we rely on the story as an accurate reflection of improving bus terminal conditions?

The line for an express bus I took back to Hackensack on Tuesday at 3:05 p.m. had at least 50 people on it -- more passengers than seats. That's hardly "short."

Protecting Christie

In a front-page story today on the federal health insurance marketplace, there is absolutely no mention of how Governor Christie tried to sabotage the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act (A-1).

Instead of reporting Christie refused to set up a state exchange, as New York and Connecticut did, Staff Writer Lindy Washburn makes a vague reference to the "few state resources" that "are spent to encourage Obamacare signups" in New Jersey.

The GOP bully joined conservative governors in 35 other states in refusing to set up their own exchanges, overwhelming the federal exchange with millions of unanticipated applicants.

Genesis Rincon

A story on Paterson narcotics detectives confiscating 4,500 packets of heroin from two drug dealers reports they "were operating less than 200 feet from where 12-year-old Genesis Rincon was fatally shot riding her scooter last summer" (L-3).

Is there a connection?

Or is Police Director Jerry Speziale saying city police are doing a far better job confiscating heroin packets than they are preventing the murder of innocent young girls?

Why bother?

How many readers are going to try and get a reservation at Sergio's Missione, a shrine to Italian-American food in Lodi?

Today's lukewarm, 2-star review makes you wonder why The Record and Staff Writer Elisa Ung don't just cut their losses, and publish a few cautionary paragraphs?

The data box mentions a three-course early bird special for $15.95 that might be worth the detour, but there is nothing about it on the restaurant's Web site.

Ung, the paper's chief restaurant reviewer, doesn't say she sampled the meal, likely because the restaurant refused to serve her three dessert courses.

Second look

Last Sunday, Road Warrior John Cichowski tried to write a column correcting a previous report on the Graduated Driving License law (GDL), which requires red decals on the license plates of drivers 21 and younger.

But the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers says the befuddled reporter just made more mistakes:

"The Road Warrior continues to misreport that the estimated reductions in crashes were mainly due to red decal provisions.

"The study repeatedly indicated that while red decals could be an important component, the reductions were mainly due to multiple provisions in the 2010 GDL law, which also included the red decals.

"The Road Warrior reported the study indicated that the red decals yielded more safety advantages than disadvantages. This implies that the study mentioned a number of disadvantages.

"However, the study indicated there were no reported disadvantages due to the red decals."

See: Road Warrior's IQ continues to drop 

He's big news on the front page, misidentified in Opinion

Late for work? On the way to the gym on Tuesday morning, I encountered this driver, who blew through a stop sign in Hackensack, and drove well over the speed limit on Spring Valley Avenue. Here, I was stopped behind the driver on Summit Avenue in Hackensack. One sticker says, "I brake for UFOs." The peace symbol obviously doesn't signal the hippie driver wants to coexist peacefully with other motorists.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's Woodland Park newsroom can't seem to get its accuracy act together.

On Sunday's front page, Bergen County Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato was portrayed as so powerful he could "make or break" a candidate seeking to become New Jersey's next governor.

But in the Opinion section, a photo of Stellato flummoxed everyone from the lowly photographer who took it to the production editor who gets paid six figures to prevent embarrassing errors from getting into the paper.

Lou who?

OK. I wouldn't know Stellato, if I sat next to him on the bus. But he doesn't look anything like James Tedesco, the Bergen County executive-elect.

Yet, the photo of Stellato ran with a caption identifying him as Tedesco, even though Tedesco was correctly identified in a photo caption on A-10 of the same edition.

The editors didn't run a correction on A-2 until Tuesday:

"A caption on Page O-4 on Sunday misidentified a man greeting supporters of Bergen County Executive-elect James Tedesco last Tuesday night. Pictured was Democratic Chairman Lou Stellato."

The problem may lie in how the lazy editors, including Production Editor Liz Houlton, have always relied on staff photographers to provide accurate spellings and identifications of the people in their photos, and have often failed to check the accuracy of the information.

More errors

A second correction on Tuesday noted the paper was wrong in identifying the type of crude oil carried by tanker cars through Bergen County.

The crude is from North Dakota, not Canada, as the L-1 story reported on Monday.

Today, A-2 corrects the misspelling of "the surname" of a high school soccer player that appeared on Nov. 4. "She is Katey Samarro," the editors note.

Bus woes ease?

A Page 1 story today reports the Port Authority has made some changes to ease the delays home-bound North Jersey commuters were facing leaving the antiquated bus terminal in midtown Manhattan during the rush hour.

But the story doesn't address the difficulty of getting to the gridlocked terminal, if you take a North Jersey bus into the city in the late afternoon.

Christie's future

Marc Schaeffer of Wyckoff is a letter writer who provides a perspective on Governor Christie's White House ambitions the editors and reporters are unable or unwilling to provide (A-10).

"Imagine the exuberance of the opposition research teams," if Christie decides to run, Schaeffer writes.

"The first vulnerability that will be exposed is the illusion of the New Jersey economic recovery Christie has advanced."

"Then, they will turn to the cesspool of patronage, cronyism and alleged financial impropriety at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey..."

You get the idea. 

Schaeffer analyzes Christie's chances of success in a way you have never seen in The Record, where the GOP bully has received overwhelmingly favorable coverage since he took office in 2010 and began his war on the middle and working classes.

Dead at 57

The Record's obituary writers can't be bothered trying to explain why so many African-American men die in their 50s, as you can see in today's story on rapper Henry Jackson of Tenafly (L-1).

Korean War veterans passing St. Patrick's Cathedral during Tuesday's parade up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Korean New Yorkers who fought in Vietnam also marched in the Veterans Day parade.

Hackensack news

Staff Writer Todd South didn't have anything to report about this past Monday's City Council meeting.

But today, the Hackensack reporter has an upbeat story on a Veterans Day ceremony for the nearly 30 veterans who now work for Hackenack University Medical Center (L-3).

Like thousands of other residents, I thought about the hospital on Monday, when I made my quarterly property tax payment of more than $4,300 to the city of Hackenack.

How much smaller would it have been, if the non-profit but tremendously profitable hospital made payments in lieu of taxes to Hackensack or returned anything in kind, like a couple of patrol cars or paving Prospect Avenue, which is torn apart by ambulances? 

If South is looking for story ideas, the hospital's not paying taxes on more than $180 million dollars in property could be it.

He certainly can't rely on his lazy local assignment editors to wake up one day and suggest the story.