Look to readers for the unvarnished truth about Christie

On the Jersey shore, the Sandy Hook national park includes a nude beach, above, and one of the big guns that protected New York Harbor during World War II, with the Manhattan skyline in the distance, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If you want the truth about New Jersey's worst governor ever, ignore the front page of The Record today and flip to letters from readers in the Opinion section.

"More important to him [Governor Christie] than a happy New Jersey is a happy moneyed elite who can fund his national run," Dave Palmer of River Edge says of the GOP bully's adamant stand against taxing the wealthy or reducing business tax cuts (O-3).

"New Jersey is dead last among the 50 states in recovery from the recession," reports Mary Ellen Marino of Princeton.

"He proposes to break his promise to fund the pensions of state employees," Marino continues, "as well as such local workers as teachers, social workers, police and firefighters."

Boosting image

Why isn't the mess Christie has made of the Garden State consistently reflected in the columns, news stories and editorials of the Woodland Park daily?

The Political Stile column on Page 1 today -- reporting Christie's renewed focus on the White House -- sounds just like all of the ones we read before the George Washington Bridge political-retribution scandal. 

Staff Writer Charles Stile notes that "on Jan. 8, The Record published emails directly linking two Christie confidants" to the lane closings (A-1).

But the editors have never explained why it took four months after the gridlock in Fort Lee and more than two months after the election to uncover the smoking gun.

And why doesn't Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin condemn Christie's extensive travel as head of a GOP fund-raising group only days before the June 30 deadline to balance the state budget (A-1 on Saturday)?

Do the arithmetic

Today's Local section leads with the dedication of a new riverfront park in Garfield (L-1), but Columnist Mike Kelly is still writing about a three-decade-old chromium spill in that working class city (O-1).

Staff Writer Kim Lueddeke still expects readers to do the arithmetic on the number of floors a new LG headquarters in Englewood Cliffs would have (L-1).

She continues to describe a "143-foot-high" or "143-foot-tall" building, but notes the borough changed the zoning code to allow "buildings up to 150 feet and eight stories."

Does that mean the controversial LG building on top of the Palisades would be eight stories?

Skeleton news staff

The weekend news staff must have been really thin this weekend, if reporters couldn't find out anything about a fatal cement-truck accident on Saturday in Edgewater (L-1 photo).

Sadly, too many of the paper's photographers think their job ends at capturing an image.

Who were Harold Olivares, 49, of the Bronx and Kevin Bonin, 59, of Teaneck?

Stories about their deaths appear on L-3, but this body count style of journalism ignores whether they were fathers or sons, what they did for a living or anything else.

Eat to the death

Why do the editors think older readers (the majority), who may be diabetic or watching their weight and cholesterol, have any interest in Staff Writer Elisa Ung's obsessions with chocolate and other artery clogging food (BL-1)?

The Corner Table column today is a thinly disguised advertisement for a chocolate bar at Westfield Garden State Plaza.

For the $31 price of the Copper River salmon entree at The Plum and the Pear in Wyckoff, you can buy more than 2 pounds of the Alaskan sockeye fillets at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack ($12.99 a pound) and feed a family of six with plenty of leftovers (BL-2).

Too academic

Kevin DeMarrais, the paper's retired consumer columnist, overlooks the most practical tip of all when you are planning to move (R-1).

Make sure you collect plenty of boxes, leave a few weeks to pack and check to see if the mover you hire has even more boxes, which you will need if your estimates of both are off.

A little balance

On the Opinion front today, Columnist Brigid Harrison's profile of Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto is a welcome break from the usual all-Christie, all-the-time coverage (O-1).

Now, for a good laugh, read the caption on the photo of Prieto and Christie on O-4. Does that look like "chatting" to you?

Readers are always scratching their heads, thanks to the lack of proofreading under six-figure production editor Liz Houlton, who likely was taking a nap when that page went to press.

More screw-ups

Want another good laugh? A Saturday correction (A-2) noted a story on Friday misstated the number of counties in New Jersey.

It wasn't even close, with the story mentioning "13 counties." There are 21.

Another correction, on Friday's A-2, said a Thursday headline misstated a significant problem in New Jersey nursing homes -- bedsores.

The headline noted a "significant bedbug problem."

Recommended 

If you missed it, Saturday's Local section carried a rare feature about a downtown merchant, as the editors continue to whip their reporters into promoting mall retailers almost exclusively.

Staff Writer Christopher Maag reports Kates Brothers Scientific Shoe Co. has been custom-fitting shoes at four different locations on Main Street in Hackensack for 73 years (L-3 on Saturday).

Why didn't this feature get better play?

Cichowski, Kelly and Ervolino -- take a hint

Can you guess the location of this photo in Bergen County, near Hackensack?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The wrong columnist announced his retirement in The Record's thin Sunday edition today.

Kevin DeMarrais, the paper's lone voice for the consumer, is bowing out after 20 years, without saying whether the Your Money's Worth column will be written by someone else (B-1).

Of course, DeMarrais was the least offensive of The Record's veteran, white-male news columnists.

Readers would love to see last columns from John Cichowski, the error-prone Road Warrior; Mike Kelly, the reporter who pushes words around and rarely ventures a strong opinion; and Bill Ervolino, whose funny stand-up routine falls flat on the printed page.

DeMarrais pats himself on the back, and thanks "senior management and editors" for their support, "even when I got advertisers upset."

But he doesn't mention his failures, including never listing organic and naturally raised food in his monthly survey of supermarket prices.

Nor does he remind readers he went to bat for a businesswoman, without telling readers she had sold a private jet to North Jersey Media Group Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg and his best friend, real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson.

Today's paper

If you count the story that leads the paper today and opinion columns, nearly three full pages of the Sunday edition are devoted to analyzing Governor Christie's actions in the George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee (A-1 and O-1).

Did anyone get through the Page 1 "ANALYSIS" of "key words" in the 344-page report that Christie commissioned at taxpayers' expense -- a report that has been denounced as a self-serving whitewash?

Editor Marty Gottlieb thinks readers have all the time in the world to plow through stories and columns that are top-heavy with background and bury the "nut graf" -- the hard-hitting conclusion or opinion.

Try not to fall asleep reading the "nut graf" of today's long and winding piece at the top of A-1:

"The report prepared by lead attorney Randy Mastro of Gibson Dunn appears to diverge from those [investigative] standards in several ways, according to an analysis by The Record and interviews with experienced investigators."

Three reporters and an unknown number of editors and graphic artists worked on this snorefest, which goes a long way toward explaining why young people don't read newspapers anymore.

Local-news follies

Readers looking for local news today strike out, thanks to Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza and writers of the photo captions.

On the Local front, none of the five donors to the Pascack Valley Meals on Wheels are identified in the caption (L-1).

On L-3, a photo caption blames a power outage in Leonia on a "primary splice fail" that caused smoke and a small explosion.

The section includes municipal news from Kinnelon and West Milford, but nothing from Teaneck or Hackensack.

Restaurant propaganda

On the Better Living cover, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung is trying to make us believe none of her readers are upset about ever-higher prices, especially $9 or $10 for a single glass of wine, or a tipping system that puts the burden on the customer to provide servers with a living wage (BL-1).

Second look

A story on moving Englewood's Dwight Morrow High School "toward full integration" makes no mention of doing the same at the city's segregated elementary and middle schools (Friday's Local front).

N.J. Public Radio: Why is Christie so secretive?

The Modern, a 47-story apartment building under construction in Fort Lee, overlooks the Chris Christie Memorial Local Access Lanes to the George Washington Bridge, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

New Jersey Public Radio says The Record's top lawyer is calling the Christie administration the most secretive in decades.

Jennifer A. Borg is being quoted today in the report on WNYC-FM, whose Web site calls the story "Chris Christie's 18 State Secrets."

Matt Katz of New Jersey Public Radio reports:

"The release of subpoenaed documents that exposed the Christie Administration's involvement in Bridgegate show how the Governor's Office has been keeping its decisions and expenditures quiet despite laws that require official business to be made public. Here's 18 ways Christie and his officials have blocked access to information."

The big lie

On Jan. 19, 2010, the day Chris Christie was sworn in, the new governor pledged, "Today, a new era of accountability and transparency is here." 

But Borg, North Jersey Media Group vice president and general counsel, says the Christie administration has been "more secretive" than any other administration she has dealt with in the last 20 years.

Bridgegate e-mails

For example, Katz reports, Christie officials responded to The Record's request for correspondence on George Washington Bridge lane closures by saying none existed.

Only subpoenas from the Legislature were able to obtain e-mails from David Wildstein of the Port Authority, which runs the bridge, to Michael Drewniak, a former Star-Ledge reporter who is Christie's foul-mouthed chief spokesman and spin doctor.

The subpoenas found the Governor's Office "was intentionally or unintentionally violating the Open Public Records Act," Katz says. 

Three other "state secrets," Katz reports, are:

• How much taxpayers are spending on the lawyer representing Christie in various "abuse-of-power investigations."
• Who paid for a trip the governor took to Dallas last year.
• Christie's commissioner of community affairs, Richard Constable III, has ignored questions on why the state fired a $69 million contractor responsible for distributing $780 million in Sandy housing aid.  

Read the full report at the following link: 

Chris Christie's 18 State Secrets

Today's paper

The Record today is silent on the New Jersey Public Radio investigative report.

And there is nothing in the paper about a Star-Ledger report that the Democratic mayor of Belleville endorsed Governor Christie's election to a second term last year two weeks after the GOP bully personally pushed "his senior staff to provide a Sandy grant to build a senior citizen housing complex" in the town (see Sandy story on A-3).

A Star-Ledger editorial today charges Christie "used Sandy money as a political slush fund."

More good publicity

In fact, The Record today is wrapped in a special Super Bowl section, a testament to the power of the National Football League's publicity machine.

The upbeat, 8-page section crowds out any mention of the league's concussion crisis and the many brain-damaged pro football players who suffer dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

In contrast, today's Local section carries only three pages of municipal, police and court news, and three pages of death notices. 

Shafting commuters

The dominant Page 1 story today is about NJ Transit trademarks, but continues the Woodland Park daily's practice of ignoring the quality of bus and rail service or whether the agency can guarantee commuters a rush-hour seat (A-1).

In a front-page column, Charles Stile claims Christie "nearly leaped out of his shoes four years ago" at word New Jersey would get its first Super Bowl -- impossible for a man who weighed nearly 400 pounds (A-1).

On the Local front, a Turkish-born American citizen who was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing a sleeping woman on a Phoenix-Newark flight says he will never complain about flying economy again (L-1).

On L-3, Rutherford joins Hackensack in canceling a Super Bowl-themed winter festival, citing a lack of sponsors -- more evidence the big game will have far less economic impact in New Jersey than predicted.

Food-shopping news

The Record's feature writers, including its star restaurant reviewer, rarely discuss the origin or quality of food.

For years, the paper's consumer columnist, Kevin DeMarrais, has compiled a  monthly survey of supermarket prices, though he continues to ignore organic and naturally grown or raised food.

On Wednesday's L-8, the first Business page, DeMarrais reported that Great American Seafood-brand frozen tilapia fillets are being sold in a bag with an American flag logo, but that the fish is farm raised in China, Vietnam and Thailand.

Though that kind of warning is welcome, The Record's Business section spends far too much of its time mindlessly promoting fast-food restaurants, supermarkets and other food businesses.

We're tired of the annual tears, anguish and bathos

Passaic Street and Maywood Avenue in Maywood. Passaic, an antiquated, heavily traveled, two-lane street, was clogged on Saturday with drivers heading for Westfield Garden State Plaza, the Paramus mall invaded by a gunman on Nov. 4. Today, The Record carries a wire-service story with the first serious discussion since then of security at shopping centers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Twenty-five years after the bombing of Pan Am 103, readers still have to bear the burden of knowing 38 of the 270 victims were from New Jersey.

That's all the Woodland Park daily and Mike Kelly, one of its tired columnists, needs to unleash thousands of meaningless words marking the passing of another year since the terrorist act on Dec. 21, 1988 (A-1).

The Record loves anniversaries, even though most of them have little meaning for most readers, because they fill space the editors couldn't fill with real news.

How does Kelly begin today's column?

"They came to the stone memorial like old soldiers returning to the battlefield.

"Only these were not soldiers at all."

OK. If they aren't "soldiers," why even use that word?

The reason is simple: After writing columns for more than 20 years, words fail this untalented hack. 

Mall execution

Along with a front-page story on the arrest of 4 in the fatal carjacking at an upscale mall in Millburn last Sunday, The Record runs its first serious discussion of shopping center security (A-4).

North Jersey shoppers learn they are left out in the cold: 

The Mall of America in far-off Minnesota "touts on its website a security force of more than 100 officers."

However, in New Jersey, the owners of Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus and the Mall at Short Hills refuse to discuss security.

Check out the long correction on A-2 today and ask yourself why the editors even ran it. Isn't PSE&G the major utility in the state?

Bridge to boredom

There may be relatively few words about mall security, but The Record continues to give unprecedented coverage to politically inspired traffic delays on the George Washington Bridge (L-1 and O-1).

It's as if traffic isn't a nightmare nearly every day, at the Hudson River crossings as well as on major highways, including Route 80.

One car, one driver

Road Warrior John Cichowski today indulges another one of those morons who ignore mass transit and drive to and from Manhattan alone.

One of his readers, Larry Finch of Maywood, complains about a purported "five hours" it took his wife to get home from Manhattan on Tuesday because of emergency construction on the upper level of the GWB (L-1).

Hey, Larry, what does your wife have against Martha Washington, the lower level?

Crash news

A fatal crash on Route 80 in Totowa on Saturday morning caused another traffic nightmare, killing the driver of a 17-year-old Toyota (L-1 and L-3).

As usual, there isn't a single clue in the story about whether speed was a factor. 

The driver, Cesar Castello III, 31, of Wayne was "ejected" and run over by another car. 

Was he wearing a seat belt? The editors included the name of a state trooper and expect readers to call him to get the answer.

Who was Castello? A husband or father or just someone who couldn't afford a new car?

Mixed messages

Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais lists healthy eating as one of the big issues of 2013 (B-1).

But he continues to omit organic and other naturally raised or grown food in his monthly North Jersey Marketplace Survey of supermarket prices (B-2).

Let them eat cake

The Record has some of the wealthiest newspaper readers in the nation, so why is Staff Writer Elisa Ung reporting on a celebrity chef's "rules for flavorful cooking on a budget" (BL-1).

Thanks, but no thanks. Who wants to eat the "cheapest chicken parts" -- likely pumped up with harmful animal antibiotics -- from the A&P?

I'm sure Chef David Burke doesn't eat them or serve them in his restaurant.

High entree prices

Wouldn't we rather see Burke and other restaurant owners lower their ridiculously high entree prices?

On Friday, Ung gave a rave review to Chakra in Paramus, despite a greasy schnitzel ($29) she called "a depressing ripoff," and a "tough" filet mignon ($38).

Doesn't the paper's chief restaurant reviewer ever send back food? And what did she spend on three visits to Chakra, $400 or more?

She touts the "thoughtful" wine-by-the-glass list, but doesn't give prices, which would likely shock readers, even well-heeled ones.

What's on top?

The Better Living cover on Friday was filled with a large photo of Chakra's crispy trout topped with cauliflower puree and Marcona almonds, but on BL-18, Ung said her fish was served on top of the puree.

Kelly's surprise

Just when I have written off Kelly as having no redeeming social value, he surprises me with a second column today on the Opinion front.

Read that first paragraph for a clear statement of what the column is about and a rare opinion from a columnist who expresses few of them (O-1):

"Chris Christie wants to be a bridge builder who can unite the Republican Party and capture the White House.

"Funny how he can't seem to find his way across the mess at the George Washington Bridge."

A rare good job by Kelly. 

But will he please ask Production Editor Liz Houlton to run an updated column photo of him and get rid of the one with his signature shit-eating grin.

Will a Christie White House bid be good for N.J.?

Hackensack officials have made no improvements to pedestrian safety on Prospect Avenue, which is lined with high-rises, since Jerome S. Some, 87, was struck and killed by a car as he crossed the street on Oct. 8 to attend a meeting at Bel Posto Restaurant, above. They haven't painted missing or faded crosswalk lines or added signs advising drivers of a state law requiring them to yield to pedestrians. 

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Readers were spared for only one day from the primping and preening of Governor Christie for a White House run in 2016 that dominates the front page of The Record today.

In the hundreds of thousands of flattering words that have been written in the past year, The Record's editors haven't tackled the angle that means the most to readers:

Will Christie's frequent absences from the state as he courts out-of-state conservatives, right wingers and Tea Party crackpots and their deep pockets be good or bad for the Garden State?

As we already know from a Page 1 story a few days ago, a Christie presidency -- as far-fetched as that sounds -- would elevate Lt. Gov. Kim Guadano, a non-entity who is the GOP bully's lap dog, to the Governor's Office.

Caused landslide

Today's front page also perpetuates the myth that Christie won a second term last week by a "landslide," even though he was chosen by a small minority of registered voters (A-1).

The Record reports last Tuesday's turnout was only 37.2 percent, a historic low (A-6). Two days ago, the Woodland Park daily said the turnout was 38 percent.

That means more than six out of every 10 voters were so apathetic -- so turned off by Christie's lies and The Record's obsession with politics over policy -- they didn't even bother to vote.

Satirist Bill Mahrer noted on his Friday night TV show Christie has caused "landslides."

Glaring typos

Notable typos in today's paper include an A-6 chart labeled "New York," not "New York City," for the mayoral contest won by Bill de Blasio.

Voter turnout in the city (24 percent) was even lower than in New Jersey, but don't expect The Record to explore the reasons for the apathy here or there.

Houlton error

Another bad typo appears on the Local front as Production Editor Liz Houlton, supervisor of the legally blind copy editors, laughs all the way to the bank with her six-figure salary.

Road Warrior John Cichowski assaults readers with a landslide of data today, but forgot to include the number of cellphone violations issued by police in Teaneck, second only to Paterson's 1,020 (L-1).

Road litter

If past columns are any guide, Cichowski is unable to accurately transcribe figures to his column from New Jersey's Administrative Office of the Courts, and many of his conclusions are flawed.

An even bigger problem is that cellphone, speeding and other violations for a 12-month period ended in May 2013 aren't compared to previous years.

So readers who believe enforcement has declined dramatically remain in the dark. 

And where are the numbers for the state police, who patrol such raceways as the New Jersey Turnpike and Route 80, which passes just below the nondescript office building where The Record's editors hide out every day.

Ignoring the homeless

The outpouring of support and offers of money to the formerly homeless James Brady leaves hundreds of homeless people in Hackensack out in the cold (L-1).

Brady, as a Page 1 story stated on Saturday, has been denied government assistance because he was awarded an unclaimed $850 he found on the street and didn't report it, according to a city bureaucrat.

Half the story

On today's Business front, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais reports a reader who charges gasoline purchases and receives a 3 percent cash rebate or "what he pays extra for charging his purchase."

But there are still many gasoline stations that charge the same price for cash and credit purchases, including the new Wawa on Essex Street in Lodi and every station on the turnpike and Garden State Parkway.

Silence is golden

On the Opinion front today, former Record reporter Carl Golden claims Democratic challenger Barbara Buono "became bogged down in extraneous issues while largely ignoring Christie's vulnerabilities -- property tax control, job creation, economic growth."

But Buono's TV ads and other campaigning did emphasize the 400,000 out of work in the Garden State and the sad state of the economy under the no-tax Christie, among other economic issues, only to be ignored or see her message buried by The Record.

The Record has been running Golden column's for years, but as a press flunky for two former Republican governors, can anything he says be believed?

More Shoop smears

Also on O-1, Columnist Mike Kelly continues to smear the name of Richard Shoop, 20, the Teaneck man who committed suicide inside the Garden State Plaza in Paramus last Monday night or early Tuesday.

In Kelly's second column on Shoop -- who hurt no one but himself -- the burned-out reporter claims the Teaneck man's name "will unfortunately join a long list of young men" who killed many others at Columbine High School; a Newton, Conn., elementary school and other places I won't list.

Kelly could have been effective merely recounting his impressions of Shoop, who worked at Victor's Pizzeria, the Teaneck shop the reporter patronized.

Instead, he irresponsibly sensationalizes and exaggerates what happened at the Paramus mall and compares Shoop to mass killers.

Fat and food

There's no explanation why the proposed federal ban on trans fats hasn't been packaged with all of the Christie coverage (Editorial, O-2).

Readers familiar with Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's obsessions with artery clogging meat and desserts will get a kick out of her reporting today on "a large selection of fresh fruit, vegetables and dairy products" at the Wawa in Lodi (BL-1 and BL-4).

In Travel today, a cover story about the island of Nevis from The Washington Post is accompanied by a list of hotels and restaurants with prices (T-4).

So, are readers to assume that when travel pieces by Editor Jill Schensul and other staffers are silent on prices that means they were comped by cruise lines, airlines and hotels in return for the publicity?

Bankrupt Christie turns to Obama -- again

The license plate and stickers on a Chrysler PT Cruiser, spotted Friday on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan, speak for themselves.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Governor Christie has made such a wreck of state finances he's grabbing $15 million in federal Sandy relief funds to help the owners of shore businesses (The Record's front page today).

Wait a minute.

The fire that destroyed 50 businesses in Seaside Park and Seaside Heights last week had nothing to do with Superstorm Sandy, and may even have been set deliberately.

Since he took office in January 2010, Christie has used voodoo economics and cuts to middle- and working class programs to balance his budgets.

He's also grabbed federal money from NJ Transit and the Port Authority to fix state roads after he cancelled the Hudson River rail tunnels, dealing a blow to commuters and labor.

The GOP bully may be a hero to shore residents and business people, and the editors of The Record, but North Jersey voters will do their best on Nov. 5 to drum him out of office.

Bankrupt him

Another Page 1 story today discusses the risks in a second federal indictment of former Bergen County Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Ferriero (A-1 and A-10).

All the legal mumbo jumbo is fine, but the story ignores this:

Even if acquitted, Ferriero will be forced to spend a large part of the hundreds of thousands of dollars in allegedly ill-gotten gains to defend himself, and that's poetic justice.

Kelly is back

Readers can't tell if a related column on the Opinion front is more about Ferriero or Staff Writer Mike Kelly, who goes into great detail about what the so-called journalist said in his 2008 interview with the champion of pay to play (O-1).

The strongest word Kelly had for Ferriero was "boss."

"This is how politics works," is the last line from Kelly, who completely misses the bigger picture (O-4).

This is how democracy -- our corrupt system of government -- works. This is the wonderful system that we export to the rest of the world -- the system Kelly and other members of the media can't stop glorifying. 

And this is the system that has been poisoned by Christie and Tea Party crackpots.

More road lies

On the front of Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski again ignores the daily commuting nightmare for yet another column on MVC lines (L-1).

The Addled Commuter is fresh off two columns greatly hyping the diversion of some drivers who entered the upper-level toll plaza of the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee streets last week:

Here's what a reader concerned over all the errors and distortions in Cichowski's work had to say in an e-mail to management:

"In his Friday and Saturday columns, the Road Warrior relies on a series of false rumors and exaggerated false statements and assessments to over-hype and distort significantly more traffic congestion to the upper level of the GW Bridge. It was due to temporarily reducing number of tollbooths allotted to a local Fort Lee entrance for only 5 morning rush hours.

"His first column was falsely titled Closed tollbooths a commuting disaster, and the Road Warrior falsely reported in these two columns that two tollbooths were 'closed' and 'shut down.' All of this contradicted the facts and The Record's own photograph with the Friday column, which showed these tollbooths remained open, but were used for other highway traffic instead of cars from the Fort Lee entrance.

"Road Warrior had to sheepishly admit in his follow-up column that this traffic congestion was really a short-term situation based on a PA traffic pattern study in contradiction to denials by him in his Friday column, and was not a permanent change, as he and others repeatedly implied in that column.

"Yet, the Road Warrior could not resist republishing false rumors from his Friday column and making up new false rumors about the fictitious reasons for this temporary change."

To read the entire e-mail on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, click on the following link:

Inscrutable Road Warrior screws readers


Man with tits

What do you make of the big photo of a bearded, pot-bellied Sussex County man with tits next to the Road Warrior column (L-1)?

It's hard to believe there wasn't someone more photogenic at a tattoo fest in Secaucus.

The drought on Hackensack news in Local continues today, although the byline of Hannan Adely, the reporter assigned to the city, has been appearing on 9/11-related and other stories.

Say it ain't so

Readers can't have much respect for another columnist, Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State (O-1).

Today, she describes the mean-spirited Christie as the "brash and beguiling soon-to-be-reelected governor."

Why does Harrison prostitute herself only months after she blasted Christie for putting "a great double-digit victory" on Nov. 5 "over the lives of women in New Jersey" who lost $7.5 million in preventive health funds (June 23 column).

Or her June 16 column that labeled Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, a Democrat, as "a sell-out" for endorsing the homely GOP slob.

She also called DiVincenzo "a politically expedient compromiser who doesn't give a rat's fanny about what's best for a political party he allegedly bosses."

Christie is "beguiling"? Give me a break, professor.

Frugality rules

On the Business front, Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais can't stop boasting about what a smart money manager he is (B-1).

It's one thing for the frugal DeMarrais not to buy organic food, but it's irresponsible for him to publish a monthly Market Basket survey of supermarket prices without organic or naturally raised milk, poultry and other items.

In the same way, advising seniors to chase discounts at fast-food restaurants, as he does today, ignores the many dietary restrictions they are under and the crappy beef and other low-quality items served.

Also, where did The Record get the ridiculous  illustration at the bottom of his column on the Business front -- an elderly woman in curlers with a bullhorn?

Another suit

A story on A-3 today reports that North Jersey Media Group has filed another copyright-infringement lawsuit over use of "an iconic 9/11 photograph," this time by Sarah Palin and her political action committee.

The Associated Press story has  a huge hole  in it: 

The Record's management refused to spend the money to re-make Page 1 on Sept. 11, 2001, to highlight the inspirational flag-raising image from Staff Photographer Thomas E. Franklin, and banished it to a back page.

Now, NJMG General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg is spending far more in legal fees to punish anyone who uses the photo, even if full credit is given.

Boring columnists insult readers' intelligence

It's smooth driving after years of slow going over roughly patched pavement on Hackensack's Euclid Avenue, between Main Street and the railroad tracks.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The Christie Apologist (Charles Stile). The Shit-Eating Grin (Mike Kelly). The Vagina Monologue (Tara Sullivan). The Addled Commuter (John Cichowski). The Momma's Boy (Bill Ervolino).

The Record's sorry lot of columnists are on full display in today's Sunday edition, with two of the morons on the front page.

How can Charles Stile call Governor Christie "the Jersey savior" and a "moderate" or compare him to Bill Clinton after the GOP bully used numerous vetoes to get his way, and broke his promise to lower local property taxes (A-1)?

Egypt, trollies

Why is Mike Kelly writing about a Jersey City jewelry store owner who can't retire to his native Egypt, and ignoring thousands of Jamaican-Americans in North Jersey whose island homeland has been in crisis for far longer (A-1)?

And the A-1 photo that accompanies Kelly's column is initially confusing. That's not the "Ahmed" he is writing about.

Why is the increasingly irrelevant Road Warrior waxing nostalgic over a form of mass transit that hasn't run for more than 80 years or is this just another way John Cichowski can avoid getting out of the office and doing some legwork (L-1)?

Selling out

You have to sympathize with Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais, a lone voice for consumers in The Record, which continues to promote business and developers, including those with ties to the Borg family (B-1).

A couple of years ago, DeMarrais himself wrote a story for the Business section about a woman who sold a multimillion-dollar private jet to Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg and his pal, real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson.

Today, the Real Estate cover story eagerly quotes Edgewater builder Fred Daibes, without ever telling readers the multimillionaire who has skirted environmental regulations has agreed to buy the Borg family's 20 acres in Hackensack to build luxury apartments (R-1).

Farm to garden

It's only been a few weeks since Elisa Ung returned from her second maternity leave, but the restaurant reviewer has quickly abandoned the consumer focus of her Sunday column, The Corner Table (BL-1).

The chef and restaurant she writes about today is in Princeton. Hey, let's jump in the car and drive almost 60 miles for dinner.

Don't we all have 150 cookbooks and throw dinner parties?

You'd think so from the Better Living cover story by the new food editor, Esther Davidowitz (BL-1).

On BL-3, in another boring column about his family, Bill Ervolino writes about homeowners who grow huge zucchinis or what amounts to penis envy among gardeners.

Editors play politics with Christie's reelection bid

To Staff Writer John Cichowski, a big problem for commuters is keeping their tires inflated properly, as the airhead explains in his Road Warrior column on the Local front today. Traffic inching toward the Lincoln Tunnel, above, isn't his concern.

By focusing on the politics of Governor Christie's bid for a second term, The Record's editors continue to hide the GOP bully's many policy failures.

In a negative story about Democratic challenger Barbara Buono, Christie is called "her popular opponent" (A-3).

Popular with whom? The millionaires and special interests he serves exclusively?

That story from The Star-Ledger commits the same sin as others by The Record's own staff: 

It quotes Brigid Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University, without mentioning she is one of the Woodland Park daily's Opinion columnists.

Harrison's column today is all about the politics of President Obama's joint appearance with Christie on the Jersey shore (O-2).

Boring politics

Politics are dividing the nation. They put readers to sleep, whether in news stories or columns by Harrison and Staff Writer Charles Stile.

Yet, Editor Marty Gottlieb and other media leaders are news junkies who are hooked on politics for all of the supposed controversy they offer.

Is anyone going to vote for Christie in November, because he appeared with Obama or Britain's Prince Harry at the shore, as the story on A-3 suggests?

Another thin paper

Readers have to scour today's Page 1 story on state police diversity for any numbers, such as the size of the force or the current training class (A-1).

The size of the force and how that compares with past decades isn't given, but readers are left to do the  arithmetic on A-6 to get the size of the training class (6% of 20,000).

Crippled thinking

A concerned reader didn't think much of Road Warrior John Cichowski's idea for colored-coded handicap parking stickers:

"The Road Warrior continues on his merry mistaken ways in his May 29 column. He promulgates an ineffective, impractical idea about disability parking tags and irresponsible, derisive, misleading, and negligently incomplete responses to readers' comments.

"He should offer a retraction to his endorsement of a faulty, poorly thought-out idea for 3 color codes for disability parking tags. It would NOT cover many circumstances and would create too much confusion, contradictions, & complexities for law enforcement, bureaucratic oversight, and those eligible for disability parking.

"He should focus on taking responsibility to correct the hundreds of mistakes and faulty advice or conclusions in his columns over the past 9 months and prevent future problems.

"Instead, he tried to fault me and mislead readers by taking one of my comments completely out of context on a previous column regarding potholes.  

"It shows how small minded and negligent the Road Warrior is for his readers and The Record. 

"I presented facts/comments about a business owner's ineffective response and culpability for his own problems and accidents based on potholes near his Carlstadt business."  
  

To read the full e-mail, click on the following link:

Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers

Where's the aspirin?

My Medicare coverage was set years ago, so I pity readers who have to plow through Your Money's Worth Columnist Kevin DeMarrais' confusing columns on the health-insurance program for seniors (B-1). 

Don't look for any food coverage in today's Better Living section, which had to make room for a T&A cover story on that TV show, "The Real Bimbos of New Jersey" (BL-1).

The Real Estate cover story -- "Will house hunters pay for green?" -- appears to be based on a commission-hungry real estate agent's claim that a Ramsey "home's energy efficiency should add $100,000 to its value" (R-1).

That's preposterous.