Why did the editors wait until now?

Starting Monday, the George Washington Bridge is expected to be gridlocked during the morning commute because of road work on New York's Alexander Hamilton span.

You'll find more information on mass-transit alternatives to commuting by car at the bottom of Page 1 of The Record today than I've seen in at least a decade.

Even the transit-adverse Road Warrior discusses riding a bicycle to the Weehawken ferry (Local front).

Why did it take a major road-repair project less than a mile east of the George Washington Bridge to unleash this relative torrent of advice from the car-loving editors and their so-called transportation writers?

Why did The New York Times and the Daily News publish subway columns for many years, while The Record's editors ignored the quality of train and bus service into Manhattan and around North Jersey? 

More lazy editing

Most of the stories in today's Sunday edition raise more questions than they answer, and poor editing makes it a chore to read them.

The main A-1 element, "Drinking water going to waste," should have told readers in the first paragraph the cost is ultimately passed on to consumers, and not wait until the continuation page (A-6).

The rare appearance of Jean Rimbach's byline on the front page only reminds readers of how she remains one of the least productive members of the staff -- due chiefly to her friendship with head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes.

Her story on multimillionaire developer Fred Daibes reports he was fined $1.6 million for completing several riverfront projects without an EPA permit at his French restaurant in Edgewater (A-6), but readers have to plow through a lot of copy to get there.

Shouldn't the focus be on whether someone who apparently broke environment laws can be entrusted to clean up 11 acres of pollution on the waterfront?

Christie's waistline

There's a huge amount of copy about Governor Christie today -- an A-1 column, a long A-5 story and an Opinion front column -- but no one seems to notice that he is growing fatter by the day, calling into question whether he is fit enough to run New Jersey, let alone run for vice president.

Just look at the unflattering photos of the GOP bully on A-5, O-1 and O-4. 

Kelly errs again

On the Opinion front, The Record's editors continue to allow their reporters to interpret and improvise on the report issued in the fatal police shooting of Malik Williams, 19, of Garfield.

Today, Columnist Mike Kelly claims Williams was shot and killed "after he emerged [from a garage] cursing at pursuing officers and waving a hammer and saw."

Boy, did Kelly screw up again.

Prosecutor John L. Molinelli's long-delayed report on the Dec. 10 shooting said Williams "advanced towards" the two officers, holding a hammer and a saw.

Molinelli said Williams was holding the tools "in an aggressive, threatening manner," but didn't specify what the suspect was actually doing, and the prosecutor never answered questions from reporters.

There is nothing in the June 27 report about Williams "waving" the tools,  just as previous stories were wrong in saying the suspect was "charging" the officers. 

Apples and oranges

On the Better Living front today, an elaborately promotional column on Applebee's compares apples to oranges.

In discussing the chain restaurant's new "seasonal" menu, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung concludes you can find fresher food at a farmer's market.

Ung has spent tens of thousands of The Record's dollars eating out at restaurants all over North Jersey, leaving no dessert untouched.

Surely, she could have named places that do serve fresh, seasonal food as an alternative to the mediocre fare at Applebee's.

So, why didn't she?

Piling on dead black man's memory

In today's paper, Staff Writer John Brennan weighs the significance of a licensing deal at American Dream Meadlowlands, a project he is trying mightily to bury.

New look at teen's shooting

The lead, big, black headline on the front page of The Record today promises a "new look" at the police shooting of Malik Williams, 19, of Garfield.

But the story delivers nothing of the kind, and focuses instead on an internal affairs probe of three Garfield police officers, including Sgt. Jose Brito, one of the cops who shot and killed Williams last Dec. 10.

This is third major story focusing on the point of view of the authorities since a grand jury in June cleared the two cops who killed Williams, who was 7 feet to 8 feet away and holding a hammer and saw.

Unpublished correction

Today's story says Williams "came at" the officers with a hammer and a saw, dropping the inaccurate use of the word "charging" to describe the suspect's behavior. 

The Record still hasn't questioned the version of the confrontation provided by Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli or even why deadly force was needed to stop a man standing 7 feet to 8 feet from two officers.

What was the threat to their lives? Williams had only one hammer to throw. Did the officers seriously think he would walk up to either of them and start sawing the arm holding a gun?

Shocking  journalism

The mistreatment of Williams by Editor Marty Gottlieb, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza shocks the conscience, especially in allowing stories to misquote Molinelli at least twice on what Williams was doing before he was shot, and never running a correction.

Sykes and the other editors likely are piling on the dead man's memory because Williams, 19, was African-American and an unmarried father. 

Ambulance chasing

The huge front-page photo of a train derailment and explosion in far-off Ohio makes you wonder why Sykes has talented staff photographers chasing ambulances and not producing enterprise shots for Page 1.

Japanese people who deny accounts of soldiers kidnapping and forcing women to be their sex slaves in Korea, China and Japan sound just like the Turks' annual denial of the Armenian genocide (A-1).

Can anyone make sense of the A-1 story on a licensing deal to bring Shrek and other cartoon characters to American Dream Meadowlands (A-1)?

The story was written by John Brennan, a former sports reporter who everyone in the newsroom refers to as Goofy.

Cartoon madness

Readers will find another bewildering cartoon from the overheated mind of Margulies, who links President Obama's attempt to preserve middle-class tax cuts to the unemployment rate (A-18). 

Fare hike?

On the front of Sykes' Local section, a story on NJ Transit approving a $1.9 billion operating budget for fiscal 2013 fails to report the agency won't be hiking fares on trains and buses (L-1).

The section is filled with municipal and police news from many communities, but nothing from Hackensack, Englewood or Teaneck.

An L-2 photo reports a kitchen fire in Allendale.

More prejudicial reporting on man's death

Governor Christie announces his decision to forgo candidacy in the Republican primary race for president in front of a portrait of former Governor Tom Kean at a news conference at the Statehouse on October 4, 2011.

 

The Record's editors continue to interpret and exaggerate the prosecutor's report in the police shooting of a Garfield man, seemingly trying to justify the killing.

On Page 1 today, Editor Marty Gottlieb presents Prosecutor John Molinelli's "most extensive comments to date" on the death of African-American Malik Williams, 19, who was shot five times last Dec. 10.

Of course, Molinelli never explains why his office and a grand jury took more than 6 months to issue their findings, which cleared the two police officers involved.

Nor do head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, explain why the Woodland Park daily failed to do any independent reporting in the days and weeks after the police shooting, despite numerous community protests.

Today's story amounts to an endorsement of long-delayed probe. The headline:

Shooting case was balancing act for prosecutor

Don't you feel for the guy? Hey, he had "to protect the integrity of the judicial process," according to the first paragraph.

That's the prosecutor's way of saying he was  protecting the asses of the police officers and his foot-dragging investigators.

Unanswered questions

In more than 6 months of reporting, The Record has never questioned the police version of the confrontation or asked whether the suspect's fingerprints were found on the tools he allegedly held in his hands.

On June 28, in reporting the grand jury's action, Sykes and Sforza published a major error on Page 1, claiming in a sub-headline and in the first paragraph that Williams was "charging" the police officers with a hammer and a saw before they shot him. 

If Williams was indeed "charging" the officers, that suggests he was "running" towards them, making his actions more threatening.

But the word "charging" never appeared in the prosecutor's report. Instead, he said, the suspect "advanced towards" the officers, who shot him when he was 7 feet to 8 feet away from them.

On June 29, a follow-up on Sykes' Local front dropped the word "charging," but no correction appeared on A-2 or anywhere else.

Today, the editors resuscitate the word "charging" to describe Williams' actions before he was shot to death (A-6).

The real Christie

On Friday, four letters to the editor criticize Governor Christie's big mouth, as well as his policies (A-18).

Contrast them to the glowing terms The Record has used in numerous columns, editorials and Opinion pieces published since he took office in January 2010.

"I can't understand why anyone from the state of New Jersey wants to be represented by a boor and a bully," wrote Jane Muhlstock of Hackensack.

"Perhaps they are casting for a 'Jersey Shore' sequel," said James Pepe, also from Hackesnack, suggesting what Christie can do, if he loses the 2013 election.

Related articles

• Christie to reporter: 'Are you stupid?'

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• Paper, prosecutor diss dead man's family

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• Editors wilt under Marty's demands

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• Dunkin' cops surrender to house burglars

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More readers scream, Who cares?

The YMCA on Main Street in Hackensack.

On Page 1 of The Record today, the Hackensack reporter is writing about a hardware store in Glen Rock.

Columnist Mike Kelly grabs most of the front page to push around thousands of words about Garfield's woes without slamming inaction by environmental officials or investigative foot-dragging by Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli.

Readers of the Local front try to figure out what Road Warrior John Cichowski is trying to say about GPS systems -- especially the large majority of drivers who don't have them and spend most of the time lost because of lousy road signs.

Promoting business

In every section today, Editor Marty Gottlieb and his subeditors seem so bored with their job of covering local news that they often chase after the irrelevant or end up promoting a commercial agenda.

Most of L-1 is devoted to a story by Jay Levin, the local obituary writer, on efforts by North Jersey towns to control the spread of dog shit.

No Hackensack news

There is no Hackensack news in today's paper, but an L-3 story lists eight streets in Rutherford that will be repaired. 

A huge photo on the same page shows two columns of charitable, overweight motorcyclists who are breaking every anti-noise ordinance on the books, but never get tickets (L-3).

Vacant stares

Why should shoppers care about vacant stores on Routes 4 and 17 (Business front)?

Similarly, why should restaurant goers care about the problems of chefs selling barbecue in North Jersey -- especially in The Corner Table, a column that is supposed to be devoted to customers' issues (Better Living front)? 

Too bad a sappy Father's Day column by Kelly appears on the same page with far more compelling reading -- an upbeat piece on the challenge to the health-care law and another on the criminality embodied by Richard Nixon (Opinion front).


Wealth management


In view of how most people can't afford a second home on the New Jersey shore, why do the insensitive editors flaunt the wealth of North Jerseyans who buy "bargain" vacations home in Europe (Real Estate front)?

Travel-section weary

Talk about being out-of-touch.

Three of the four shore restaurants recommended by Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill are in far-off Wildwood and Atlantic City (Travel front).

What about the shore north of Asbury Park? Are all those places serving swill?

She promotes American Cut in Atlantic City, a steakhouse that charges $26 to $135 for entrees, but she doesn't say whether the beef is naturally raised or filled with harmful additives.

The fat bastard keeps on campaigning

In the Fairway Market at Broadway and 74th Street in Manhattan, the New York "attitude" comes at no extra charge.

Governor Christie's so-called town meeting in Garfield -- which dominates Page 1 of The Record today -- was nothing more than a glorified campaign stop.

Have you seen those Christie commercials heralding an alleged New Jersey "comeback" -- despite all the foreclosures, unemployment and eroding wages and benefits?

Are we stuck with him?

The GOP bully sounds like he is already running for a second term.

The only part of "comeback" that rings true is all the "come" from Christie screwing the middle class as he continues to pander to his wealthy supporters.

In Garfield on Wednesday, he ignored town residents, including the mother of Malik Williams, 19, who was killed in a Dec. 10 police shooting, and residents concerned about toxic chemicals seeping into their homes.

Obesity is out of bounds

Today's A-1 photo of Christie is one of the most unflattering I've seen since he took office in January 2010, but The Record and other media are keeping hands off the obesity issue.

Readers don't even know whether the state is doing anything to fight childhood obesity -- as the media bow and scrape before the fat bastard with the big mouth.

"Obesity" has become the new sex, recalling how reporters kept secret the women John F. Kennedy smuggled into the White House. 

Screwing commuters

Editor Marty Gottlieb and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes keep pounding away at the bloated salaries and perks at the Port Authority (A-1).

But the story they haven't told is how the bistate agency favors toll-paying drivers over bus and train commuters, who must stand in the aisles during the morning rush hour.

The PA has resisted for years adding a second bus lane to the Lincoln Tunnel and rolled over and played dead when Christie killed the Hudson River rail tunnels.

The agency's real constituency are the tens of thousands of drivers who are paying through the nose at bridges and tunnels -- supporting all those ridiculously high executive salaries and cost overruns on the new World Trade Center.

Screwing Hackensack

Sykes throws more crumbs at Hackensack readers -- another boring story about the criminal trial of suspended Police Chief Ken Zisa (L-3).

The obituary for Charles A. Cafasso of Fairway Market in Fort Lee fails to report that the Cafasso family's market predates the unrelated, New York-based Fairway Market chain (L-5).

And shoppers in the Fort Lee store don't have to weather the New York "attitude" familiar to anyone who shops at the chain's Paramus outpost.

Another tub of lard

I was looking for a correction of Wednesday's Better Living recipe, which called for 8 pounds of artery clogging lard, 4 pounds of mystery pork butt and a cup of teeth-rotting Coca-Cola (BL-2).

But they weren't typos. 

Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill has quite a scam going, promoting cookbooks, urging readers to try some of the unhealthiest food on Earth and in the process, enriching herself and her husband, Ted Axelrod, who takes all her recipe photos. 

Anyway, what reader would bother spending all that time and money making pork tacos at home when great ones are available at Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack and Las Maravillas de Tulcingo in Englewood.  

And if you're looking for a break from all the mystery pork Sherrill is pushing, try a fish taco.

How to bore readers to death

The Record is recommending a slice of banoffee pie in place of a balanced breakfast.

When editors elevate the "process" to the front page, they are delivering some of the most eye-glazing, mind-numbing stories imaginable.

Today, Editor Marty Gottlieb of The Record turns off readers with at least three process stories on his premier page -- A-1. 

His Eminence, who came to the Woodland Park daily from The New York Times, doesn't seem to know or care that the outcome is Page 1 news -- not the process leading up to it.

Police gun play

The lead story focuses on Garfield police station "protocol" and not whether two officers were justified in using deadly force when they killed Malik Williams, 19, on Dec. 10, 2011.

The big photo on Page 1 has nothing to do with North Jersey. It's yet another primary result in the excruciatingly slow process of selecting a wealthy Republican to be the party's presidential nominee.


Only lawyers and judges will read more than a few sentences about Dharun Ravi's "strategy" in appealing his conviction for bias intimidation, which led to the death of Ridgewood's Tyler Clementi.


Quoting experts


Process stories have another thing in common, besides being boring: 


They often are based on quotes from "experts," such as Eugene O'Donnell, whose affiliation consumes nearly four sentences in the second paragraph of the lead A-1 story on Williams, the black teen from Garfield.


On the front of Local, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes signed off on another Road Warrior column based entirely on readers' e-mails about MVC lines and other minutiae (L-1).


How many of the e-mails are real and how many are fabricated by a columnist desperate to fill space three times a week -- under Sykes' wet-noodle lashes?


Where is Stanley?


The Record was responsible for getting Stanley Kowalski, an 82-year-old homeless man who almost blew himself up, evicted from a motel last week. 


Today, an L-3 story reports Kowalski has been moved to a nursing home from a hospital.


A follow-up story on Thursday will discuss whether he is having regular bowel movements.


Another crash photo


Sykes needed another non-fatal accident photo to fill out L-3 today after her lazy, incompetent minions failed to produce any news from Hackensack and many other towns.


Cardiac-surgery units at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, and other hospitals, are preparing beds after Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill published a pie recipe that calls for two sticks of butter and one cup of heavy cream (F-1 and F-2).


Related articles

• Breaking news: Dead patients don't pay
• Deirdre disses Hackensack again
• The GOP's Laurel-and-Hardy campaign

Why The Record no longer matters

A grand jury will review the fatal Dec. 10 police shooting of Malik Williams, 19.

 The lead story on Page 1 of The Record today officially tells readers the Woodland Park daily no longer matters when it comes to big local news stories.

Three months after Malik Williams, 19, of Garfield was shot dead in a confrontation with two police officers, county Prosecutor John L. Molinelli has decided to present the case to a grand jury.

No. Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her lazy, incompetent flunkies didn't force the prosecutor's hand. 

Press releases

Despite protests and demonstrations in Garfield, the editors dutifully regurgitated all of Molinelli's press releases and didn't move a finger to answer all of the questions raised by the shooting.

No reporter interviewed the owner of the garage where Williams allegedly hid and "armed himself with unspecified tools." 

No reporter looked for witnesses to the shooting. And, initially, no reporter tried to find out the identity of the two police officers involved.

Family's autopsy

In fact, Molinelli is reacting only to The Record's news report and editorial last month on the family's independent autopsy, which found two bullet holes in the suspect's back, with no apparent entry or exit wounds in the front of his body.

Four days after Editor Marty Gottlieb ran a Sykes-inspired, front-page  whitewash of affordable housing in Bergen County, a state appeals court told Governor Christie he didn't have the power to abolish the state Council on Affordable Housing (A-4).

Why isn't that story on Page 1 today, in place of a photo of an injured turkey? Maybe all the editors who are turkeys identify with the bird and not low-and moderate-income families.

More road kill

On Sykes' Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski gnashes his teeth for the umpteenth time over pedestrian deaths as the quality of mass transit in the region continues to decline (L-1).

The section is filled not with local news from Hackensack and other towns, but with Law & Order news, including photos of a minor traffic accident in Teaneck (L-2) and a trash fire in South Hackensack (L-6).

I'm sure Sykes and her sub-editors are heading for watering holes tonight to celebrate what a good job they did this week.