Editors afflicted with schizophrenia on the real Christie

Hackensack University Medical Center apparently ran out of room in Hackensack and built its Fitness & Wellness Center in neighboring Maywood. But the non-profit HUMC doesn't give seniors enrolled in United Healthcare's Silver Sneakers program the free membership they enjoy at 24 Hour Fitness, Gold's and other gyms.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record leads its thin Sunday edition with a story strongly suggesting Governor Christie is one of the unindicted co-conspirators in the illegal George Washington Bridge lane closures.

But the editors continue to assign a reporter to cover Christie's visits to early primary states, and portray him favorably as a "down-to-earth, straight-talking Jersey guy [and] a bipartisan pragmatist" (A-1 and A-2). 

That flies in the face of how he's governed New Jersey since early 2010, issuing more than 350 vetoes to thwart the Democratic majority in the state Legislature.

Many say, 'Guilty'

No matter what he's said about his knowledge or participation in the September 2013 lane closures, the court of public opinion has found Christie guilty.

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes' coverage of what he said or what he did in New Hampshire last week is a slap in the face to New Jersey residents, who have lost so much under the Christie administration (A-2).

The schizophrenia continues on the Editorial Page, where Margulies' cartoon lampoons Christie's lame explanation on Bridgegate (O-2):

"My appointees closed the bridge lanes without telling me."

"I WAS NOT INVOLVED ..."

"Because they kept me in the dark and misled me ..."

"Christie For President
A new type of leadership"

Just remember what Bridget Anne Kelly said after she pleaded not guilty to conspiring to close bridge lanes to punish Fort Lee's Democratic mayor for not endorsing the reelection of the GOP bully.

"Kelly [Christie's former deputy chief of staff] said ... that it would be 'ludicrous' to believe she was the only one in the Governor's Office who knew about the lane closings ...." (A-1 and A-12).

Must-read list

Don't miss the riveting Page 1 story on all of the homeowners who were victims of the greedy real estate industry (A-1).

On the Local front, Road Warrior John Cichowski explores his encyclopedic knowledge of North Jersey footbridges (L-1).

On the Business front, Staff Writer Joan Verdon warns, "Malls reach a crossroads" (B-1).

It never occurs to Sunday Columnist Elisa Ung the Chef's Table in Franklin Lakes is "half empty," because many restaurant goers are eating healthier and rejecting foie gras, Grand Marnier-soaked strawberry shortcake, and French food made with heavy cream and butter (BL-1). 

On the Opinion front, Mike Kelly gives us a second column on Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich only the reporter's and mayor's families will read (O-1). 

Devoting most of today's Travel section to a Washington Post story about cassoulet -- a French bean-and-pork stew -- is an odd choice given all the readers who will never try it (T-1):

Muslims, observant Jews, the growing number of people who don't eat meat and the legions who won't be vacationing in France anytime soon.

We're no closer to unmasking Christie's lies in GWB mess

Nearly 20 months after the gridlock caused by the Christie administration's political vendetta against the mayor of Fort Lee and other Democrats, all eyes in the borough are focused on Hudson Lights, the massive residential and retail project near the George Washington Bridge.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The most tantalizing headline on The Record's front page today is a partial quote from Bridget Anne Kelly, Governor Christie's former aide, whose email -- "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee -- triggered a scandal that may yet bring down the GOP bully.

"Former aide says

she'll no longer

allow the lies"

If you turn to the continuation page, Kelly says, "I will no longer allow the lies that have been said about me or my role in the George Washington Bridge issue to go unchallenged" (A-11).

She also says, "I have remained quiet while many of the people whom I believed in, trusted and respected have attempted to publicly discredit and even humiliate me."

Is she referring to Christie, who fired her when that infamous email came to light and whose sexist legal team called her "stupid," "weepy" and "unqualified," among other pejoratives?

I guess we'll have to wait for her trial.

Christie's role

Despite two federal indictments and a guilty plea from David Wildstein, the former Port Authority official who put the lane closures into motion in September 2013, Christie's role remains unclear.

The GOP bully would have us believe that without his knowledge or consent, Kelly conspired with Wildstein and others to exact political retribution against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for refusing to endorse the governor for reelection.

C'mon. We weren't born yesterday. That sounds like a whopper of a lie.

Today's coverage

I am not about to wade through all of the stories, sidebars and even three columns on the criminal charges unveiled by U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman in Newark (A-1, A-8, A-9, A-10, A-11 and L-1).

"They callously victimized the people of Fort Lee, who were just trying to get to school, go to work," Fishman said of the defendants.

But I winced at the front-page description of Bridget Anne Kelly standing "on a purple Fisher-Price step stool in hot pink pumps," especially because none of the male prosecutors, lawyers or defendants are described in any similar way (A-1).

For example, no mention is made of all the weight Wildstein has lost since he left the Port Authority.

Questions

And the nearly 20 months after the four days of gridlock in Fort Lee, The Record has never reported why Christie tried so hard during his reelection campaign to get endorsements from Democrats.

The Woodland Park daily, more than any other newspaper, had published story after story and column after column since he took office in early 2010 on what a great "compromiser" he was, and how he had "reformed" the state pension system -- swallowing whole Christie's own public relations. 

The sad truth, which finally emerged this year, is that Christie has executed more than 350 vetoes to get his way.

Local columns

Don't bother with the tedious columns from Road Warrior John Cichowski and Mike Kelly (L-1).

The brain-damaged Cichowski actually compares the lane closures in Fort Lee to a Russian snowstorm that trapped 10,000 vehicles in January 2012.

Kelly has the nerve to focus an entire column on Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich, a politician, calling him a victim of the GWB scandal.

The reporter forgets the "people" are the ones who suffered most.

Martha Washington

And the traffic jams that resulted from the closure of two of three access lanes were confined to the upper level of the bridge.

Access lanes to the lower level -- called Martha Washington -- remained open and traffic flowed across the span.

The Record rarely asks the public for their opinion about even the most compelling issues -- such as Christie's inept governance of New Jersey.

So, Cichowski and two reporters getting reaction to the federal charges, as well as recollections of the gridlock, prove irrelevant (L-1).

The only opinions that matter are those of the federal jurors who will hear the charges against Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni, former executive director of the Port Authority, should they decide to go to trial.

Christie's latest broken promise breaks media backs

Hackensack Mayor John Labrosse, right, reads a proclamation at Tuesday night's City Council meeting, accepting an oil painting from Parisian-born artist Marius Sznajderman. The artist painted the winter scene of the old Masonic Temple from his apartment window at Atlantic and State streets in 1956. The building is slated to become the city's new Cultural Center. The artist was accompanied by his wife, Suzanne Messing, a onetime reporter for The Record.

 

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

An editorial in The Record today condemns Governor Christie's plan to cut $900 million from this year's pension payments in a desperate bid to plug an enormous hole in the state budget (Page 1).

The anonymous editorial writer notes Christie is blaming federal tax policy, previous administrations and public employees, but calls that "a snow job" (A-10).

That should be "latest snow job," given all the lies the GOP bully has told about lowering property taxes, job creation, surging state revenue under his obstinate no-tax policies, Sandy aid and the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Christie's first term was all smoke and mirrors, but that didn't stop The Record's editors, reporters and columnists from falling all over themselves to be the first to promote the mean-spirited conservative for a White House run.

Knows nothing

The politically motivated lane closures at the Fort Lee end of the bridge last September exposed Christie's infamous Office of Governmental Affairs, which ruthlessly pursued endorsements from Democrats before his reelection last November.

Matt Mowers, who worked in that office, became the latest former or current Christie aide to tell investigators he knows nothing about the lane closures, which critics have blasted as an abuse of power (A-3).

But Mowers testified Bridget Anne Kelly, then deputy chief of staff for Christie, called him on Aug. 12 to ask if Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich was endorsing the governor, and he told her no.

Bully out of loop?

That was one day before Kelly sent the explosive e-mail, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," to Christie's Port Authority crony, David Wildstein, who has been blamed for carrying out the lane closures.

Wildstein, who has since resigned, claims he told Christie about the lane closures last Sept. 11, during the 9/11 memorial ceremony in Manhattan.


 

Lynne Hurwitz, the political muscle behind Zisa family allies defeated in last May's municipal election, returning to her seat after speaking at Tuesday night's City Council meeting in Hackensack. Hurwitz asked City Councilman David Sims if he had used the N-word to refer to himself, as alleged by a police officer. Sims would not comment.

Hackensack news

News of Hackensack shared the front page of The Record on Tuesday with a story about nasal strips for a racehorse.

Editor Marty Gottlieb ran an inspirational photo of Hackensack High School senior softball team manager Erin Kelly, who was paralyzed for two years by illness, but has recovered.

The story on L-1 doesn't say whether her "rare ailment," a virus, was connected in any way to the mediocre food at the high school, where the cafeteria and presumably the kitchen is infested with roaches.

This is 'news'?

At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, residents saw The Hackensack City News, an 8-page tabloid filled with upbeat stories on the accomplishments of the new administration.

The "newspaper" was written by Thom Ammirato, the former campaign official who was given the $78,000-a-year job as the city's chief spokesman.

Council officials said the tabloid will be distributed by The Record, but didn't give the cost of printing or distribution.

Ammirato's one-year contract expires in July.


 

Editors' well-crafted Christie image is unraveling

For the 11th straight day, The Record is devoting a large part of the front page to the fallout from closure of two of the three lanes (right of the double-yellow lines) leading to upper-level George Washington Bridge tollbooths in Fort Lee.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

A third Democratic mayor in North Jersey is complaining about bullying by the Christie administration, The Record reports on Page 1 today.

Faced with the unraveling of Governor Christie's "bipartisan compromise" image -- as crafted by the paper's editors -- chief apologist Charles Stile's column traces the birth of the monster to campus politics 30 years ago (A-1).

How boringly irrelevant can you get? 

Photos of a thin Christie as the University of Delaware student government president bear no resemblance to the GOP bully whose weight and eating habits are lampooned by comedians.

Bridgegate jokes

On HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," the comedian addressed the Bridgegate scandal:

He noted that Christie needed to shed an unwanted 150 pounds -- a reference to Bridget Anne Kelly, the aide who was fired for her involvement in tying up traffic at the Fort Lee end of the George Washington Bridge in early September.

The lane closures on the bridge showed Christie is really good at "clogging major arteries," Maher said on Friday night. 

As for his 2-hour apology in front of the national media 10 days ago, when he claimed his staff lied to him about the plot, Christie was saying, "I'm large, but not in charge."

Ties that bind

The allegations by Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer show how the Christie team allegedly used federal Sandy aid as leverage to gain an advantage for a development tied to one of the governor's cronies -- lawyer David Samson, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (A-1).

Samson was one of three Christie appointees to the bi-state agency, and the only one who has kept his influential patronage position in the wake of the scandal. 

Two of Christie's Trenton aides were fired.

More Bridgegate coverage appears today on front of the otherwise thin Local section (L-1), and on the Opinion front (O-1).

More error

The befuddled Road Warrior ties the politically inspired lane closures to 2013 pedestrian fatalities in Bergen County, Christie's terrible driving record before he became governor and bridge-related gridlock in Fort Lee dating to 2010.

The rambling column, by Staff Writer John Cichowski, reports the lane closures caused huge traffic problems from Sept. 9-13, even though the paper has consistently reported gridlock occurred on only four days, Sept. 9-12 (L-1).

Although Cichowski claims to have broken the story in a Sept. 13 column, The Record has acknowledged the tip came from Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who got a complaining call from a friend trying to drive into Manhattan.

Among the letters to the editor today (O-3), Ann Mancuso of Dumont appears to believe Christie, who said he was kept in the dark by his staff and Port Authority appointees:

"I voted for Christie twice, but I will never again vote for someone who doesn't know what's going on in his own office. At the least, it's annoying and at the most, it's darn dangerous."

View from Fort Lee

Mark Sokolich, Fort Lee's Democratic mayor, has called "the scheme to wreak havoc on Fort Lee's citizens 'absolute power corruption,'" The Record reported on Jan. 9.

E-mails and text messages between Christie loyalists that were revealed on Jan. 8 "suggested there was a calculated plot to cause mayhem in Fort Lee," the paper said.

One e-mail exchange referred to Sokolich as the "little Serbian," even though he is of Croatian descent, and "an idiot."

Lawyers always win

In Fort Lee, the mayor is said to own or have an interest in GW Car Service LLC, one of the cab companies that filed suit against Christie's staff, alleging they lost business during the lane closures, as reported by The Record on Tuesday.

Staff Writer Kibret Markos incorrectly called the suit a "class action," a designation that can be granted only by the judge hearing the case.

The Record still hasn't reported how much taxpayers will have to shell out for all of the high-priced legal talent being pressed into service by state legislators investigating the GWB scandal and by the Christie administration defending its actions (A-1 on Saturday).

More chopped liver

The death of a "person" in a collision on Route 20 is treated as a photo-op on Saturday's L-1 -- with no identity provided -- as is typical of the filler Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza relies on in the absence of legitimate news.

Food coverage on the Better Living cover Saturday appeared to be based on press releases, which were handled by her eminences, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz and Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung.

The free publicity ranged from the sublime (a $130 cocktail served at Grissini Restaurant in Englewood Cliffs) to the ridiculous (the crappy White Castle beef "slider," which costs 74 cents). 

Wasting readers' time is nothing new for Ung, who reviewed the mediocre Haven Riverfront Restaurant & Bar in Edgewater in Friday's Better Living tabloid (BL-14).

Today, in a column that is supposed to deal with consumer issues, she purports to explain "why certain locations spell doom for restaurants" (BL-1).

In Travel, there is little more than a seemingly endless account of a honeymoon trip by two staffers, Stephanie Akin and Shawn Boburg, both of whom are involved in Bridgegate coverage (T-1).

Akin and Boburg were an item in the old Hackensack newsroom, but she appeared to be a fashionista while he dressed like a country bumpkin.