Christie columnist perpetuates bully's middle-class myth

Black cars and limousines bringing top athletes, celebrities and other guests to the launch party for The Players' Tribune, an online site published by Derek Jeter, late Saturday night on West 26th Street, near 12th Avenue, not far from where CBS newsman Bob Simon was killed after his speeding Lincoln Town Car limo crashed last Wednesday. Today, The Record's so-called commuting columnist tackles auto safety and Simon's death, posing a speculative, "What if"?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The real danger of Staff Writer Charles Stile's flattering columns on Governor Christie is that nine times out of 10 they are played on Page 1 amid "objective" news stories, but never labeled "Opinion," a sure way to mislead readers.

Today, many familiar with Christie's multiple vetoes of a tax surcharge on millionaires and raising the minimum wage surely threw up their breakfasts when they came to this sentence on the questionable ethics of his corporate-sponsored travel:

"The travel flap undercuts his image as an ordinary Jersey guy with middle-class tastes and ambitions" (A-1).

To avoid being a laughing stock, Stile needs to say in his first sentence what he has never said: 

Christie's "brand" and his elaborate public relations campaigns are a complete sham as he pursues his White house dreams and leaves New Jersey in shambles.

Demonizing Paterson

The front page today is dominated by the first of a three-part series, "IN HEROIN'S GRIP," a second installment of Staff Writer Rebecca D. O'Brien's untiring coverage of the role of Silk City in a suburban epidemic (A-1, A-8 and A-9).

The demonizing of Paterson began under the last editor, Francis "Frank" Scandale, who actually published a map showing readers where they could buy drugs in the city.

I just wonder how many readers are going to get through all three parts, which appear to be another attempt by Editor Marty Gottlieb to win a Pulitzer Prize.

The Record supplements this one-dimensional portrayal of the city almost daily with stories about official corruption, failing schools and unbridled gun violence.

Today, the introductory paragraphs invoke "the fatal shootings of 12-year-old Genesis Rincon in July and 14-year-old Nazareh Bugg in late September."

Yet, I have never seen The Record go after the Police Department, led for many years by a white police chief, for its apparent inability or unwillingness to stop crime perpetrated mostly against minority residents.

Slum landlords and banks that red line are other subjects the Woodland Park daily won't touch.

Air bags, windbags 

Despite Road Warrior John Cichowski's hand-wringing over the lack of rear curtain air bags in Bob Simon's limo, the CBS newsman's failure to buckle up is probably what led to his fatal injuries last Wednesday on 12th Avenue and 30th Street in Manhattan (L-1).

Cichowski assigns blame for unsafe limos on just about everyone but Ford Motor Co. and other manufacturers, who fight government-mandated safety improvements tooth and nail to avoid reducing their profits.

Unbelted in the back seat, Simon was hurled forward when his speeding limo struck unmovable steel stanchions, suffering "blunt-force injuries to his head, torso and extremities," according to the medical examiner.

Side curtain air bags likely wouldn't have stopped Simon from being thrown forward into the front seat, dashboard and windshield at the same high speed the limo was traveling before its sudden deceleration.

'Where am I?'

In his Feb. 8 column, Cichowski repeated the same mistake he published on Aug. 10, 2014, claiming a Bergen Avenue house next to Route 17 in Waldwick is five blocks south of another house, when it is really five blocks north.

The error was corrected last year by the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his Feb. 8 column, the forgetful Road Warrior repeated the same clueless nonsense that I previously corrected with his Aug. 10, 2014, column.

"Road Warrior indicated that a Bergen Avenue crash accident in Waldwick was five blocks south of another resident’s house on Dora Avenue.

"Bergen Avenue is five blocks north of Dora Avenue.

"He indicated the Waldwick resident was worried her corner house was in “exactly the same position” as the Bergen Avenue corner property that sustained damage from the Route 17 accident.

"The Dora Avenue home is set back at least 50 feet further from the main traffic lanes of Route 17 than the Bergen Avenue home.

"It does not border the southbound side of Route 17, like the Bergen Ave. home, since there is an entire exit ramp road to Sheridan Avenue between the Dora Avenue home and Route 17."

See: Clueless Road Warrior forgets past errors


Is that kosher?

It's just like Staff Writer Elisa Ung to focus on the 65 bottles and 12 tap beers available at Teaneck Doghouse, a kosher sports bar and restaurant (The Corner Table column, BL-1).

Ung is unwilling the uncover what I call the kosher-food scam, charging much higher prices for -- in this case --  beef hot dogs, burgers and sausage egg rolls, but not delivering meat that has been raised naturally. 

New poll on Christie suggests he may very well be history

On a brisk morning in Paramus, the outside temperature of 10 degrees was tolerable, but the biting wind chill wasn't.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A new poll on Governor Christie's record low "favorability" rating could be just the excuse Editor Marty Gottlieb, Columnist Charles Stile and Staff Writer Melissa Hayes need to take their swelled heads out of their oversized anuses.

Typical of how The Record plays anti-Christie stories, the poll on the GOP bully being viewed "unfavorably" by a majority of New Jersey voters -- for the first time since early 2010 -- is on A-3 today.

Precious space on Page 1 is reserved for yet another in a endless series of speculative stories on how one of Christie's policies will affect his White House dreams (A-1).

Meanwhile, the Woodland Park daily has taken little notice of how the Garden State has become choked with weeds since Christie's ascendancy.

Port Atrocity

Thanks to the governors of New Jersey and New York, patronage, cronyism, conflicts of interest and favorable treatment have been hallmarks of the Port Authority for decades (A-1 today and Thursday).

But The Record's editors have spent little time reporting the bi-state agency's only response to increasing traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings has been to raise tolls, not to expand mass transit.

$541 v. $460,000

Two 20-year-old Paterson women facing robbery and related charges for allegedly shoplifting $541 from Lord & Taylor in Paramus could face jail time (L-2).

So, it's strange that former Ridgewood employee Thomas Rica was given probation for his systematic theft of $460,000 in parking-meter revenue.

Today's L-1 story on Rica's non-custodial sentence and how his thievery went undetected for so long is likely the first time since the crime came to light last year The Record has bothered to ask village residents for their reaction.

Reporters and their assignment editors are much more comfortable calling up so-called experts, consultants, prosecutors, lawyers, poll directors and just about anybody else except readers and other North Jersey residents.

That certainly has been the case since Christie took office and started waging war against the middle and working classes.

No editing

Staff Writer Chris Harris, who has been covering the Rica case from the outset, apparently gets no editing.

How else to explain Harris calling Rica's methodical theft of quarters a "crime wave" (L-1).

Also, Harris reports Rica stole "more than a million quarters," but an editorial puts the loot at "almost 1.9 million quarters" (A-8).

The story and editorial also can't agree on whether the original theft was $460,000 (story) or almost $472,000 (editorial).

Hackensack news

A story on Aldi seeking to build a supermarket at 480 Main St. in Hackensack, on the site of a vacant Sears appliance store, is good news to nearby apartment residents who now rely on the grocery section of Target, which doesn't offer meat or fresh fish (L-1).

Another story on the Local front today, about residents opposing a four-story apartment building near downtown Leonia, includes a map (L-1).

But what's the point of running a map, beyond filling space, if Broad Avenue, Leonia's main drag, isn't labeled?

Indoor picnic

I wonder whether freelance Restaurant Reviewer Julia Sexton will ever realize the artery clogging lobster poached in butter, foie gras pate and creme brulee she sampled at Picnic on the Square have long been out of fashion with the older readers who make up the bulk of her audience (BL-14)?

Instead, she says the 34-seat Ridgewood restaurant, the second from Executive Chef Christine Nunn, is inappropriate for "thrifty diners."

I read the review before glancing at the byline and realizing Sexton seems to be channeling The Record's chief restaurant critic, Elisa Ung.

There is no discussion of salads or low-mercury fish or whether the kitchen is willing to prepare food without butter and heavy cream.

And I'm puzzled by Sexton finding " a large pile of arugula, avocado and mango" under a carpaccio of bluefin tuna "superfluous." 

That sounds delicious, and I wonder if Picnic serves another raw fish, such as fluke, which isn't overly exploited and has far lower levels of harmful mercury.

Sexton, who is the restaurant critic for Westchester magazine, visited Picnic three times for the 2.5-star review, and took at least one guest.

That's a ton of money for North Jersey Media Group to spend for such an uninformative report to readers.

Editors keep focus on TV and off newspaper's decline

The sun is setting -- at least for now -- on falling gasoline prices, and that pleases climatologists and environmentally conscious drivers of hybrid and all-electric cars, and saddens all the people trapped into making payments on their gas-guzzlers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In today's front-page coverage of Brian Williams and Jon Stewart, The Record focus on the flaws of TV news and satire, and avoids any examination of the many problems at the Woodland Park daily.

One of those is the shoddy job The Record does in covering accidents, such as the one that took the life of longtime "60 Minutes" correspondent Bob Simon (A-1 and A-6).

Simon, 73, survived wars, an earthquake and captivity, but died in one of the most meaningless ways possible -- in a car crash on 12th Avenue in Manhattan, a notorious speedway.

The Associated Press story The Record uses today was just slapped into the page.

And the editors did nothing to address unanswered questions, especially whether Simon was wearing his seat belt and just how fast the limo was going when the driver hit another car and lost control.

"The Town Car was so badly mangled rescuers had to pry open the roof to extract him [Simon] from the rear of the car," the New York Post reported.

Here is an AP video of the wreck.

Brian Williams

Marty Gottlieb, editor of The Record, continues to cover the inaccurate reporting of suspended "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams, knowing full well that one of his own reporters has committed far more errors, including deliberate falsifications (A-1).

On Jan. 25, Staff Writer John Cichowski, also known as the Road Warrior, capped all of the inaccuracies he's committed in more than a decade of columns.

That's when he ran a photo of a Route 4 bridge in Teaneck supplied by a reader, and claimed a major supporting column had a "gash" in it -- even though no such safety flaw was evident in the photo.

Of course, none of the bridges closed before and after that column included any on Route 4.

Jon Stewart 

In Staff Writer Virginia Rohan's assessment of Jon Stewart, the satirist from New Jersey who announced his departure from "The Daily Show," The Record doesn't come close to discussing his major shortcoming (A-1).

Stewart and his team focused on politicians and TV, especially Fox News Channel's racist coverage of President Obama, and rarely referred to the decline of such newspapers as The Record.

Rohan refers to Stewart's "faux news program," but the events he riffed on weren't fake at all.

I recall Stewart's coverage of a Tea Party rally in Washington that used a large photo of corpses to compare Obama's Affordable Care Act to World War II concentration camps.

What was remarkable was The Record's front-page coverage of the same demonstration didn't even show the photo or mention the outrageously inaccurate comparison.

Ridgewood thefts

Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli is rejecting an audit that showed nearly $850,000 in Ridgewood parking-meter revenue disappeared -- far more than former village employee Thomas Rica admitted stealing (L-1).

The prosecutor does put his finger on Ridgewood lacking "security controls and systems" for "many, many years."

Congratulations to the unnamed copy editor who wrote a bright headline on the jump page (L-6):

COINS: Prosecutor gives no quarter

How many thieves like Ridgewood's Rica work for us?

An old home at 509 Engle St. in Englewood, purchased by Kesher Community Synagogue of Tenafly & Englewood in 2003, is now at the center of a construction project to add a 19,000-square foot building with a sanctuary, offices and classrooms, part of which is in Tenafly, above and below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

 As a resident of a small city once known derisively as "Zisaville," I howled with laughter on Tuesday afternoon when I saw a story on North Jersey.com about Ridgewood's infamous parking-revenue thief.

Now, The Record reports, an audit has revealed that nearly $850,000 in parking-meter quarters walked out of Ridgewood's coin room, including the $460,000 former village employee Thomas Rica admitted to stealing (A-1).

Rica is an example of how New Jersey's antiquated home-rule system of government is filled with employees who range from the highly skilled and competent to the inept and dishonest.

Residents and taxpayers of Hackensack still are seething the city lost $1 million-plus, because an employee failed to bill the Board of Education for a high school resource officer.

How many employees like Rica are working in North Jersey towns, trying to figure out ways to screw residents?

In recent years a strong NIMBY movement has arisen in wealthy Ridgewood, where some residents have opposed expansion of The Valley Hospital.

And now, some are saying Not In My Backyard to a plan to build more apartments downtown.

Meanwhile, no one was watching as nearly $850,000 in parking revenue walked out the door. 

The main headline at the top of Page 1 is really lame, because Rica's case has been out of the news since March:

Tally of missing quarters piles up

  

And it's not the "tally" that piles up, but the "missing quarters."

More "me" from Kelly

Columnist Mike Kelly can't even wait until the continuation page to tell readers he interviewed onetime Bergen County Democratic Party chief Joseph Ferriero in a Route 4 diner nearly seven years ago (A-1).

Ferriero, who is facing a federal racketeering trial, "stirred his coffee and smiled," Kelly says in his first paragraph.

The failed columnist could have used the first paragraph to describe Ferriero's "dictatorial political machine," "patronage jobs" and "pay-to-play contracts with campaign donors" (5th paragraph).

Or, that in 2008, when the interview was conducted, Ferriero tried to justify his actions as the head of the 1,100-member organization.

Brian Williams

Also on Page 1 today is the six-month suspension without pay imposed on Brian Williams, who is being punished for "an exaggerated tale of combat" (a lie) on the "NBC Nightly News."

The Record, meanwhile, still has not corrected Staff Writer John Cichowski's bald-faced fabrication in a Jan. 25 Road Warrior column on the safety of Route 4 bridges.

Cichowski's column today is about the dangers of cellphone texting and talking while driving (L-1).

But readers would do well to look at the story on early-onset Alzheimer's disease for a possible explanation of why Cichowski has committed literally hundreds of errors in the so-called commuting column (BL-1).

Unfortunately, readers won't find any explanation for why everyone from Vice President/General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg to Editor Marty Gottlieb to Production Editor Liz Houlton continue to defend Cichowski's wildly exaggerated columns, his dangerous advice to drivers and his flawed reporting on state statutes. 

Many of the errors and distortions have been brought to their attention by a retired engineer who set up the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, and sends them detailed e-mails.

Road Warrior Bloopers at The Record

Searching in vain for local news that matters to me

In Hackensack, a former bank building at 210 Main St. is slated to be converted into apartments, one of the projects city officials are counting on to revive the faded downtown. I recall the original United Jersey Bank as having a majestic interior, including a high ceiling that was ornately decorated.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Page 1 of The Record today, Editor Marty Gottlieb is keeping his eye on legalization of gay marriage nationwide, school news and sports.

The front page carries a follow-up to Monday's report on how wealthy, one-school districts want to lift the salary cap on superintendents imposed by Governor Christie in 2011.

Of course, The Record has always ignored why Christie didn't impose a similar cap on police chiefs, some of whom are paid more than $200,000 a year.

And on the superintendents' pay, the editors never explain why small towns need a superintendent or what that educator actually does (A-1).

Raising superintendents pay would adversely affect Gottlieb's biggest audience, baby boomers and seniors, who pay extremely high school taxes, but that issue is never raised.  

On top of that, the home-rule system of government has proven a huge financial burden to property tax payers with its mindless duplication of services in the 86 towns in Bergen and Passaic counties. 

But Gottlieb, who lives in Manhattan, hasn't a clue, and his local assignment editors have been defending  the system for decades.

An editorial on A-10 bemoans the "brain drain" that inhibits more affluent districts from pursuing the "best and the brightest" to lead their schools.

Why isn't Edtorial Page Editor Alfred Doblin upset about another school issue, Englewood's segregated elementary and middle schools, more than 60 years after the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education?

Local news?

A photo on the Local front today shows a man with a cane who got off an NJ Transit bus on Anderson Street in Hackensack (L-1).

The caption notes the man "negotiates the slush and ice," but fails to report a snowbank created by city plows has blocked the bus stop itself for more than two weeks.

The weather story with that photo doesn't list Hackensack High School as one of the school that closed on Monday.

News handouts

Why did the lazy local assignment editors and the reporters working under them blow their cover in the first paragraph of today's lead story on L-1?

Staff Writers Stefanie Dazio and Abbott Koloff note the arrest of a suspect in the strangling death of Jordan Johnson of Fort Lee was announced in "a news release." 

On Monday, The Record reported on Page 1 details of who killed whom in Friday's murder-suicide in Closter were revealed by Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli on Twitter.

Excessive background

Every story needs background for readers who may not have been keeping up with crime developments.

But today's account of the arrest in the Fort Lee man's death seems excessively long -- perhaps because the editors, no matter how hard they try, can't generate more local Bergen news.

And Sunday's and Monday's stories on the Closter couple, Michael A. Tabacchi and Iran Pars Tabacchi, contain the same exact sentence when discussing the 15-month-old boy who was orphaned, but who isn't named:

The toddler is "by all accounts the centerpiece of a marriage that was taking root in a quiet, suburban neighborhood" (Monday's A-7 and Sunday's A-1).

But nothing is made of the age difference: The husband was 27 and the wife was 41.

The story on Monday also repeated interviews with their High Street neighbors that were published on Sunday. 

Week after blown forecast, hardly a peep about new storm

More snow fell on Hackensack overnight than a week ago, when the widely predicted Blizzard of 2015 fizzled, shaming The Record and other media after they indulged in hysterics that prompted people to panic shop for food and other supplies.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When this reader awoke today, there were two surprises -- more snow had fallen than a week ago, when a blizzard was widely predicted, and I found a copy of The Record in a bag on top of the white stuff in the driveway.

Go figure.

The Woodland Park daily's front page on Sunday carried only a few words in small type about today's storm, and even though more snow fell, North Jersey Media Group was able to deliver the print edition I never saw last Tuesday (see L-2 today). 

Boring page

Not there is much to read on Page 1 today, given all the space wasted on Super Bowl game coverage and an obituary for Anna Mara, "the matriarch of the New York Giants" (A-1).

We've all heard about elderly people falling and fatally injuring themselves, as the 85-year-old Mara did.

But instead of just mentioning the cause of her death in passing, how about a sidebar on the phenomena, and what seniors can do to prevent such misfortune?

Gone with the wind

And if Editor Marty Gottlieb expected to grab readers who didn't see the end of the game or who have little interest in the sport, the last writer he should put on Page 1 today is Columnist Tara Sullivan.

She sounds like she is writing a novel, not describing the dramatic end to a great contest (A-1).

Another surprise

Sending Staff Writer Melissa Hayes to cover Governor Christie's visit to London is a colossal waste of money, assuming NJMG paid for the trip and other expenses (A-3).

All she got was a no comment on Mitt Romney's withdrawal from the 2016 presidential race, and lots of nonsense about a trade mission, foreign policy and the GOP bully attending his first soccer game instead of the Super Bowl.

Big influence

Christie's expenses are being paid by Choose New Jersey, a non-profit formed at his behest in 2010 that has many big businesses on its board in return for a $450,000 contribution.

Most of them do businesses with the state, some have received tax breaks from the Christie administration and since last month, the non-profit's leader is Michele Brown, former head of the state Economic Development Authority and the governor's adviser and friend.

Brown, who was a federal prosecutor under Christie, when he was U.S. attorney for New Jersey, is getting a $450,000 salary, double what she earned with the EDA.

In Sunday's Page 1 story about Choose New Jersey, Brown's first name was incorrectly spelled with two l's and the EDA was incorrectly called an "agency."

Hackensack news?

Why is a story on a Hackensack apartment developer saving $1 million by using a "rotary carousel parking tower" the biggest element on the Local news front today (L-1)?

Such a rotary parking system was used in Manhattan in the 1960s.

The rotary parking system doesn't benefit the public or property tax payers.

Real news would be city officials announcing they are getting $1 million in givebacks from such non-profits as Hackensack University Medical Center, which pays no taxes on more than $100 million in property.

The parking carousel was even promoted in a streamer at the top of Page 1 -- a sure sign of desperation from the local assignment editor who got stuck working on Sunday.

(201) magazine

A well-known Hackensack fast-food restaurant appears on the cover of (201) magazine's "The Best of Bergen" -- results of its 9th annual Readers Poll.

A strange choice, because White Manna on River Street serves not one of the best, but one of the lowest-quality beef "sliders" around.

No copy editor is listed among the magazine's editorial staff on Page 10, so it's no wonder that under Fine Dining, the Best Korean Restaurant, So Moon Nan Jip, is misspelled two out of three times (Page 93).

Under Specialty Food Shops, Peter's Fish Market in Midland Park is chosen best for the ninth time (Page 87), even though the Seafood counter at Whole Foods Market in Paramus puts it to shame.

And to show how little the magazine's well-heeled readers know, Seafood Gourmet doesn't even rate a mention.

The Maywood favorite goes small fish markets one better by having a great cook and a dining room where you can enjoy all of that fresh fish and other delights.

Editors see politics in every Christie belch, burp and fart

Plunging gasoline prices continue to have an adverse impact on the environment: Sales of hybrid cars fall, owners postpone trading in their gas guzzlers for more efficient vehicles and many people drive more, aggravating air pollution. This Delta station is in Teaneck.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

For the third time this week, The Record's front page features Editor Marty Gottlieb's Three Bimbos, including yet another Charles Stile column on how Governor Christie's actions play in Iowa.

The third bimbo, inmate Teresa "Real Housewife" Giudice, appears in a Page 1 brief.

Stile isn't even doing any original reporting, but merely regurgitating "Republican operatives and donors in ... Christie's corner," as his first sentence notes (A-1).

Missing from nearly every Stile column in the past five years is how Christie's actions play in New Jersey, where he has tried to kill the middle class and repeatedly vetoed a tax surcharge on millionaires.

GWB scandal

Today's off-lead is Staff Writer Shawn Boburg's retrospective on the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal -- one year after the media uncovered an explosive e-mail from Christie's chief of staff:

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

But even this story tries to put Christie's likely involvement in political retribution against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee in the best light.

Boburg's second paragraph notes the e-mail "unleashed a massive political scandal ... and caused changes big and small" (A-1).

Though the reporter mentions "action by the legislatures in both New Jersey and New York," he is silent on the veto of those reform packages by Christie and his New York counterpart.

So, it's unclear what Port Authority "reforms" are being cited in the Page 1 headline.

And The Record and other media haven't acknowledged their failure to uncover the roles of Christie aides and cronies in the scandal in the two months before his November 2013 re-election. 

Paris massacre

Gottlieb, former global editions editor of The New York Times, gave up business trips to Paris for a trans-Hudson commute.

But in today's Page 1 coverage of the attack on a satirical newspaper in Paris, no one asks whether police could have prevented the killing of 12 people on Wednesday.

That was the same way Gottlieb handled the invasion of Westfield Garden State Plaza by a disturbed young man with a rifle on Nov. 4, 2013.

The show of force by Paramus police was too late to prevent panic among shoppers and employees, as well as the man's suicide.

Mercedes-Benz

Two more stories on the move of Mercedes-Benz USA to Atlanta appear in the paper today (A-1 and B-1).

Staff Writer Hugh R. Morley tries to compare the quality of life in Charlotte and Atlanta -- including restaurants, museums and art center -- to North Jersey, where residents and visitors have the world's greatest city, New York, just across the river.

The stories also put into context the loss of up to 1,000 jobs by 2017, when Mercedes is expected to move into a new U.S. headquarters in Atlanta.

Mercedes' employees are a small fraction of the more than 22,000 workers who commute to corporate headquarters in Montvale, Park Ridge and Woodcliff Lake every day (B-2).

Gun-control foes have dead cops' blood on their hands

In Englewood, a condominium development called The M is sandwiched between Route 4, above, and an industrial section, photos below, more than a half-mile as the crow flies from Palisade Avenue, the main shopping street.

Residents of The M have a view of gas stations, traffic, industrial buildings and parking lots. A real estate advertising section in The Record tried to convince potential condo owners their homes border Englewood's downtown.

Some of the condo owners have this million-dollar view.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Guns designed to maim and kill are so commonplace in freedom-loving America even a supposedly great paper like the Los Angeles Times doesn't bother questioning where a hardened criminal got the revolver he used to kill two New York City cops. 

The L.A. Times story on Page 1 of The Record today mentions the Taurus 9mm in passing, noting Ismaaiyl Brinsley -- whose criminal record dates to 2004 -- used the gun to kill Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos as they sat in their patrol car on Saturday (A-8).

Gun-control foes are stained with the blood of Liu, Ramos and all the other cops killed by criminals whose right to bear lethal weapons is supposedly protected by our constitution.

Irresponsible reporting

Instead of pursuing the gun-control angle, The Record's clueless assignment editors had a reporter call small-town departments in Ramsey, Leonia, Tenafly and Saddle Brook to see if they had plans "to double up on patrols" (A-8).

Also on Page 1 is Staff Writer Minjae Park's story on 25 new police officers in Paterson.

How out of touch can the editors be?

Do Editor Marty Gottlieb, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza really expect a town like Leonia to double its patrols?

That department and others are stretched so thin, they can't even protect pedestrians using crosswalks from getting run down or homeowners from burglaries.

Paterson lies

Park, the reporter on the Paterson story, wastes a lot of space on Mayor Joey Torres and Police Director Jerry Speziale, two political hacks who preside over one of the most violent cities in New Jersey.

"Fighting crime has been a centerpiece of ... Torres' agenda," the reporter claims, failing to mention the mayor and the Police Department were powerless to prevent the murders of two innocent young girls in July and September.

It's bad enough when Paterson officials basically lie through their teeth about what they are doing to fight crime.

But when The Record merely regurgitates those lies in a Page 1 story, there simply is no hope for this once-great newspaper.

Pathetic editing

You have to wonder how this kind of irresponsible reporting gets into the paper, despite all the checks and balances the editing process is designed to provide.

The Record's copy editors -- who are supposed to enforce high standards of accuracy, fairness and balance -- now appear to do little more than spell-check stories and slap headlines on them.

The copy editors' supervisors, who approve editing and headlines, are simply out to lunch most of the time.

Liz Houlton, the paper's six-figure production editor and supervisor of the news, layout and copy desks, also has failed miserably to enforce those standards.

For example, how did this clunky headline get into The Record today?

Pope raises anger
for role in Cuba deal

Christie on Cuba

Governor Christie is demanding the return of convicted cop killer Joanne Chesimard from Cuba, but not taking responsibility for cutting aid to Paterson, forcing the layoff of 125 cops (A-3).

And New Jersey is so broke because of the GOP bully's own incompetence, no state troopers were sent to Silk City.

You never hear about the murder of police in Havana or Cuban school shootings. And crime is low, making it the safest destination in the Caribbean.

Americans have to ask themselves whether a free society also must mean a dangerous society where criminals have easy access to guns and police officers are murdered in broad daylight.

Columnist lies in misguided bid to kill red-light cameras

Saturday was a sunless, bitterly cold day in lower Manhattan, where people sought refuge in art galleries, above. I saw a bride and groom posing for photographers on 10th Avenue, opposite the High Line. They were married in the High Line Hotel, a former seminary, choosing the date -- 12/13/14 -- over the weather.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Staff Writer John Cichowski deliberately twisted comments by Newark Mayor Ras Baraka to boost the columnist's campaign against red-light cameras.

The Record's Road Warrior claimed in the first paragraph of his Dec. 6 column the mayor called for extension of the state's 5-year experiment "in an effort to prevent a crippling financial loss that could cost his cash-strapped city $4 million next year."

But NJ.com had a totally different take, reporting that Baraka, flanked by a dozen lawmakers, argued at a press conference his city should be allowed to keep its 19 cameras "because they reduce car crashes and promote safety."

In fact, NJ.com reported that when asked about the revenue generated by the cameras, Baraka said he'd be pleased if the fines would end all red-light violations:

"Baraka added later that the fines associated with the tickets could be a deterrent to drivers ignoring the traffic signals.

"If people are concerned about the money then we should do what we can to make sure they don't break the law," Baraka said. "As we stated earlier we trying to get to zero, zero is where we want to be and the red-light cameras help us get to zero."

For more details on the distortions in the Dec. 6 Road Warrior column, see the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In last Saturday’s column, the Road Warrior falsely made up what the mayor of Newark said at a Dec. 5 press conference about the reason for extending New Jersey's five-year program for red-light cameras.

"The Road Warrior indicated the Mayor stated that the reason for extending this program is due to a potential loss of $4 million in annual revenues to the city from the red-light fines.

"The mayor actually stated the reason for extending this program is due to the safety benefits and the significant reductions in crashes at the red-light camera intersections in Newark.

"In fact, the mayor stated his administration wants to get revenues down to zero, which would mean no running of red lights at these intersections by anyone."

See: Road Warrior sides with speeders who kill


Two Road Warriors columns, which quoted far more critics of red-light cameras than boosters, were followed by an editorial calling for an end to the experiment, which has saved lives.

The controversial red-light cameras have been challenged as inaccurate, in much the same way the Breathalyzer device was in the early years of DWI enforcement.

Today's paper

Staff Writer Jean Rimbach has one of the cushiest jobs of any reporter at the Woodland Park daily, and her byline appears infrequently.

Rimbach is part of the newsroom sisterhood that formed around head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes years ago.

Today, a story Rimbach likely worked on for months dominates Page 1 -- another bewildering choice by Editor Martin Gottlieb.

This story on an Alpine church is of absolutely no interest to the majority of readers, including Jews and Muslims.

Below the fold

A far more compelling story that any parent can relate to is below the fold: 

A mother's book on the Bergen County heroin epidemic that took the life of her 19-year-old son in their own home.

Don't miss the A-12 photo of an upstanding citizen from Upper Saddle River who allegedly mixed the drug cocktail that killed Danny Lajterman of Ramsey.

More claptrap

A front-page column on Hackensack by Mike Kelly also isn't worth much (A-1).

Kelly claims an ordinance designed to return civility to public discourse is really a muzzle on free speech, despite the complete absence of any civil or criminal penalties.

Check out the shit-eating grin in Kelly's outdated column photo, a sure sign he's putting another one over on readers.

Stile column

Could the Political Stile column on Page 1 today be one of the few since January 2010 that doesn't glorify Governor Christie's war against the middle class and the GOP bully's White House aspirations (A-1)?

Staff Writer Charles Stile reports on an early effort in New Jersey to raise money for Hillary Clinton, the Democrat who will give Christie a good spanking, if they both win their party's presidential nominations.

Check out the Margulies cartoon on the sad state of New Jersey's employee pension funds, thanks to another good public screwing from Christie (O-2).

Ung column

Staff Writer Elisa Ung follows last week's column on beef with today's report on "navigating the labels" on fish and seafood (BL-2).

She ignored the health angle in her report on beef, but here she touches on the issue of harmful mercury deposits in fish (BL-8).

Still, her columns could be more consumer friendly.

Instead of telling readers which antibiotic-free farmed salmon she buys, she could have reported Whole Foods Market pledges that all of its farm-raised fish and seafood are free of antibiotics, preservatives and other additives.

And there is nothing wrong with previously frozen wild salmon, which is available as fillets or smoked at Costco Wholesale.

Ung's beef and seafood columns are welcome, but the restaurant reviewer has thrown around the word "quality" for years without ever backing it up.