Christie is gorging on fish and chips while Jersey starves

The 47-story luxury residential tower at the center of Fort Lee's Hudson Lights project, as seen from the parking lot of a small downtown shopping center. The building, dubbed "The Modern," is shaped like a tombstone, and I can see it from the car while driving on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, now that the trees have lost their leaves.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today is another lame effort that holds hardly any relevance for residents of North Jersey.

A third international trip for Governor Christie, who is flying thousands of mile to London for takeout fish and chips, has readers wondering how New Jersey's ailing economy benefited from his previous junkets to Mexico and Canada (A-1).

At least Editor Marty Gottlieb finally is running a Page 1 story on the group bankrolling the GOP bully's foreign trips:

Choose New Jersey has the backing of the "largest public utilities, labor unions, law firms and contractors -- some that have received multi-million contracts and tax breaks from the state," a front-page story reports in an awkwardly worded, poorly edited first paragraph (A-1).

For one thing, I don't think the labor unions have received any of those benefits.

Today's largely favorable Christie coverage shows how Gottlieb, Columnist Charles Stile and other staffers have been sitting on the edge of their seats for at least two years, promoting the governor's White House dreams.

On Saturday's front page, Stile's boring political column discussed how the pathetic Mitt Romney's decision not to run for a third time in 2016 might affect Christie.

Media vultures

Again, today's Page 1 image from an Islamic State video "in the slaying of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto" only encourages more terrorist brutality.

Why does the irresponsible Gottlieb keep on running the story on the front page?

The rest of A-1 today is wasted on the Super Toilet Bowl.

Municipal news

Today's Local section is filled with legitimate municipal news for a change, but stories from Hackensack and Teaneck have been conspicuously absent lately.

Four out of five stories on Saturday's Local front reported on employment issues in Paterson and Emerson, and on the police in Glen Rock and Lodi.

The fifth story was about the sentencing of a former Paterson auxiliary officer who tried to cover up the death of a motorcyclist.

The rest of Saturday's Local section was mostly Law & Order and court news, as if the municipal staff and local assignment editors in Woodland Park took Friday off.

Kelly on 'Sniper'

Hard to believe New Jersey columnist Mike Kelly couldn't find anything else to write about today except "an extraordinarily subtle but deeply significant fact" in the film "American Sniper" (O-1).

The punch line?

"The hero at the center of the story, Chris Kyle, served four tours in Iraq." (%$&!!!*()@???)

'Rape' or not?

If a grand jury voted against indicting four William Paterson University students on charges of sexual assault, or rape, why did the banner headline on Friday's and Saturday's front page refer to a "rape case"?

It wasn't, after all, a case of rape. The headline should have used the phrase "rape charges" or "alleged rape."

Free country

I guess emergency room doctor and pilot Christopher Okechukwu of Paramus has every right to commute in a 1976 Cessna 150 (Friday's gee-whiz story on A-1).

But after the engine sputtered and he landed on a highway in West Milford, shouldn't he reimburse the town and any other first responders?

Property taxpayers shouldn't have to subsidize the wealthy doctor's joy rides.

Blizzard fizzled

Last Tuesday's "Blizzard of '15" edition was really embarrassing, though not quite as bad as the incorrect banner headline that ran in The Chicago Tribune on Nov. 3,  1948:

"DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN"

The Record's stories, under the banner "READY FOR THE WORST," called the storm potentially one of the biggest in decades and reported a virtual lockdown on transportation.

Maybe, it's a good thing The Record wasn't able to deliver the paper to subscribers -- even though fewer than 6 inches of snow fell in some places -- telling them in an e-mail to look at a digital version online.

Next time, instead of swallowing whole all that hysterical TV news hype, The Record should put a story on Page 1 explaining just how many times forecasts have been right and wrong to put the developing storm in perspective.

Woodland Park special: Stale voices recalling stale events

At the state's nicest train station in Secaucus, some of the platforms are under the roadway of the New Jersey Turnpike, above.

The Frank R. Lautenberg Rail Station at Secaucus Junction opened on Dec. 15, 2003.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Thirteen years after 9/11, nothing could be more powerful and emotional than this morning's live telecast of family members reading out loud the names of the victims.

And their personal messages to the dead can bring tears to your eyes.

In our TV age, The Record and other print media seem obsolete.

That's especially the case today with yet another 9/11 column by one of the Woodland Park newsroom's stale voices, Staff Writer Mike Kelly.

Never mind that his dated, unflattering thumbnail photo -- complete with shit-eating grin -- seems inappropriate on such a solemn occasion (A-1).

But why is he using the front page to call today "the anniversary of ... the unofficial start of the nation's war on terror [italics added]"?

What would make the war on terror "official" -- when the burned-out columnist says it is?

Writes ahead

His column was written ahead of today's ceremony at what was once known as Ground Zero.

But he's memorized such hackneyed details as bagpipes and the ringing of a bell, and presents them in his first paragraph, declaring another anniversary "has come."

Kelly also contributed nothing on Tuesday with his Page 1 anniversary column on the politically inspired George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee.

Here is one of his brilliant observations:

"In most New Jersey communities, traffic jams are viewed as the vehicular equivalent of cod liver oil."

Kelly then must be the journalism equivalent of strychnine. 

Two GOP morons

A photo on A-9 today shows Mitt Romney, the last conservative Republican who ran for president and was defeated by a compassionate Democrat, and Governor Christie, the next conservative Republican heading for defeat, in the unlikely event he even gets the party's nomination.

On the same page, why does The Record's story on Christie's 12 outright or conditional vetoes of legislation only discuss two of them?

Environmentalists called his veto of a smoking ban at parks and on beaches "shameful."

"The governor sided with the tobacco lobby over protecting public health and the environment," said Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club (A-9).

I'm still waiting for The Record's story on Christie vetoing more bills than any predecessor while portraying himself as a "compromiser" -- a fiction reporters like Charles Stile continue to peddle. 

Hackensack news

Since a reform Hackensack City Council took office in July 2013, The Record has specialized in reporting largely negative news -- fueled by complaints from those who lost the election or were fired.

Today, a story on L-1 reports city Prosecutor Frank Catania Jr. has been charged in a complaint by the state Office of Attorney Ethics with "knowingly misappropriating a client's money in his private practice."

Another stale voice

In his Road Warrior column on the lane-closure scandal in Fort Lee, Staff Writer John Cichowski finally admits he has ignored commuters who ride NJ Transit buses and trains for nearly all of the 11 years he has been posing as the commuting columnist (L-1 and L-6 on Tuesday).

Indeed, he lists the subjects of his Road Warrior columns -- road safety, potholes, litter, neglected highways, confusing signs, E-ZPass "injustices" and the theft of "aluminum guardrails."

Of course, he doesn't mention he has made so many errors he is likely the only reporter who has prompted a reader to set up a Facebook page for his "bloopers."

Cichowski also mentions "The Road Warrior's 24 years at The Record," but doesn't say the original Road Warrior was Jeff Page.

He has demonstrated time and again he is no Jeff Page.

(201) magazine

I don't doubt Editor Amelia Duggan and other staffers at (201) magazine are well-meaning, but they often promise more than they can deliver.

On the cover of the September 2014 Fall Fashion Issue, Don Watros and Benedetta Casamento are listed as "fashion dynamos."

Then, Duggan's column on Page 14 says the Englewood couple "have a real passion for fashion -- the retail fashion industry that is."

Still, after that build-up, what is the explanation for why the wealthy president of Hudson's Bay Co. is wearing a rumpled, ill-fitting, off-the-rack suit in photos on Pages 8 and 73?

Surely, with Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue in his Canadian company's portfolio, Watros can afford made-to-measure or custom-made clothing.

Indeed. His position demands it. Why settle for anything less?

The suit he is wearing on Page 74 is more like it.

Will Romney nod be the kiss of death for Christie?

Wouldn't you rather have a woman with a solid 20-year legislative record running New Jersey than a macho, in-your-face GOP bully who is in bed with special interests and other members of the 1%?

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

A year ago, Mitt Romney suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of President Obama, but here he is today in The Record,  vouching for Chris Christie as "one of the very strongest" Republicans in a bid to take back the White House from the help (A-6).

The Romney endorsement came on Sunday as Christie and his Democratic challenger, Barbara Buono, continued to campaign, making a mockery of that morning's ridiculous headline on Page 1 of the Woodland Park daily:

Last shots of campaign

Both gubernatorial candidates will campaign today and tonight. The election is Tuesday.

Besides governor, voters will  choose state legislators, freeholders and other officials -- with little or no help on the issues from The Record and its bored editors and reporters.

Woman in name only

The main element on Page 1 today is a story that raises the horrifying possibility that Lt. Gov. Kim Guadano would become governor, if Chris Christie is reelected and resigns to run for president.

Guadano is often seen standing behind her boss -- in a throwback to the days before the women's movement gained so many rights.

A lawyer and former prosecutor like Christie, Guadano used last month's debate with Barbara Buono's running mate, Milly Silva, mostly to praise the governor (A-6).

What a non-entity.

Guadano has even less name recognition than Buono, the Democratic state senator with 20 years experience in the state Legislature.

Who is angry?

On Sunday, Christie said about Buono,  "I've never seen an angrier candidate" (A -6), suggesting the governor has never looked in the mirror.

Buono and the voters should be angry at Christie for telling the Big Lie about lowering property taxes, and for taking an ax to social programs to protect millionaires from a tax surcharge and funnel hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to wealthy business owners.

The headline on A-6 today -- "Attacks heat up in home stretch" -- completely contradicts Sunday's "Last shots in campaign," a reference to Saturday.

Buono noted Christie "went ballistic on a teacher" on Saturday (A-6) -- the day before Staff Writer Melissa Hayes' front-page blow job, which claimed Christie had changed his tone and was watching his big, fat mouth.

In a photo, a stern-faced Christie is seen wagging his finger at teacher Melissa Tomlinson, The Record reports today.

"I was shaking by the time we got done," Tomlinson said (A-6).

How did Hayes miss this Christie scolding of a constituent or did she simply ignore it to preserve the myth-making in her Sunday story?

Where is Deirdre?

The unexplained absence of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes is approaching a couple of months.

She may be out, but she isn't down, as readers can see from the major news from her hometown of Harrington Park that appears on L-2 today.

However, her deputy assignment flunky, Dan Sforza, still needed a Dean's List to pad today's local-news report (L-2).

On Page 1: The Laurel and Hardy of right-wing politics

At Passaic Street and Summit Avenue in Hackensack, above, and at other intersections, crews are making curbs wheelchair accessible. What about improvements to ease the flow of traffic, such as turn lanes on Passaic, a notorious bottleneck? Don't hold your breath.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Today's Page 1 photo of Mitt Romney and Chris Christie -- a latter-day Laurel and Hardy -- runs with a story on a new book that exposes the dark side of right-wing GOP politics.

"Double Down: Game Change 2012" reveals the behind-the-scenes maneuvering that went into Romney's choice for a running mate in his ultimately failed bid to unseat President Obama last November (A-1).

Christie love affair

The book tackles subjects -- Christie's record, style and weight -- The Record's adoring editors and reporters have largely ignored in their effort to groom the GOP bully for a second term as governor, as well as a presidential run in 2016.

"The book makes fun of Christie's weight at every turn," according to the story, but it also reports on "the garish controversies lurking in the shadows of his record" (A-6).

Readers may be doing double takes, trying to recall when, if ever, The Record has discussed Christie's "spending as U.S. attorney, lobbying activities, steering contacts to donors and allies..., a 1994 defamation lawsuit" -- all deemed "a potential political nightmare," if Romney chose Christie as a running-mate.

Ignoring new poll

Another Page 1 story on the battle between Christie and Democratic challenger Barbara Buono reports in the first paragraph that "some polls" put the GOP bully ahead of her "by more than 30 points."

But that ignores this week's Fairleigh Dickinson PublicMind Poll that shows Christie's lead has narrowed to 19 points in the run-up to Tuesday's election, as reported by The Star-Ledger. 

Is The Record deliberately ignoring the Fairleigh Dickinson poll?

A-2 carries two more embarrassing corrections.

An editorial on A-9 urges a "no" vote on a constitutional amendment to raise the minimum wage -- a move Christie vetoed.

The Woodland Park daily claims it would "lock small businesses into automatic increases."

Small businesses? Are McDonald's and Walmart "small businesses"?

Utility pole update

The big Hackensack news today is the arrest of a 73-year-old man on charges of sexually abusing three children (L-6).

On the same page, a photo keeps readers abreast of North Jersey utility pole news, this time in Franklin Lakes.

The photo shows six PSE&G crewman repairing a downed utility line. No wonder our rates are so high. And where were they after Superstorm Sandy?

A Better Living cover story reports on the crappy food served at sports arenas, and the exorbitant prices paid by inebriated fans who can't get enough harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones (BL-1).

Editors ignore Obama's victory over racism

Unsuccessful Republican candidate Mitt Romney waves to the crowd before conceding the presidency in Boston. (Getty Images via @daylife)

President Obama is back, thanks to a clear victory over Republican Mitt Romney, who appealed almost exclusively to white conservatives.

You won't find any mention of the Republican Party's stubborn racism in The Record today, especially in the editorial on A-18.

Republicans just can't get over a black man in the White House.

Blaming the victim 

In fact, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin has started to blame Obama for not bridging the partisan divide created by no-compromise Tea Party members who have paralyzed Congress.

"Obama failed to jump into the breach and use the power of the presidency to end congressional gridlock," the editorial claims.

That sounds good, but is Doblin suggesting Obama use drones to take out Tea Party members?

It's so typical of Doblin and other journalists to write nonsense and assign blame without backing that up with even an explanation of what they mean.

Dissing another Democrat

Before Tuesday's election, Doblin endorsed Teaneck Deputy Mayor Adam Gussen, but that came too late after weeks of slanted news coverage favoring Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, one of the most regressive forces in Congress. 

Today's A-3 story on Garrett holding onto his seat in the newly configured 5th Congressional District says "Gussen struggled for name recognition."

What a joke. The Record ran a long, flattering profile of Garrett on the cover of the Signature section, complete with three large photos, but never profiled Gussen, a Democrat.

And Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson rolled over and played dead every time Garrett declined interviews that would have exposed his radicalism.

Boteach complains

Also on A-3 today, get a load of the photo showing Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of Englewood complaining he is the latest Jew to have been crucified. 

Boteach, a Republican, ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson. 

Back to Sandy

Coverage of the presidential election pushed stories on Hurricane Sandy off of the front page for the first time in about 10 days

The A-6 story on who still doesn't have power is long on quotes from Governor Christie and the head of Public Service Electric and Gas Co.,  but short on details, especially about Hackensack and many other towns.

There is no mention that 24 Hour Fitness in Paramus, one of the biggest gyms in North Jersey, remains closed.

Trainers and members have been consoling themselves with beer at the adjacent Miller's N.J. Ale House, which is operating on generator power.  

Christie doesn't have "a problem" with the pace of power restoration, but who is surprised about that?

Look how the GOP bully folded when the Port Authority raised tolls 50% more than a year ago, knowing full well he was in the process of packing the bistate agency with his cronies. 

Confused Road Warrior

The Record continues to publish misleading and inaccurate information in the Road Warrior column (A-8).

Staff Writer John Cichowski has made numerous errors, but rarely does the paper run corrections, despite complaints from readers.

Today, Cichowski offers a confused anecdote about a Teaneck man who lost his electricity and then plugged his Chevy Volt hybrid "into his home charging station." 

Apparently, all the man is saying is that he never drives beyond the 35-mile range of the Volt's electric motor and batteries, and never has to fill up his tank with gasoline, because he recharges the batteries every night with his $8,000 home generator, which uses natural gas.

The 300 reserve miles he refers to is the car's range on gasoline, which powers the Volt's generator. 

What's the big deal?

Promoting bad food

Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill's weekly recipe is a godsend to cardiac-surgery units at local hospitals (BL-1).

Sherrill must have been affected by fumes from a gasoline-powered generator to dust off a cookbook with a recipe for homemade bacon jam.

Yes. An entire pound of fatty, artery clogging cured bacon -- raised on harmful antibiotics and growth hormones, and filled with preservatives -- goes into the stomach-turning jam (B-2). 

I guess that is what she is recommending for the next blackout.         

Why aren't the media accountable to the public?

On Tuesday in Teaneck, the line of drivers waiting to fill up their cars was mercifully short -- only about a half-block long at this service station on Cedar Lane.

Can you think of a more ridiculous way to cover a presidential election than sending reporters to rallies of delirious supporters exhorting their candidates to victory?

Can you imagine a worse way to cover a storm that devastated New Jersey than to report damage and outages in broad strokes, ignoring major communities like Hackensack?

Or to fawn over a governor who stepped up and did the job he was elected to do?

Irresponsible reporting

At times like these, readers want to know why the media, including The Record of Woodland Park, aren't accountable for their irresponsible reporting -- on big and small stories.

Today's coverage of the recovery effort after Hurricane Sandy is typical, focusing on Ridgewood and other well-off communities where more than half of households still have no power (Page 1).

But for the third or fourth day in a row, there are few, if any details, about Hackensack, the most populous community in Bergen County and the county seat. 

Flood waters destroyed the showroom and waiting room of Hackensack Toyota on River Street. A temporary waiting room was set up opposite the desks of service writers.

For example, The Record never reported the bridge connecting the city to Teaneck was closed to all traffic for several days nor that it has reopened.

Nor has there been any meaningful reporting on the losses suffered by restaurants and other businesses that lost power, whether on Hackensack's Main Street or elsewhere.

Lazy ways prevail

Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, the editors who are in charge of assigning reporters to stories, can't let go of their lazy ways, and it infects the entire paper, including Page 1, which is the pride and joy of Editor Marty Gottlieb.

Today, for some reason, yet another front-page story on growing frustration over the slow pace of recovery re-uses a quote from Governor Christie that appeared on Monday's A-1.

Everyone knows Christie is never at a loss for words, so why couldn't Sykes and Sforza find something fresh for their readers? 

Few damage photos

Before the  hurricane hit, Sykes and Sforza were content to run photo after photo of minor, non-fatal automobile accidents, but where is the two-page spread of photos showing the damage Sandy caused on the shore or locally?

Today's A-3 story on Christie finally getting a hug from Bruce Springsteen, his music idol, never explains how the rocker got his arms around the rotund governor.

My wife said the Christie she saw on TV today looked like he had lost weight, and I said, "Of course, all the pizzerias lost power and can't open." 

End of partisanship?  

Did you read the BS editorial praising the bipartisanship of Christie and President Obama touring the shore together (A-9 on Monday)?

We all know Christie flew all over the country campaigning for conservative Mitt Romney in a bid to defeat Obama and continue the war on the middle class.

And we all know the media's one-dimensional coverage of the campaign has ignored the deep, Tea Party-inspired divide that has paralyzed Congress. 

And we all know that won't end unless the lying Romney is defeated today, and selfish Tea Party members lose their seats in the House, restoring a Democratic majority.

John and Sandy 

Getting back to hurricane coverage, Road Warrior John Cichowski launched a rant against the emergency restrictions against cars with fewer than three occupants entering Manhattan (A-9 on Sunday).

Mounting his high horse, Chicowski wrote:

"Nobody, for example, seems to have considered the 92-year-old Little Ferry asthmatic who called me to complain that he simply wanted to get into his car -- alone -- to reach his daughter whose New York apartment had something he didn't have -- heat." 

But the error-prone Cichowski forgot or ignored no high-occupancy vehicle rules were imposed on the George Washington Bridge.

And maybe it's the 92-year-old asthmatic's daughter who should have more consideration for her father -- like maybe driving her car or renting one to pick him up in Little Ferry.

He was in the middle of the storm of the century, for crying out loud. What kind of woman forces her 92-year-old father to come to her? 

Sandy took two men  

Today's front page coverage of Sandy finally has a human dimension after days of quotes from Public Service Electric and Gas Co., Christie, angry mayors, weather experts and the occasional homeowner shivering under layers of blankets.

Who isn't moved by the obituaries for two retirees, Joseph W. Godleski and Fletcher Fish, the only Bergen County or Passaic County residents who lost their lives in Super Storm Sandy (A-1)? 

And who isn't outraged by today's Page 1 quote from Ralph LaRossa, the supremely insensitive president and CEO of PSE&G, the dysfunctional public utility we appear to be stuck with:

"Tensions are mounting, and frustration levels are high," LaRossa said in the understatement of the century. "I'm empathetic to that." 

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