Time to lock up Governor Christie and throw away the key

The Evil Twins, Governor Christie and wacko racist Donald J. Trump, are favorite subjects on the front page of the New York Daily News, above and below. This Christie front page is from February.

On Wednesday, the Daily News urged Trump to end his GOP campaign for the White House.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Why wait for the trial?

In the court of public opinion, Governor Christie has been viewed as culpable since he first joked about moving traffic cones to close access lanes to the George Washington Bridge in September 2013, causing massive traffic jams for four days.

Now, former Christie aide Christina Renna says the governor "flat out lied" to reporters [in late 2013] about his administration's involvement," The Record reports on Page 1 today.

Christie's continuing denials -- "I absolutely dispute it" -- sound hollow a little over a month before two of his former loyalists go on trial in federal court in Newark for using the lane closures as political retaliation against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee.

Locking up Christie now would likely also break the legislative logjam in Trenton.

Today's columns

What's the point of the Charles Stile column that runs on A-1 today, and largely duplicates what is in the news story next to it?

Do we need Stile, the Woodland Park daily's chief apologist for Christie, to tell us the obvious -- that the former aide's text message about Christie lying is a "bombshell in the court of public opinion" (A-6)?

Another front page column also is a waste, coming a day late on Donald J. Trump's comments that it may be up to "Second Amendment people" to stop Hillary Clinton from getting elected and appointing liberal judges to the U.S. Supreme Court (A-1).

Trump should quit

On Wednesday, New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman compared Trump's inflammatory words to those that led to the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995,

Also on Wednesday, the New York Daily News called on Trump to end his GOP campaign for the White House and if he doesn't, for the Republican Party to abandon him.

What does Record Columnist Mike Kelly say about Trump on Page 1 today? Does the veteran reporter condemn him?

Of course not. He is an opinion columnist without any opinions or balls.

Journalism 101

Kelly sounds like a reporter fresh out of journalism school, claiming with little basis in fact that Trump's comments "further stir [the] nation's gun debate," as the sub-headline says.

What? 

The only debate is whether megalomaniac Trump is fit to hold the office of president.

At least, The Record's editorial -- after attacking Hillary Clinton as "unprincipled and unworthy" to hold office -- says unequivocally:

"A presidential candidate [Trump] making a quip about gun violence should be as out of bounds as jokes about bombs at airports" (A-8).

Local news?

Readers who have to wait on line at the Motor Vehicle Commission every four years to renew their driver's license are pelted with more hysterical coverage in The Record today.

In a Road Warrior column leading Local, Staff Writer John Cichowski reports two state senators are calling for a legislative hearing "as early as next month" (L-1).

That's the bad news, because when has a legislative hearing every accomplished anything?

What the Road Warrior doesn't want you to know

Image by ario_ via Flickr

Twice this month, the Road Warrior columnist gave the wrong advice on emissions tests.

Should Staff Writer John Cichowski seek guidance from readers as he researches and writes his Road Warrior columns? 

Or should he instead check with his news sources on the accuracy of the advice he gives, especially when he cites state laws and motor vehicle rules and regulations?

Judging from errors he's made recently, he should start checking the accuracy of his advice, and stop consulting readers before his columns are published.  

How Cichowski works

Eye on The Record recently received an e-mail from a reader:

"As you may know, John [Cichowski] keeps a network of his readers, whom he calls Road Warriors, on an e-mail distribution list so that he can solicit feedback from them for stories he is working on."

Even though I edited Cichowski's columns for many years when I worked at The Record, I had no idea he "solicited feedback ... for stories he is working on" from outside the newsroom, and I doubt his supervisors know this.

In fact, that's not how most reporters work, and it wasn't how I worked during 15 years as a reporter at three daily newspapers, including The Record. 

It sounds as if Cichowski is substituting readers' eyes and ears for his own -- a real no-no in journalism -- so he doesn't actually have to leave the office and do legwork.

Under great pressure

You know Cichowski is under a lot of pressure to fill space, because he's required to write three columns a week, in addition to coming up with enterprise stories, such as the front-page piece he did recently on motor coach safety. 

He simply isn't up to the task, in view of all the repetition readers see -- he'll write a half-dozen or more columns on roof snow and other subjects close to his heart each year until readers are beaten into senselessness.

He often writes floridly to mask such mindless repetition, but as a fellow news copy editor used to say, "You can't polish a turd."

He's also shoots himself in the foot by virtually ignoring a large number of columns he could write about commuting problems and the sad state of mass transit in one of the most congested regions in the nation.

Q&A with readers

Apparently, he also relies on readers for more than guidance while working on stories. 

He created a column he writes every month or so, it seems, in which he answers drivers' questions about Motor Vehicle Commission rules and regulations, and state laws.

This is sort of a motorized version of advice to the lovelorn, but the questions can get ridiculous, such as a driver who complained the other day that he had to move over for a police cruiser with its lights on, only to see them go off after the cop passed him.

Who cares? Why is this in a newspaper column? Why didn't the man complain to the police department instead of Cichowski?

Could this reader possibly be one of those Cichowski consults all the time? Could the reporter be rewarding the reader by including his name, complaint and question in the column?

When Cichowski answers readers' questions about rules and regulations, he sometimes gets it wrong -- as he did twice this month on emissions testing. He was wrong twice, and never ran a correction -- a sure sign he is running scared. 

No oversight

A Road Warrior reader says he got no satisfaction recently when he contacted Cichowski and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, who edits the column:

"John [Cichowski] never responded to my original e-mail below ....  I doubt he will ever respond to me about anything else that I may observe in his articles that needs corrections or updates.  I have had several interesting back and forth e-mail debates with him about his articles in the past.  John frequently indicated that he was always right and I was always wrong, no matter the facts and circumstances.

"Dan [Sforza] never believed any of my explanations in the e-mails below or the 2 times I called him. He held fast in his beliefs and always indicated that the ... article was totally correct, even though I presented facts that contradicted some of his beliefs.  However, last week he finally said in frustration that if I stopped calling him, he would have John update his ... statement in an upcoming article.  I'm assuming I have no credibility with Dan to ever question any other misleading or false statement that John might make in the future.

"Clearly, Dan is not providing any proper oversight, even though he said to me he would pay more attention to reviewing John's articles."

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes named Cichowski to the job after the departure of the original Road Warrior columnist, and then simply forgot about him.

Chick, I knew the original Road Warrior, Jeff Page, and you're no Jeff Page. 

Let them eat hay

Now, let's get to the Sunday paper.

Giving precious space on Page 1 to a process story on the takeover of The Meadowlands Racetrack shows readers what horse's asses they have in Editor Francis Scandale and Staff Writer John Brennan.

One way to get readers to turn to the continuation or jump page is to mention at least four times on  A-1 that a food pantry has been ordered to close or is closing, but not provide the reason or even say who gave the order.

Get off the road

On the front of Local, two 77-year-old women escape death after one of them drives her car into a train in River Edge.

Sykes, the head assignment editor (or is it assignment editor in the head?), is asking them to be more careful next time, because she doesn't have enough staff to do a story on challenges facing older drivers and the help that is available to them.

Staff Writer Jean Rimbach is being treated for exhaustion after working on two stories that appear on L-1 and L-2 today. 

Really deep doo-doo

Some of the editors are slowly coming around to what a jam Governor Christie has put the state in with unconstitutional cuts in school aid.

Page O-1 has an Opinion column by Carl Golden, a former aide to Republican governors who revisits the millionaires tax Christie vetoed last year.

And an editorial sums up all the governor's cuts in programs for low-income families, women and children so he can offer tax cuts to wealthy business owners (O-2).

"The state must advocate in the interest of all citizens," is all the outrage the editorial writer can muster.

Road Warrior again puts driving foot in mouth

Image via Wikipedia

When reading the Road Warrior column, drivers often exclaim, Whaaaaat?

Can drivers rely on Staff Writer John Cichowski when he answers questions about New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission rules and regulations?

Not always. Just how often The Record's Road Warrior columnist gets it wrong isn't known, because he is the kind of journalist who doesn't think it's always necessary to publish a correction on Page A-2 when he screws up.

Instead, he will try to repair the damage in a subsequent column, in answer to another question on the same subject. This week, however, he compounded the problem. 

Flawed advice

On Wednesday, Chick, as he's known around the office, told the owner of a 16-year-old diesel-powered sedan, "As for inspection, all non-commercial passenger vehicles from model years 1997 and newer" must be tested for emissions [my italics].

But that may have led owners of gasoline-powered vehicles -- the vast majority -- from thinking they are exempt as well, if their cars are older than the 1997 model year.

That's not the case, according to the Motor Vehicle Commission Web site. There is a different standard for gasoline-powered cars, which must be taken for emissions testing if they are 5 years old "and older."

So, even if you drive a gasoline-powered car older than the 1997 model year, it must be tested. The Road Warrior apparently doesn't know there are different rules for diesel and gasoline engines. 

Previous error

Wednesday's answer to the driver of a diesel-powered sedan apparently was an attempt to repair an error Cichowski made in a March 2, 2011, column that discussed which cars are subject to mechanical and emissions testing:

"...There has been confusion, mostly among owners of vehicles with diesel engines, which — unlike gas-powered cars — are exempt even from emissions inspection."

You can't get any wronger than that, in light of what he said Wednesday.

So he messed up twice on the question of emissions testing. How many other times has he been unreliable? Can readers believe any advice he gives?

Another big question: Who is Cichowski's assignment editor -- the editor who reviews his column before it is sent over to the news copy desk? Is he or she asleep at the computer?  

Of course, you have to wonder just how much Cichowski knows about cars and their impact on the environment.

Sixteen-year-old diesel cars are prized by their frugal owners, but they are among the dirtiest vehicles on the road in terms of air pollution.

Another columnist for the Woodland Park daily, Bill Ervolino, neglected to tell readers on Tuesday the whole wheat spaghetti from Trader Joe's he described as "luscious" also is organic.

Today's paper

After the March 11 quake and tsunami, Editor Francis Scandale focused every day on a possible nuclear meltdown and virtually ignored the human drama in Japan and among Japanese residents of North Jersey, but he certainly hasn't neglected coverage of Glen Rock, where he lives.

Page 1 today carries the fourth or fifth story about the borough's sister-city relationship with Onomachi, Japan. 

The lead A-1 story today contains nothing on disgraced former state Sen. Joseph Coniglio, D-Paramus, making an appointment for a new hair piece now that his sentence has been shortened by a federal judge.

Scram, Mac

Below the fold, a story on the "Grandparent Scam" doesn't refer to the paper and how Scandale, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and other editors abhor stories on Alzheimer's disease, help for older drivers and other subjects of interest to seniors.

Nor is there any suggestion "Grandparent Scam" is a reference to how Publisher Stephen A. Borg treated his father and grandfather to his four sons, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, after Stephen took over and pushed him aside.

On A-3 today, a story on Governor Christie and the state constitution's guarantee of a "thorough and efficient" education (T&E) would have been front-page news for any other editor but Scandale, whose focus is on T&A.