In and out of court, noose tightening round Christie's neck

By noon on Friday, the slushy snow that fell overnight and into the morning had melted, leaving behind tree branches coated in winter white. Hackensack residents were relieved in view of all the problems left behind by city crews after the blizzard in late January.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In New Jersey, the tide of public opinion has turned hard against Governor Christie.

But at The Record of Woodland Park, editors, columnists and reporters today are focusing instead on New Hampshire, where the GOP bully is trying to salvage his campaign for the party's presidential nomination (A-1 and O-1).

Christie finished a dismal 10th in the Iowa caucuses, but last week, he suffered setbacks in and out of court in New Jersey, as The Record reported on Saturday.

They are likely to seal his fate.

Two judges

The lead story on Saturday's front page reported a federal judge gave defendants in the Bridgegate scandal the power to seek emails and other documents withheld by the law firm that whitewashed Christie's role in the Fort Lee lane closings.

But it was public statements by another judge that helped galvanize public opinion in the Garden State, though Editor Deirdre Sykes did her best to mute the criticism by keeping the story off of Saturday's front page:

Deborah Poritz, a Republican who served as chief justice from 1996 to 2006, took Christie "to task ... for being a 'bully' who has not built a legacy of serving the public after more than six years in office" (Saturday's A-3).

She noted Christie has been "scapegoating public workers" in New Jersey for years, and slammed his budget cuts.

No 'legacy'

"What is his legacy? Because I don't see any," Poritz said at a Thursday night forum in the Princeton Public Library.

Then, WNYC-FM reporter Matt Katz, who just published a biography of Christie, "American Governor," was put in the uncomfortable position of defending the governor he has exposed in the public radio station's "Christie Tracker" feature. 

At the end of Saturday's story, Staff Writer Salvador Rizzo noted in 2013, Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin condemned Christie for attempting to intimidate the judiciary and unseating the only black justice on the high court.

Other news?

Today's front page is dominated by the last GOP debate before the voting in New Hampshire, and yet another boring Christie column by Staff Writer Charles Stile -- in case readers missed Saturday's A-1 assessment by Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi.

Also on Page 1 today is a long story about Teaneck dermatologist Gangaram Ragi, who had been accused of sexually assaulting two women.

Inadvertently, the headline writer turned off readers immediately by putting the year 2001 in big black type.

This 14-year-old story was written by Jean Rimbach, one of the women in the newsroom who have thrived under Sykes, a plump Mother Hen to her and other female reporters.

Local news?

Today's local-news section has less Law & Order news than Saturday's, but both are silent on Hackensack, which apparently has no reporter assigned to it.

The section leads with a story on a judge releasing an affordable-housing plan "paid for by 270 municipalities" in New Jersey, but the names of towns are missing (L-1).

Road Warrior John Cichowski compares drivers to doctors and plumbers who update "their training when renewing their licenses every few years" (L-1).

He claims people "drive 3,000-pound machines that dodge traffic at 65 mph or more," and notes he took a driving safety class in Fort Lee, "where a certain Hudson River bridge causes bumper-to-bumper bedlam."

This is journalism? What do traffic jams have to do with driver retraining?

Another typo

For the second time recently, a photo caption includes an extra "s" in Palisade Avenue, this time in Englewood (L-6).

The photo shows first responders clearing the scene of a "two-car crash at Grand and Palisades avenues."

In fact, one of the vehicles is shown on the sidewalk on Engle Street, the continuation of Grand.

Failed columnist

If you doubt The Record soft-pedals the damage Christie has caused in New Jersey, take a look at another ridiculously long and boring column from Mike Kelly on the Opinion front.

The burned-out columnist claims Christie's future hinges on the outcome in New Hampshire, when readers know it's the mean-spirited policies he's rammed through in New Jersey that make residents' blood boil (O-1).

Then, Kelly tries to convince readers Christie "should have been a Democrat" (O-4).

What a moron.

Stale Cuba reporting distracts from Christie's 'dictatorship'

11:30 a.m. FRIDAY: Getting a new driver's license at the state motor vehicle agency in North Bergen took about an hour from when I got on line behind a dozen other people, above, outside the building in a shopping center at 90th Street and Bergenline Avenue. Last Tuesday, I went to the Lodi agency, but was told the wait was at least 2 hours.

12:10 p.m. FRIDAY: I waited on an even longer line inside the building to have my documents checked, then was in sight of the camera, above. After my photo was taken and I paid with a credit card, I had to wait about 10 minutes more for the making and laminating of the license itself. The clerk said I may be able to renew by mail when my 4-year license expires in 2019. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

When a pope visits Cuba, Editors like Martin Gottlieb of The Record and reporters like Mike Kelly always manage to find a long-suffering island resident who complains about the lack of free elections and yearns for democracy.

Yet, on the third day of Kelly's stale reporting from Cuba, The Record is silent on how special-interest money, a gullible media and voter apathy have made a mockery of free elections in the United States, including New Jersey.

Despite inheriting a Democratic majority in the state Legislature, Governor Christie has managed to get his own way and wage war on the middle class by executing more than 350 vetoes since early 2010.

And despite all his bluster, Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, a Democrat from Camden County, has failed to overturn a single Christie veto.

The GOP dictator won his first term by promising to lower property taxes and save millions through consolidation of inefficient local governments, but accomplished neither.

Page 1 news?

Local readers don't find much to interest them on Page 1 today unless they are Catholic or Rutgers football fans (A-1).

From Havana, Kelly files a rewrite of the stories The Record published when other popes visited Cuba.

The first pope to visit Cuba, in 1998, was John Paul II, so what it meant by the use of "historic visit" in front-page coverage today of Pope Francis' trip to the biggest island in the Caribbean?

Pope Benedict XVI also visited the island in 2012.

Local news?

Why does a fundraiser for the Girl Scouts get such big play on the Local front today?

It's because they staged their "rappelling fundraiser" in the same Woodland Park building where The Record and Herald News rent space for a newsroom and executive offices, though there is no mention of that (L-1).

That meant the lazy local assignment editors didn't have to move a finger to send a reporter and a photographer to cover "the big story."

After The Record moved to 1 Garret Mountain Plaza from Hackensack in 2009, the number of stories and photos on nearby Route 80 accidents and other neighborhood happenings rose dramatically.

Missing pages?

Today, the Business editors publish a "reporter's notebook" on the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce's first business summit (B-1).

Staff Writer Hugh R. Morley managed to cover a dozen speakers, "some saying the state faces an emergency situation, and even a 'crisis'," without once mentioning Christie.

Did Morley lose pages of his notebook or did the Woodland Park editors sanitize his story on B-1 today?

Opinion columns

On the Opinion front, don't bother with a second rambling Kelly column on the pope's visit to Cuba, but do turn to Brigid Harrison's piece under the headline:

"Christie learns where pandering gets you"

"The man who spoke about putting the country's domestic house in order occasionally comes home to New Jersey to a ransacked and ramshackle state, with little vision for how we can get our own house in order," Harrison says of Christie on O-2.

Hackensack budget plan tries to fix past sloppiness

The Record again today incorrectly reports Hackensack attorney Richard E. Salkin, speaking at Thursday night's City Council meeting, above, was fired as city attorney in 2013 after a reform slate was swept into office in the municipal election. Salkin was fired as municipal prosecutor, but held onto a second job as Board of Education attorney. He was city attorney from 1989 to 2005. Jim Mangin, the city's chief financial officer, is at right.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

As a property tax payer in Hackensack, I was impressed by Chief Financial Officer Jim Mangin's budget presentation at the City Council meeting Thursday night.

Mangin is trying to repair all the damage to city finances during an eight-year reign by officials loyal to the discredited Zisa family.

Sloppy work

Still, Staff Writer Christopher Maag of The Record puts a negative spin on the budget plan, and commits at least two errors in the process (L-2).

In his first paragraph, the reporter says Mangin "introduced" the "latest version" of the city budget, but the agenda listed the CFO as giving a "budget amendment presentation."

The council has already introduced the budget, and on Thursday night, members voted to approve the budget amendment.

The $94.4 million proposal -- about $2 million higher than the previous budget -- calls for a tax levy of $3.3 million and a tax increase of 4.37% or $161.79 more on a home assessed at the $240,000 average.

Maag's second error, which he has committed before, is reporting that Zisa ally Richard E. Salkin was fired in 2013 as city attorney,  a job he held until 2005. 

Salkin was fired as municipal prosecutor.

Staff Writer Christopher Maag of The Record at Thursday night's City Council meeting in Hackensack.

Say what?

On Page 1 today, try to ignore the idiotic headline that leads the paper:

Obama opens door to Iraq

The big element on the front page is an entertaining feature on Jersey, the English Channel island for which New Jersey was named (A-1).

But Staff Writer Jay Levin missed a couple of opportunities in reporting on the state's 350th anniversary:

He doesn't compare the accents here ("Joisey")  and there.

Nor do we learn whether the island offers any fast food to compete with New Jersey's Texas weiners and rippers. 

Or, on the other end of the culinary scale, Levin doesn't tell us whether the island can match New Jersey's sea scallops, fluke, monkfish and lobsters.

More Christie B.S.

Also on Page 1 today, Staff Writer John Reitmeyer reports Governor Christie will say and do anything to ram through his drastic $1.6 billion cut in the state contribution to the public employees pension fund (A-1).

Pollster Patrick Murray, who was incredibly high on Christie before last November's election, is quoted as saying:

"We've kind of reached the Wild West of the Christie administration, where almost anything goes" (A-6).

As usual, foul-mouthed Press Secretary Michael Drewniak declined to comment on the pension issue, saving all of us from a string of obscenities.

Where are the jobs?

As if to punctuate what a mess Christie has made, the first Business page reports "New Jersey's job market continued to flat-line in May" (L-7).

Yet, The Record continues to support the GOP bully's adamant stand against higher taxes on the wealthy, preferring to see the latest budget balanced on the backs of the middle and working classes, as Christie has done since 2010 (A-18).

Fat lover

In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung continues to misrepresent "quality ingredients," including beef and lamb (BL-16).

In her appraisal of Novu Restaurant in Wayne, she praises a pricey filet mignon ($39) and rack of lamb (also $39), even though both apparently were raised on harmful animal antibiotics and growth hormones.

Ung sounds like an ignoramus when she describes the filet mignon as "prime -- the highest quality grade," and claims the Colorado lamb "is regarded as "richer and more tender than the same meat from New Zealand or Australia."

The vast majority of prime beef in the United States is raised as quickly as possible on grain, antibiotics and growth hormones. 

Lamb from New Zealand and Australia is often grass fed and raised naturally without harmful additives.

Second look

In his Tuesday column, Road Warrior John Cichowski tried to scare readers by reporting drowsy truck driving is a growing trend when only five days earlier, he said exactly the opposite, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

"At the beginning of his column, the Road Warrior tried to scare the hell out of readers by making it seem that the truck crash due to a sleepless driver, which killed comedian Tracy Morgan’s friend and injured Tracy, is a frequent, imminent, and growing trend.

"What makes his false assessment even scarier and more confusing is that the Road Warrior reported later in this very same column, as well as in his June 12 column, that related fatalities are rare and crashes are a declining occurrence.

"Road Warrior indicated that Sens. Menendez and Booker held a press conference to talk about reinstating truck-safety reforms that would have helped prevent the crash of the sleep-deprived truck driver that involved Tracy Morgan's limo.

"They actually only addressed revising proposed legislation based on safety reform changes that would have had absolutely no impact on preventing that accident."

See:

Drowsy Road Warrior goes off road again

Editing out Christie's role in health-care problems

If you take the train, count yourself lucky to get one of NJ Transit's comfortable double-deckers, but find a seat on the lower level, above, to avoid cracking your skull on the upper level's low, poorly designed luggage rack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

As one of The Record's top reporters, veteran Lindy Washburn should know better.

In stories dating to at least July, Washburn and her unnamed assignment editor have been reporting on the lack of choice and the higher premiums facing New Jersey residents under Affordable Care Act reforms.

On the front page July 17, Washburn reported:

"In New Jersey, only four companies have announced plans to offer coverage through the federally run exchange. New York, by contrast, has 17 companies providing room for more competition."

But on July 17, the editors were reluctant to tell readers the reason was Governor Christie's refusal to set up a New Jersey exchange, in contrast to his Democratic counterpart in New York.

So, they politicized the blame by putting the words into the mouth of one of New Jersey's Democratic congressman, who was quoted on the continuation page:

"The absence of information was a frustration to U.S. Rep. Robert Andrews, a Haddon Heights Democrat, who blamed it on Governor Christie’s 'regrettable decision' to opt out of a state-run exchange."

Since then, stories on the problem-plagued roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in New Jersey have completely omitted Christie's attempt to sabotage federal reforms, such as the Washburn story on A-3 today.

Where is background?

In July, the GOP bully was running for a second term and it's understandable why The Record's adoring staff tried to sanitize the front-page story.

But now that he won the election and has set his sights on the White House, why don't The Record's editors and reporters level with readers?

What's missing on A-3 today is an essential ingredient in every newspaper story from time immemorial: background. 

Hyping the mess 

On Page 1 today, the inconvenience of closing Fort Lee access lanes to upper level tollbooths on the George Washington Bridge in September has been exaggerated into "a four-day ... traffic nightmare."

The truth is drivers using the lower-level on those days saw no delays, and a Fort Lee access lane to that level's tollbooths remained open.

Can't touch Borgs

The front-page story on incomes in Bergen and Passaic counties remaining well below the levels of 2000 doesn't include the Borg publishing family, whose great wealth has likely increased (A-1).

Another A-1 story on a $120,000 settlement for each of the three boys who filed suit after they were locked in a Fort Lee police van overnight doesn't mention that about $40,000 from each check will go to the plaintiffs' lawyers.

Police and court news

Three of the five stories on the Local front today make the page look like a police blotter (L-1).

On L-6, the obituary for Edward Oldziey, 90, of Wyckoff -- an architect who survived both terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center -- doesn't name the president who was the object of his anger in a letter published in The New York Times 13 days after 9/11.

Have a heart

The Record's Better Living section continues to use recipes from clueless food blogger Kate Morgan Jackson of Upper Saddle River.

Today, Jackson describes the surest way to turn heart-healthy sea scallops into an artery clogging, preservative-filled nightmare (BL-2).

Check the lost-and-found for all those jobs

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

People wait on line to speak to job recruiters at a career day program.

Is The Record of Woodland Park trying to hide its role and the role of every other employer in the dismal jobs picture -- a main issue in next month's congressional elections? On Page 1 today, a refer carries the headline:

Jobs not growing
in Garden State

Gee, if you could grow jobs like tomatoes or corn, New Jersey would be in great shape. But the text below the headline says "the state lost 20,200 jobs" last month as the rest of the U.S. added them. How did it "lose" jobs? Did anyone check the employment lost-and-found?

Of course, the Borgs and every other employer would like nothing more than if readers believe jobs could be "lost" and "found." Publisher Stephen A. Borg is especially sensitive about this issue because of the $3.65 million he sucked out of North Jersey Media Group in the form of a mortgage for his 8,000-square-foot home in Tenafly.

If Greedy Stevie had stayed in his $2 million home, could he have postponed the downsizing that followed several months later or made it less severe? 

The quality of the paper had been going downhill under the incompetent leadership of Editors Francis Scandale, Deirdre Sykes, Tim Nostrand, Jim McGarvey, Barbara Jaeger and others, but when Borg jettisoned many experienced workers and moved to Woodland Park, the decline gathered great speed.

In the employment story on L-8, the first Business page, Staff Writer Hugh Morley does not use the word "employers" or "companies" or "businesses" or "small-business owners" anywhere. Jobs are identified as "government" and "private sector." It's other-worldly. 

So, if you read between the lines, you learn that businesses in New Jersey fired, downsized, laid off or otherwise royally screwed 9,400 more people in September than they hired. How many thousands of families saw their lives turned upside down, while Stephen sipped a great Bordeaux at the Englewood wine bar in which he and his big sister have invested?

Recently, the Business pages had a Q&A with an executive from Ramsey who said it was "too expensive" to hire employees. What goes unsaid by this moron, Borg and others is that the worker who remains standing is expected to do the work of two, three or more who have been shown the door, while the executives keep more of the money for themselves.

The L-8 story reports "the state lost 10,800 government jobs." Was that because of Governor Christie's state aid cuts, which have fallen most heavily on the middle and working classes? Not a word on the cause of the jobs "loss" appears in the story.

This is Zisa's defense?

On A-1 today, the defense attorney for suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa complains  the investigation of him was one-sided and he was denied the chance to testify before the grand jury. He also proclaims his innocence, but if this is all his attorney has, he'll soon be going down in flames. 

Why is this on Page 1, in place of the debate between Bergen County executive candidates?


Monsy catches up to the weeklies

Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado has a second story in the paper today, an L-1  report on  zoning and other changes proposed for Main Street that are many months old. 

She buries on the continuation page that one of the changes sought is a return to two-way traffic, and omits any mention of how The Record's abandonment of Hackensack has affected businesses.

Better Living


Thursday's Better Living section has been missing food coverage for years, but a Starters column appears today, moved up from its usual Friday slot. Unfortunately, this first look at a new restaurant in Tappan, N.Y., completely omits prices, making the piece sound suspiciously like an advertisement.

 

New Jersey and the oil spill -- boring together

Image via Wikipedia

I've been waiting for the story on how New Jersey scientists and residents have responded in the two months since the massive oil spill in the Gulf, so what do the editors at The Record of Woodland Park do? They plaster a long, confusing and, ultimately, boring, piece on mini subs all over Page 1 today.


This story couldn't possibly have been written for A-1. The assignment editor must have fallen asleep while editing it. Even the news copy editor drops the ball on polishing this turd. The headline says,  "Rutgers' mini subs monitor oil spill." Monitor? Watching paint dry is more exciting. An oceanographer is shown "observing" data.


You have to plow through most of it before you find out whether the New Jersey Shore is in danger from the BP spill. That should have been high up in the story. And the reporter never resolves the controversy over whether huge oil plumes exist below the surface, despite all the evidence presented by other scientists that they do.


The lead story on the front page is the murder of another teacher. Unless Governor Christie is a suspect, this doesn't belong on A-1, especially given the Morris County location and the lack of Bergen County news in the paper. 


A better, more relevant story for Page 1 is on A-4 -- the battle over beach access on the Jersey shore. This could have supplanted the mini-sub story, too. That story could have been told by an inside photo and graphic. But news judgment isn't a strong suit among such editors as Frank Scandale, Deirdre Sykes and whoever got stuck working Sunday.

An editorial on A-11 criticizes Christie for proposing huge cuts in legal services for the poor, but in a column on the same page, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin takes the governor's side in  opposing a millionaires tax. I guess Doblin stlll wants to get his weekly check form the wealthy Borgs.

Doblin presumably also edits and approves editorials, including those about Christie's policies, so isn't his column a conflict? And his column usually is so poorly written and juvenile, no reader would miss it.


Local is pathetic. No Hackensack, Teaneck or Englewood news, yet another story on the proposed expansion of The Valley Hospital in Ridgewood. The story rehashes the same arguments readers have seen for almost three years. The overly dramatic headline doesn't help.

(Photo: Jersey shore)

Is Chief Zisa the new target?

Image via Wikipedia

The Record of Woodland Park today reports the increasing number of lawsuits filed against Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa, whose family has long controlled the city. The headline on Page L-2, in the Local section, says: 15 officers now suing Zisa.

What is surprising is that head Assignment Editor Deirdre "Laughs A Lot" Sykes, with the support of Editor Frank Scandale and the Borg family, squandered nearly three years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in staff salaries on an investigation -- not of Zisa and his family -- but of Michael Mordaga, former chief of detectives for the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office who worked for Zisa at one time.
 
But it was clear from the single, weak story on Mordaga that ran in the Local section Dec. 16 that this so-called investigation was actually a vendetta, because the paper had to employ guilt by association as justification for printing anything at all. Indeed, the conflict alleged in the story ended in February 2007 -- two years and 10 months before.

The Zisa family's control of Hackensack is a subject The Record and Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado have done everything to avoid. Although Alvarado has reported individual suits against the chief and covered disciplinary hearings for officers, she has failed to make any connections to the big picture -- how the Zisa family rules the city. Meanwhile, she has largely ignored municipal, education, development and most other city news.

You know there is no local news in the paper today by all the wasted space. And you know some of the columnists are just treading water.

Precious space on the front of the Local section is given over to a "Newstracker" item on two districts looking for new superintendents. Did the saga on a hawk that flew into a store really deserve both a big photo and a story? Is that really environmental news?

Road Warrior John Cichowski has a detailed column on the annoyance of high-intensity discharge headlights, but never tells drivers to turn their eyes to the edge of the road on their side until the other car passes -- what drivers have been advised to do for decades to avoid headlight glare at night.

Restaurant Reviewer Bill Pitcher gives three stars to an expensive Korean butcher shop-cum-steakhouse in Fort Lee, without telling readers of Better Living whether the beef served there is naturally raised or pumped full of harmful antibiotics and growth hormones.

In the restaurant inspection list on Page 18 of Better Living, you'll again search in vain for ratings from Wyckoff.

Seventeen days after the earthquake hit Haiti, the newspaper finally is sending a reporter and photographer there with a Saddle River doctor. Let's hope the lazy, incompetent editors assign someone to cover Teaneck while Staff Writer Joseph Ax is away.

Our tax-cutter is finally here

The Record of Woodland Park today is asking us to believe we finally have a governor who will cut property taxes, which are largely controlled by county and municipal governments. On Page 1 and two inside pages, the paper provides flattering coverage of Chris Christie, who couldn't stop using the magic word "change" during his inauguration yesterday.

I've lived in New Jersey for more than 30 years, and I cannot recall any governor who was able to lower  property taxes, now the highest in the nation. You've got to wonder how Christie is going to do it, especially in view of his vow to cut aid to municipalities. Are we to believe all these towns are suddenly going to merge services with their neighbors to save money and cut property taxes?

Of course, as the editorial on Page A-10 notes, Christie provided few details on how he would bring about the changes he promises. In the news coverage, I question how inaugural guests were served "Jersey blueberries" in January. Is this the first lie from the new administration?

On Page A-7, a grand total of 10 North Jersey residents -- one an actor from the "The Sopranos" -- are interviewed, and most give Christie the benefit of the doubt. Does this seem comprehensive?

Image via Wikipedia

But eight days after the quake hit, The Record still cannot muster any editorial outrage for the shameful performance of the U.S. and other wealthy nations in helping victims in Haiti. TV is doing a far better job of covering the disaster. Last night, a Dominican doctor across the road from the airport told a reporter for PBS he was running out of medicine and other supplies, and could not get any of the stuff he needs from the tons piling up on the tarmac.

On the front of the Local section, take a look at another ridiculous column, based on e-mails, from Road Warrior John Cichowski, who apparently only leaves the office to go home. Also on the front, in what country do people speak Urdu, the language of the Paramus convenience store owner being targeted by vandals? Is it in the story? Let's see, his name is Syad Ahmed. Could he be from .....?

Haiti relief efforts in North Jersey, court and crime news are all local readers in Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood get today.

Englewood reporter Givoanna Fabiano gives us another story on the Acadamies@Englewood -- the attempt to integrate Dwight Morrow High School -- while continuing to ignore segregated elementary and middle schools. On Page L-3, you'll search in vain for the address of a pizzeria at the center of a lawsuit against Hackensack Police Chief Charles Zisa, as if this was a story about Chicago.

Hackensack readers will have to drive up and down River Street to see if they can find the building "controlled by the chief," and while they are it, they can wonder when The Record's Monsy Alvarado will report the status of luxury apartments that were under construction behind the old Hackensack Ford dealer or the town houses that were approved for a parcel near Route 80. But I was relieved to learn Greenwood Lake boat owners will start paying fees in 2011 to maintain water quality.

In the well-edited and well-proofed Better Living section, the address and telephone number of a tea parlor in Leonia was omitted.

Isn't anyone talking about home rule?

Image via Wikipedia

Since the November election, the state's growing financial problems have bounced onto and off of the front page at The Record of Woodland Park  with the regularity of  desperate, incompetent editors grasping at any bit of sensational news to sell more papers.

Now, two days before Chris Christie takes office as governor, the potential $10 billion budget deficit and what he plans to do about it is all over Page 1, with a huge photo that casts him in the role of "The Thinker." Let's hope he is not just dreaming of his next meal. (Photos: Christie and Governor Corzine, below.)

But despite all this flattering coverage, I could not find any mention of home rule, the archaic system of small-town government that keeps property taxes high and gives birth to the legions of politicians with their hands out. Will Christie order towns to consolidate or regionalize services as a way of cutting the incredibly expensive duplication in 566 town governments and hundreds of boards of education?

It doesn't look like it from what is reported today in The Record, which has been a staunch defender of the home-rule system. In fact, the paper says Christie may make cuts in the Department of Environmental Protection, which, he claims, harms the economy with permit delays and fines. This is a scary reminder of the DEP cuts made by one of his Republican predecessors, Christie Whitman.

The stories do say municipal governments and school boards will "face new pressure from Christie to cut spending" and that the new governor will call "on different levels of government to seriously consider sharing redundant services as an opportunity for property tax relief." But if you are familiar with the baby steps towns in Bergen County have taken to share services, you know Christie is sure to fail unless the state orders these changes.

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

And will the new governor be the first in a long time to raise the gasoline tax to fund bridge repair and expand mass transit or will he succumb to the opposition of selfish drivers and the knee-jerk reaction of every newspaper columnist eager to write his political obituary?

Is this front-page news?

Two stories taking up most of Page 1 and the front of the Local section in The Record of Woodland Park today seem out of place. They easily could have been reversed, giving readers a compelling Hurricane Katrina success story on the front page.

Instead, readers are lectured by Road Warrior John "Drivers' Best Friend" Cichowski on Page 1 about the dangers of walking along highways such as Route 4 and Route 46. Is this front-page news? New Jersey saw only 157 of the 1,200 pedestrian deaths cited for the metropolitan area in 2006-08.

The profile of an African-American woman in Paterson who was displaced by Hurricane Katrina, which took her father, doesn't quite fit the Local news section. It reads more like a North Jersey story, with data on other survivors. It just goes to show how unlikely it is for black people to get on the front page of the former Hackensack daily unless they are charged with murder or some other heinous crime.

The rest of the Local section is silent on any news of Hackensack, Englewood or Teaneck -- the three most diverse communities in Bergen County -- unless you count the obituary of a woman who ran the old homeless shelter in Hackensack. The Record's move out of River City seems to have shifted the focus of news-coverage to the west, such as the story today on the Garret Mountain deer hunt -- near the paper's new headquarters.

The placement of stories continues to grate. The sanitation problems at a city of Passaic Mexican cheese factory and the opening of a new hamburger restaurant in Montclair -- essentially two food stories -- appeared this week in the Business pages, where the latter seemed like a big, free advertisement.

Look for real news elsewhere

Image by Grant Jun Otsuki via Flickr

Readers learned many, many years ago not to judge the most important news of the day by the front page of The Record, the local newspaper that banned one-town stories from Page 1. For example, you'd never know New Jersey and its towns are facing a severe financial crisis by how Governor-elect Chris Christie jumps onto and off of  the front page.

Today, half of Page 1 is devoted to those hopeless hoopsters, the Nets, whose move to Brooklyn couldn't come soon enough. Maybe the airhead reporter who wrote this garbage, John Brennan, will get a job as their publicist and follow them.

Have you ever seen anything like Pages A-6 and A-7, referred to in the newsroom as a "double truck"? The stories literally wrap around a Macy's ad, as if it's part of the news layout. I've lost count of how many nights Nancy Cherry, my supervisor on the news copy desk in Hackensack, used to leaf through the paper, right off the press, and say of the expensive, full-page ads, "Thank God for Macy's, thank God for Macy's."

Desperate for news about Hackensack, the lazy, incompetent editors in Woodland Park assigned Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado to cover an anti-war demonstration at the Bergen County Courthouse and then splashed the story all over the front of the Local section. You'll also see Englewood and Teaneck datelines in today's section, but no educational or development news from those three, ethnically diverse towns.

Reporters who write about town employee benefits or promotions aren't really covering their communities. Do Alvarado and Staff Writers Giovanna Fabiano and Josepeh Ax ever talk to residents or do they merely collect and rewrite press releases? Another way reporters at The Record of Woodland Park try to look busy is by writing endless infrastructure stories, anything to avoid reporting on residents' concerns or quality of life (see L-3 and L-5).

Back to journalism as usual

The Record today returned to journalism as usual in its local news coverage of Hackensack. For residents who saw a brief story about a food drive by the Police Department yesterday -- breaking a35-day news dry spell -- the only Hackensack news today is an eight-paragraph story and photo of  an apartment fire. 

That's not the kind of news me and tens of thousands of other residents want from the former Hackensack daily.  

Monsy Alvarado, the Hackensack reporter, has a byline today on a story about alleged thefts by an ex-fire chief in Lodi. The headline says "up to $75,000," but the story says "believed to be under $75,000."

I haven't seen anything in The Record about the new homeless shelter next to the county jail in Hackensack. The building appears to be complete and when I drove by there yesterday, I saw four or five people who might be homeless lounging on sun-splashed benches and what looked like a loading dock. Yellow, plastic tape blocked a driveway to the parking lot, which was empty, though a few weeks ago, it was full.

On another local story, which is promoted on Page 1 and played on the Local section front, I don't recall seeing a story about the murder of a soldier from Teaneck on Nov. 6. The husband, from Englewood, apparently committed suicide. This story reports on the soldier's funeral today.

On Page L-2, "daily education coverage" today includes a look at the Ringwood school system. In the more than two years and three months I have lived in Hackensack, I can't recall any stories about the school system my 12-year-old son attends.


There are also stories from Pequannock, Wanaque and Woodland Park, the new home of The Record and the Borg family's privately held North Jersey Media Group.

Hackensack news drought ends

Lo and behold. After a 35-day drought, a story about Hackensack appears today in the Local section of The Record, which was founded there in 1895 and prospered for more than 110 years before abandoning the city for bucolic Woodland Park.

As stories go, this one isn't much -- only a sidebar to a larger piece about greater demand at food pantries, a phenomenon the paper has reported on a few times a year for more than a decade. Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado emerges out of her cocoon briefly to tell us about a food drive by police, just about the only city agency she wrote about before the latest dry spell (occasional police and fire news doesn't count).

Another thing I noticed about today's paper is a missing Marketplace column in Better Living, and that could mean the paper is reducing its already unfocused and inadequate food coverage.

The lack of Hackensack municipal coverage is startling for a newspaper that made its reputation on covering local news. Is Monsy even working in Hackensack? I drove through the parking lot of 150 River St., The Record's landmark building, about two weeks ago and counted maybe a dozen cars belonging to staffers, plus a bunch of unsold Toyotas from the dealer down the street.

I looked up the story that ran in The Record on Feb. 21, 2008, quoting North Jersey Media Group President Stephen A. Borg and Vice President and General Counsel Jennifer A. Borg, his sister, on the future of the 300,000-square-foot building.

Stephen Borg acknowledged printing of The Record and Herald News was moved to Rockaway Township in October 2006, about four months after he took over. He said the expected time frame to vacate the "home of The Record" was "two to three years," so the earliest date would have been this coming February. Borg added he preferred to stay in Bergen County. In fact, most of the staff vamoosed earlier this year, the bulk of them to Passaic and Morris counties.

Jennifer Borg was quoted in early 2008 as saying the company "wishes" to stay in Hackensack, "if possible." Really?


"We really want to do what's right for the city and what's right for the county," she added. "We're very mindful of having the city's interests at heart."

Really? Well, what really happened? NJMG moved the Borg siblings and its headquarters to Woodland Park and The Record moved its newsroom to the same Garret Mountain building, joining the Herald News. Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg was left behind to preside over a largely empty building. Really? Really.

Doesn't what was said and what was done widen the NJMG credibility gap even further?

Taking Bergen out of The Bergen Record

Image via Wikipedia

The Record today is another edition with too much Passaic County news for this Hackensack resident, especially from a paper that is still known in many circles as The Bergen Record.

The biggest element on Page 1 reports that on Dec. 1, Passaic County officials will become the first in New Jersey to use a $3 surcharge on mortgage, deed and foreclosure actions to provide housing for the homeless. I still have not seen a story in the former Hackensack daily about the completion of a new homeless shelter only a few blocks from the paper's old headquarters.

In the Local section, there is more Passaic County news: five stories on Pages L-1, L-2 and L-3. A story about a jewelry heist in Englewood leads the section, but never explains why the store was closed around 12:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday. Did the owner go to lunch? That would be an expensive lunch. For Hackensack news, we have the opening of a health center for the indigent by the medical writer, Lindy Washburn.

Better Living continues the boycott of food news on Thursdays, despite the paper's pledge to provide such coverage "every day."

My critics say I complain too much and do not give The Record "props when deserved." The problem is that even when the paper does something right, it could have been done so much better. It seems that the incompetent editors are totally submissive to Publisher Stephen A. Borg, whose "good-enough" philosophy has dumbed down the paper and destroyed its reputation as an aggressive local news and advertising presence.

It is poorly researched, poorly written and poorly edited, and many reporters can't even seem to spell people's names correctly or get the correct name, as can be seen by the correction on A-2 today.

And how can anyone minimize the virtual abandonment of Hackensack -- where The Record was founded in 1895 and where it prospered for more than 110 years -- by moving printing of the paper and most of the editorial staff to other counties? Hackensack is now out of sight and out of mind.

The wealthy Borgs apparently have never informed readers or advertisers about the moves and continue to perpetuate a myth by stating on Page A-2 every day that The Record is "published daily by [the Borg family's] North Jersey Media Group at 150 River St., Hackensack, N.J." By the way, NJMG is listed as the 8th-largest family business in the state -- with 1,231 employees -- by NJBIZ.com.

We can only  imagine the economic impact on struggling Main Street merchants after hundreds of press people, reporters, editors and so forth decamped, so the Borgs can try to make a killing on selling the landmark River Street building and its many surrounding acres.

In place of local news coverage, we're given Stephen Borg's marketing slogans, such as the one under the masthead every day: "The trusted local source."  Indeed, The Record in so many ways has repudiated its former slogan: "Friend of the people it serves."

Giving Whitman free reign

The Record today carried another opinion column by former Gov. Christie Whitman, but the editors made no attempt to ensure it was complete or accurate.

In giving fiscal advice to Governor-elect Chris Christie (The Other Christie), Whitman slammed the Democrats for allegedly doubling state debt after she left office in January 2001. But she conveniently fails to mention how she plundered state pension funds and borrowed heavily to make ends meet after she became governor in 1994.

In the same way, The Record has rarely, if ever, mentioned in writing about former Gov. Jim Florio that Tom Kean Sr., his predecessor, hid a massive deficit from the incoming Democrat, forcing Florio to raise taxes. He was driven from office after one term.

I recall that The Record's coverage of Whitman as governor amounted to a love fest, under the direction of News Editor Deirdre Sykes, now head of the local assignment desk. It was only after Whitman gutted the Department of Environmental Protection (in what I believe was her second term) that the paper took notice, putting together a series of critical articles.

Note: If  The Record's owners, editors or reporters take issue with anything that appears in "Eye on The Record,"  they are free to comment, and they can do so anonymously by clicking on the word "comments" at the end of each post.

Rewriting a news release for Page 1

Image by slimmer_jimmer via Flickr

The front page of The Record today is filled with news for a change -- from a spike in pedestrian deaths in car-loving New Jersey to the governor-elect mulling a 'state of emergency' to hospitals restricting visitors because of the flu scare.

But if you read the most prominent story carefully -- pedestrian deaths jump 33% -- you will realize it is based not on the reporter's enterprise but on a news release from a group in Washington that probably arrived via fax -- a neat little package that the paper loves. All Staff Writer Karen Rouse had to do to land on Page 1 was make a few phone calls to officials and interview one -- just one -- pedestrian. Today is the second day in a row that traffic safety has been splashed across the front page. Yesterday's story, also by Rouse, was based on a safety grant the state won.

The photos for the pedestrian story, of Teaneck's Cedar Lane, are good, but the speed of cars and trucks on Hackensack Avenue and River Street in Hackensack make them far more hazardous to cross. From a driver's point of view, Main Street in Hackensack is a nightmare, because of pedestrians darting out from between cars on the one-way thoroughfare. Oh, wait. The former Hackensack daily moved most of its reporters and photographers to offices in Woodland Park more than a year ago.

The story also fails to mention how speeding enforcement can make streets more pedestrian-friendly. On Cedar Lane, a police speed trap is far away from one block where drivers race and pedestrians run for their lives -- from the CVS parking lot to the Blockbuster store and food businesses on the opposite side of the street.

I recall that until it received a news release or wire service story based on another report a few years ago, The Record didn't realize that an unusually large number of pedestrians who are killed are senior citizens. That's because the paper's lazy editors treat incidents such as pedestrian deaths and the elderly ramming their cars into buildings, other cars and people as so much "police news," failing to see a pattern.

These same editors don't encourage reporters to get out into their communities, talk to people and observe as a way of finding stories. Instead, reporters are told to devote all their time to neat, little journalistic packages, including news releases, reports, hearings, meetings, proposed ordinances and protests.

When I was a news copy editor at The Record, I recall vividly how two reporters rejected my story ideas -- not because they were bad ideas or couldn't be done without legwork -- but because no group was "clamoring for change," as one of the staffers put it. I've always felt it should be the newspaper that sets the public agenda, not the other way around.

You'll find a story based on one of those neat packages on the front of the Local section -- the first story about Englewood in 12 days (but you won't find any stories about Teaneck or Hackensack, the paper's home for more than 110 years). This is huge news. Englewood is forming a 'green team' to boost recycling.

Of course, the newspaper has ignored how Hackesnsack moved into the forefront of recycling among North Jersey communities more than a year ago when it began accepting  TV sets, computers and other electronics; light bulbs and batteries -- in addition to the usual curbside pickup of newspapers, junk mail, plastic bottles and cans.

And I don't see anything in the L-1 story about Englewood beginning to accept television sets, computers, light bulbs and batteries.