Editors climb into bed with Christie

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The Road Warrior tackles boating issues at the start of Fleet Week.

Why is Governor Christie's statement on the state Supreme Court education ruling printed in full on Page A-13 today?

This unprecedented sellout by Editor Francis Scandale, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin and OpEd Page Editor Peter Grad is the journalism equivalent of a blow job.

If Doblin again has climbed into bed to have sex with the Republican bully, Scandale or Grad better join them to prevent the governor from rolling over and snuffing out their diminutive colleague. 

More Christie coverage

Christie also is quoted in the Page 1 story by Staff Writer Leslie Brody and in Doblin's A-12 editorial, both of which continue to portray court-ordered education funding as a battle between rich and poor -- while ignoring the broken property-tax and home-rule systems.

More Christie jaw-boning appears in the column by Staff Writer Charles Stile on A-8. Enough already.

The Christie statement on unlucky A-13 also displaced Jim Ahearn's column -- on Bergen Community College President Jerry Ryan -- from its usual spot at the top of the page.

This is the first time I've seen an editor or former editor publicly criticize any story as ill-conceived, unfair and poorly reported.

Journalism whores

Of course, Ahearn is referring to last week's Page 1 hatchet jobs on Ryan's expense account from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Staff Writer Pat Alex. What trash.

In a nod to the start of Fleet Week in New York, Road Warrior John Cichowski makes commuters sea sick with an L-1 column on boating (&*@????#!$%).

Staff Writer John Gavin's assignment editor deserves a journalism award for guiding his story on the purchase of breathing equipment for Wood-Ridge  firefighters (L-2).

Imagine the local news possibilities. A story could be written on every purchase by the hundreds of municipal agencies in North Jersey -- from ambulances to firetrucks and police cruisers to more breathing apparatus.

Missed story

The Woodland Park daily hasn't covered the liquidation in Hackensack of the Best Western Oritani Hotel and adjoining Ichiban Japanese steakhouse, which are closed and will be demolished to make way for apartments.

The liquidator, a tall, gray-haired man, said Wednesday this is the first time in his 20 years in business the media have ignored such a liquidation in a city the size of Hackensack. It began May 5.

Long-time staffers may remember the Oritani as one of the hotels where management put them up during blizzards and floods.

Another ho

Better Living's comprehensive food coverage continues today with a recipe and cookbook promotion by Food Editor Susan Leigh Sherrill (F-1). 

Sherrill appears beholden to promote every free cookbook that lands on her desk.

Where the jocks are in control

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If you believe The Record of Woodland Park should reflect the values of its sports-loving editor and wealthy owners -- the mansion-loving Borgs -- then you see nothing wrong with devoting most of the front page today to parking problems at the new Giants Stadium in East Rutherford.

You certainly won't find the former Hackensack daily questioning why our society can afford newer, bigger  and more expensive sports venues, while consistently serving up a royal F-U to the poor, the homeless and the hungry -- whose numbers continue to increase.

That big Page 1 story is written by Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski, who long ago lost sight of his core mission to report on commuters and mass transit. He is such a champion of people who'll fight to their death for the privilege of driving alone in their gas guzzlers, he's even got an attitude about the few red-light cameras slated for North Jersey.

Don't look in the Local section today for any education or municipal news about the highly diverse towns of Teaneck, Englewood and Hackensack, where the paper was founded in 1895 and prospered for more than 110 years before moving to Woodland Park. You also won't see anything about why the new homeless shelter in Hackensack was apparently finished weeks ago, but hasn't opened. I guess the paper is waiting for a news release to arrive.

On Page A-22 today, a letter to the editor from Andrew J. Stanish of Elmwood Park asked the same question "Eye on The Record" did Wednesday: Why was Al Frech of Wayne given such a big piece of the editorial page to misinform readers about health-car reform, and just who is Al Frech? He has been just about the only opinion writer who hasn't been identified by the paper.  

Peter Grad, the editor of the Opinion Page, hasn't responded to an e-mail from "Eye on The Record" on why Frech wasn't identified beyond the town he lives in. You can reach him at grad@northjersey.com.

In Better Living today, more precious space and ink is lavished on Blend in Ridgewood. Haven't we read enough about the ups and downs of this apparently flawed restaurant and lounge, judging from the two-star rating from Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung? That's the same rating she gave a faux-Caribbean, chain restaurant on the highway in Wayne called Bahama Breeze. If she had so many problems with the food and service, why run three highly promotional, mouth-watering, color photographs of the fare on the front of the section and inside? No wonder she is referred to in some quarters as Elisa Ugh.

Meanwhile, the lazy editors provide us with only a partial list of restaurant sanitary inspections in North Jersey. For example, when was the last time you saw ratings for restaurants in wealthy Wyckoff?