Christie pushing back against ex-aide on trial in GWB case

"Saturday Night Live" lampooned the third and final debate between Democrat Hillary Clinton and wacko racist Donald J. Trump, above and below. When Alex Baldwin's Trump used the phrase "bad hombres," Kate McKinnon's Clinton declared she had won "Trump Bingo" ("rapists," "Miss Piggy," "They're all living in hell" and "If she wasn't my daughter").

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If I didn't know better, I'd think reporters and columnists at The Record are taking sides in the trial of Governor Christie's ex-aides in the Bridgegate scandal. 

Today's lead story by Dustin Racioppi reports the Intergovernmental Affairs department (IGA) "did not become politicized until" right-hand man Bill Stepien left "and turned over duties to Bridget Anne Kelly" (A-1).

Kelly is on trial in Newark federal court, accused of working with Port Authority officials to block access to the George Washington Bridge as political retribution against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor, who refused to back the GOP bully's reelection in 2013.

That clashes with her testimony, including her claim that her email to David Wildstein, Christie's Port Authority crony -- "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" -- wasn't an "order."

Tarring Kelly

Until today, Bridget Kelly enjoyed several days of being portrayed in flattering terms by Columnist Mike Kelly, who profiled her and then wrote a long piece commenting on her Friday testimony, which he called "her side of the story."

But Racioppi quotes a former head of the state Ethics Commission suggesting an investigation into whether the IGA under Bridget Kelly "conducted political activity during state time, using state resources, using state employees to do it" (A-6).

It's also troubling that Racioppi refers several times to an "investigation" commissioned by Christie that eventually cost taxpayers more than $10 million -- the lead lawyer, Randy Mastro, was charging $650 an hour.

That report was widely viewed as a whitewash of the governor's role in the George Washington Bridge scandal -- confirmed by Kelly and other witnesses who said the governor knew of the lane closures in Fort Lee as they occurred.

As an example of how today's piece amounts to major push-back by Christie, Racioppi quotes Mastro's report as claiming IGA "functioned very effectively during the first three years of the governor's first term, both in terms of responsiveness and non-partisanship" (A-6).

"But, then, during the governor's reelection year, under [Bridget] Kelly's stewardship, there was aberrational behavior at Kelly's direction," Mastro claimed.

In GWB case, editors' knowledge of legal system is a joke

The YMCA at Main and Passaic streets in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Despite the hundreds of hours his ass has been planted on a courtroom bench, Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record is no expert on federal criminal prosecutions.

In fact, only one of the three bylines on today's continuing front-page coverage of the George Washington Bridge lane-closure indictments carries with it any credibility (A-1).

Staff Writer Peter J. Sampson, who is assigned to cover the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Courthouse in Newark, is a former wire-service reporter who likely has covered hundreds of federal indictments and trails.

Still, today's banner headline isn't news to anyone familiar with federal prosecutions:

"Defense team may call Christie"

That was clear four long days ago, when Christie ally David Wildstein pleaded guilty to conspiring with the governor's aide and another Port Authority executive to close bridge access lanes in 2013 as part of a political vendetta against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor.

Defense lawyers for Bridget Anne Kelly and Bill Baroni would be fools not to call Christie, himself a former U.S. attorney, who continues to insist he had no knowledge of the scheme.

Otherwise, Kelly and Baroni, along with Wildstein, would have to take the fall for a fraud scheme that was the nastiest political dirty trick since Watergate.

'Oh, shit' moment

I am sure that Christie said "Oh, shit" to himself and called his high-priced lawyer on Friday as soon as he heard Wildstein repeat his January 2014 statement that "evidence exists" the GOP bully knew of the lane closings as they were happening.

Instead of pursuing the potential of a sitting governor and GOP presidential candidate being called as a witness at a Bridgegate fraud trial, Editor Martin Gottlieb jumped immediately to the governor's defense.

That was clear from Monday's idiotic banner headline:

"Sharp contrasts in GWB probe"

Gottlieb actually compared the federal criminal charges filed against the Bridgegate defendants after a 16-month investigation to a March 2014 report that exonerated Christie at a cost to the taxpayers of $7.5 million.

That report -- from lawyer Randy Mastro -- was never even credible in the court of public opinion, but Christie could count on a clueless media to waste precious front page space and treat it as if were evidence.

'Fading' hopes

In one of the most negative Christie editorials I've seen, The Record notes the governor will be out of state again today and asks:

"When is Christie going to consistently show up at his day job, the one some people were so focused on his retaining in 2013 that they allegedly broke the law" (A-8)?

The edtorial also refers to the Mastro report as "a multimillion-dollar whitewash on the GWB scandal," making you wonder why it was regurgitated at such great length on Monday's Page 1.

Playing media

Christie continues to manage Gottlieb and other editors in the wake of the federal charges, just as the GOP  bully has since he took office in early 2010 and started waging war against the middle class.

NJ.com reports the governor has cancelled the weekly New Jersey town hall meetings he said he was going to attend.

And WNYC-FM, a New Jersey Public Radio station, puts Bridgegate legal costs to taxpayers and toll payers at nearly $10.7 million, if state, legislative, Port Authority and Fort Lee expenses are included.

Finally, a new Bridgegate poll released today found more than two in three New Jerseyans (69%) feel Christie has not been completely honest about what he knew.

And a majority of Garden State Republicans (52%) now believe he hasn't been completely honest.

More errors

On Sunday, The Record reported incorrectly that Pompton Lakes had already adopted its school budget (A-2).

A bigger error occurred in Brigid Harrison's Sunday opinion column, which referred to Richard Nixon as a former governor (Sunday's O-2).

An Eye on The Record reader noted Nixon ran for governor of California in 1962 and lost.

On Christie's lack of concern in reacting to the GWB charges, the political science and law professor said:

"The connection to the [Christie] administration is problematical for a presidential contender because it demonstrates either corruption and lying or an inability to manage staff -- not what voters are looking for in a president."

Why wasn't Harrison's column played on Page 1 -- instead of an endless stream of drivel from Charles Stile, Mike Kelly and other burned-out reporters?

McDonald's

An upbeat Business page story on McDonald's slumping sales reports the company "intends to stop buying chicken treated with antibiotics" (L-8).

The clueless Washington Port reporter says nothing about the low-quality, additive-filled beef on which McDonald's made its reputation.

Anyone foolish enough to eat at McDonald's would be happy with a guarantee the hamburgers don't contain cow feces.

Like pricey defense attorneys, editors try to clear Christie

Numerous projects on Main Street have made driving through Fort Lee agonizing, even when the Port Authority isn't conducting a "traffic study" on the George Washington Bridge. Today's tie-ups looked much like this photo, which was taken last Monday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The U.S. attorney for New Jersey ended nearly 20 months of speculation by charging three of Governor Christie's allies in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal.

And ex-Port Authority official David Wildstein's guilty plea to conspiring with two others suggested Christie's role in the political vendetta will finally be revealed at a trial in federal court.  

Now, The Record's editor, Martin Gottlieb, is muddling the picture once again by using the front page to rehash the $7.5 million whitewash commissioned by the GOP bully (A-1).

The "ANALYSIS" bug on the story by Salvador Rizzo changes nothing: 

Attorney Randy Mastro's 360-page report is not evidence, and will never be introduced at the trials of former Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly or Bill Baroni, the Port Authority's former executive director.

It is merely an elaborate attempt to do what every defense lawyer does in return for obscene amounts of money: 

Put Christie's actions in the best light possible.

U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman will have to prove his charges before a jury; there were no restraints of any kind on what Mastro's report stated or speculated.

NJ Transit

Is another story on Page 1 today the first time in decades the editors actually asked commuters to comment on the quality of NJ Transit's rail service (A-1)?

Why did the interviews have to wait for a proposal to raise fares 9 percent and reduce late-night service?

It would be hard to find a bigger enemy of mass transit than the Woodland Park daily, which should be calling on Christie to plug the $60 million gap in the agency's budget.

Oh, that's right. Christie's own budget is such a disaster because he's repeatedly vetoed taxes on the wealthy and given hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to businesses.

Drivers rock

The Record's sympathies have always been with drivers, as the Road Warrior column has shown repeatedly for nearly a dozen years.

After all, the region's auto dealers spend millions on newspaper advertising every year.

That's also probably why the editors won't call on Christie to raise the gasoline tax, an action that would make drivers pay to fix the roads and bridges they use every day.

Bridgegate editors bury an elaborate Christie cover-up

Today is a thoroughly miserable day to be driving around Bergen County.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

If the miserable, sunless weather doesn't get you down, The Record's whitewash of a legislative panel's report on Governor Christie and Bridgegate is certain to do the trick.

"Cover-up" was the word used by some media outlets to describe the report's conclusions, including WNYC-FM.

But you would have to read far into today's upbeat Page 1 "ANALYSIS," a Charles Stile column and an editorial (A-9) to understand just how far Governor Christie, his aides and his cronies went to cover up the real purpose of the George Washington Bridge lane closures -- political payback.

When the Woodland Park daily's editors and reporters sound like the GOP bully's own spin doctors, you know journalistic principals have been compromised.

Wrong-way Boburg

Staff Writer Shawn Boburg claims in his first paragraph today that the Legislature's Bridgegate report concluded Governor Christie didn't know of the scheme (A-1), but that contradicts what he reported on Friday.

The state legislative committee investigating the September 2013 gridlock in Fort Lee said there was "no conclusive evidence" as to whether Christie "was or was not" aware of the closures or involved in directing them, according to Boburg's Page 1 story on Friday.

And Boburg's lead paragraph today mentions "two reports," a reference to the whitewash by Christie's own lawyers, including Randy Mastro, who soaked taxpayers by submitting a request for $7.2 million in legal fees.

Treating the credibility of the two reports equally completely violates the standards of objective journalism.

Indeed, a gullible Boburg quoted Mastro on Friday's Page 1 claiming that "with this [legislative] inquiry behind it [sic], the governor and his office can focus on what they do best -- serving the public interest."

At the moment Mastro's press release went out, Christie was thousands of miles away in Canada, pursing his White House dreams. 

So much for "serving the public interest."

Editorial trickery

Stile, one of the paper's biggest Christie boosters, claims in his first paragraph the latest report "may help [the governor] in his yearlong quest for rehabilitation" (A-1).

The headlines on today's editorial are even more bewildering (A-9):

No involvement

GWB panel implicates only Christie aides

Really? 

Today, none other than Boburg reports "the legislative report said Christie and an aide had deleted 12 text messages they exchanged during damaging testimony by Port Authority officials" (A-6).

And readers have to question the motives of Boburg and his editors to bury the lead in the last paragraph of his so-called Analysis, quoting a spokesman for the Democratic National Commitee:

"Some of Christie's closest aides and allies put safety at risk, seemingly to exact petty political revenge, and in the aftermath, they lied about it. That, in itself, is inexcusable conduct coming from the administration of someone who wants to be president of the United States" (A-6).

Readers greet GWB headline with healthy skepticism

Solari's on River Street is one of the Hackensack businesses that suffered greatly after The Record and North Jersey Media Group abandoned the city in 2009. I remember an April 2010 lunch there in a nearly empty dining room. Marco Solari, whose grandfather opened the restaurant in 1934, sold the business about two years ago, but retained ownership of the building and land.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Another edition, another bad headline.

The lead, banner headline on the front page of The Record today -- "GWB probe finds no link to Christie" -- has many readers questioning the editors' objectivity.

The text of the story by Staff Writer Shawn Boburg is far more equivocal:

"The report states there is 'no conclusive evidence' as to whether the governor 'was or was not' aware of the lane closures or involved in directing them" (A-1).

That sounds like the state legislative panel probing Bridgegate was unable to answer the question of Christie's role definitively.

Not only does the headline go too far, but a couple of paragraphs later Boburg quotes Christie's million-dollar defense lawyer, who claims "there is not a shred of evidence Governor Christie knew anything" about the Sept. 2013 lane closures in Fort Lee.

You'd expect attorney Randy Mastro to say that, but you'd also expect The Record's reporter to leave such a self-serving statement to the continuation page, and to point out it also goes beyond what the investigative panel said.

Bad reporting

The Record should recall Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson, if he continues to write about Rep. Scott Garrett's campaign fundraising and to ignore the arch-conservative's policies (L-1).

In a Page 1 story before the Nov. 4 election, Jackson boosted the Wantage Republican's reelection effort by omitting any mention of how Garrett initially opposed federal Sandy relief.

Then, the reporter sat on his hands instead of telling readers whether ads attacking challenger Roy Cho of Hackensack had a shred of truth in them.

My beef with Ung

After reading Elisa Ung complain about Roots Steakhouse in Ridgewood, I get the feeling she would gladly eat a turd as long as it was dry aged (BL-18).

To the clueless restaurant reviewer, the ultimate steak "is prime and dry aged," and she complains Roots wet ages its New York strip, "a far less expensive method."

But prime only means the beef is fattier than lower USDA grades; it doesn't have anything to do with how the animal was raised.

So, a restaurant can serve low-quality steaks from animals confined to feeding pens and raised on grain, animal antibiotics and growth hormones to get them to market faster, and Ung would praise the meat as long as it was prime and dry aged. 

Are Roots' steaks organic or grass fed? Readers don't have a clue. 

Another crappy column from a burned-out reporter

In Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and many other towns, as well as on state highways, hundreds of potholes like this one remain unfilled, and pose an obstacle course for drivers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

No. This post isn't about Staff Writer John Cichowski, whose Road Warrior column is known for hype, exaggeration and numerous inaccuracies, which may be caused by the aging reporter's confused state of mind.

This is about Mike Kelly, whose Page 1 column today in The Record is another in a series of unfocused, rambling pieces that is completely devoid of a point of view.

Kelly presents the usual set of observers and experts, publishes the usual quotes and calls it a day. 

Yet, readers have to look at his thumbnail photo's shit-eating grin, as if the reporter knows he is getting away with more crappy writing and reporting.

This "column" is indistinguishable from a news story (A-1).

Sloppy reporting

And he can't even manage to accurately quote the infamous e-mail that blew open the investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane closures, known far and wide as Bridegate, a word The Record refuses to use.

Kelly says Bridget Anne Kelly "suggested 'some traffic problems in Fort Lee.'"

But Kelly, who was Governor Christie's deputy chief of staff, didn't "suggest" anything.

In an e-mail to David Wildstein, who was Christie's crony on the Port Authority, she called for the lane closures in no uncertain terms:

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

Blame game

The report on the "internal" review commissioned by Christie places the blame for the lane closures on Bridget Kelly and Wildstein, and clears the GOP bully.

But it was met with widespread skepticism, and denounced as little more than a self-serving whitewash.

Today -- a week after the report was leaked to The New York Times -- Kelly the reporter cites a "debate" over descriptions of the former aide's personal life and her alleged relationship with Christie's campaign manager. 

Is anyone but Mike Kelly debating this? Isn't the real debate over whether Christie has lied about his knowledge and role in the lane closures from the beginning?

And if Mike Kelly is offended by the report's use of personal details, why does he repeat them in his column?

And why doesn't he act like a real journalist and call for Christie lawyer Randy Mastro to go before an ethics panel for dragging Bridget Kelly's personal life through the mud?

No news today

I know Sundays are "slow news days" and Monday's front page is usually filled with scene-setters and other canned copy.

But, really, are trimming trees around power lines so controversial that they are on the front page today (A-1)?

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza and the other supremely lazy local-news editors have these words on a save/get key:

"No other information was available."

Those words appear today in a photo caption on a fatal accident "early Sunday" on New Bridge Road in Teaneck (L-1).

The 29-year-old driver was killed, but The Record doesn't identify him or say whether he was speeding.

If Teaneck police wouldn't release the information, shouldn't the editors address that and not constantly cheat readers?

Deliberate distortion

In his Road Warrior column last Wednesday, Cichowski focused on a disabled man who lived in Union Township, and claimed he could be served by a proposed car service to get to his doctor in Hackensack.

But the man is in his 50s, and would be ineligible to use the service, which is for people 60 years old and older, according to a concerned reader.

This was no innocent oversight by Cichowski. 

It was deliberate distortion accomplished by omitting from the column both the man's age and the minimum age of people who could use the proposed service.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior gives false hope to disabled

See previous post

on Hackensack's new train shelter

Warning to GWB drivers: Christie whitewash ahead

Governor Christie was told about closure of two of the three George Washington Bridge local access lanes in Fort Lee, above, as they caused traffic gridlock in early September, in an apparent act of political retribution against the borough's Democratic mayor. Christie's response? He takes the out used by witnesses for decades: I don't recall.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

In their desperation to advance the whitewash clearing Governor Christie in the George Washington Bridge lane closures, The Record's editors claim in a banner headline today the GOP bully emerges "unscathed."

How did Editor Marty Gottlieb or anyone else in the Woodland Park newsroom know -- barely 12 hours after the report was released on Thursday -- that Christie didn't suffer any injury, damage or harm to his already battered reputation?

As usual, columnists, reporters and editors ignore the court of public opinion as they regurgitate the highly orchestrated dog-and-pony show put on by Christie's $650-an-hour lawyer, Randy Mastro (A-1, A-6 and A-7).

Playing catch-up

The New York Times this week scooped The Record on the basic conclusions of the report, forcing Gottlieb to advance the story with "a second-day lead" on Page 1. 

But where are the man-on-the-street interviews, the reaction of the public, not just the usual interviews with critics, pollsters and so-called experts Record staffers have on speed dial?

In the tradition of defense attorneys everywhere, Mastro put Christie in the best light possible while portraying the governor's former aide, Port Authority crony and Hoboken Mayor Dawn Zimmer as unreliable and even emotionally disturbed.

Mastro also managed to get out ahead of the state Legislature's Bridgegate investigators, who are being stonewalled by Bridget Anne Kelly and others.

As Christie's deputy chief of staff, Kelly wrote the infamous e-mail to David Wildstein, his crony at the Port Authority:

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

Editorial comment

An editorial today says the Mastro report raised more questions than it answered, and failed "to discover the complete truth" (A-18).

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin's opinion column compares the report to works by Twain and Tolstoy (A-19).

Bad news

The best read story in the newsroom today is the "reorganization" and additional layoffs at The Star-Ledger, the state's biggest newspaper, which supplies stories to The Record (A-1 and A-4).

I am sure reporters and editors are wondering if the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group plans the same fate for them. 

Hackensack news

Also on the editorial page today is a letter to the editor from Lynne Hurwitz, chairwoman of the Hackensack Democratic Committee (A-18).

Hurwitz is credited with being the power behind the Zisa family in all their years of disservice to Hackensack, and her sour grapes have been clearly evident since she failed to get her slate elected last May.

Her letter complains that Mayor John Labrosse refused comment on the $78,000 salary for the city's chief spokesman, Thom Ammirato, who was campaign manager for the victorious Citizens for Change slate.

Hurwitz reportedly retired in 2011 from a $97,000-a-year job as deputy chief of staff to Bergen County Executive Dennis C. McNerney with a monthly pension of $2,499.

Critics say one of her chief duties was watering the plants in the county Administration Building.

Appetizing resume

All restaurant goers know you can't eat the wallpaper or the chef's resume, but that doesn't stop Staff Writer Elisa Ung from wasting more than half of her review today on just such details (BL-14).

As it is, readers are kept in the dark about salads, vegetables, whole-wheat pasta and seafood at Caffe Anello in Westwood, apart from passing references to "roasted clams" and a burned fillet of Chilean sea bass for $34.

This is another unfocused, poorly written and edited appraisal of a restaurant Ung awards three out of four stars (Excellent).

She reports Chef John Vitale succeeds in bringing to Bergen County the passion behind the authentic Italian meals he enjoyed in Tuscany, and ends her review this way:

"... It is the restaurant for those inspired by passion, just as Vitale was in Tuscany. Wouldn't it be great if Anello ended up planting a powerful idea in another's head?"

"Another's head"? That's awkward. Does she mean another chef or restaurant owner? Or just any head, say of a passer-by?

Lawyers are getting much richer, taxpayers poorer

Euclid Avenue in Hackensack.Warning: One-lane road ahead.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The sensational charges in the Bridgegate scandal have devolved into the kind of ponderous process story The Record loves to tell.

Weeks after discovery of the explosive e-mail -- "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee" -- the story now involves subpoenas, document production and pissing matches between high-priced lawyers, each one spouting another legal theory (A-1).

Flawed column

Today, on A-3, Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson doesn't do any heavy lifting in his NJ/DC column that purports to explore whether taxpayers will foot the bill for all of the lawyers involved on both sides of state and federal investigations.

Jackson says Governor Christie has the public picking up the $650-an-hour tab for attorney Randy Mastro, and David Wildstein is trying to hit up his former employer, the Port Authority, which isn't supported by taxes. 

But that's it from Jackson, who doesn't mention eight other figures in the probe, including former Christie aide Bridget Anne Kelly, who sent that infamous e-mail, or whether taxpayers are on the hook for their private lawyers (A-10 on Sunday).

Marty defends Chris

On Sunday, The Record's front page was dominated by a story that seemed planted by Christie's public relations machine:

The alleged "bromance" between the GOP bully and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Staff Writer Stephanie Akin called Giuliani "his [Christie's] biggest advocate."

Half the story

But Akin's story failed to mention that Giuliani told a radio interviewer there is a "fifty-fifty" chance Christie was aware of the Kelly discussions that led to George Washington Bridge lane closures.

Geraldo Rivera's interview of Giuliani was reported on Jan. 30 by The Huffington Post.

The early September gridlock in Fort Lee may have been political payback for the refusal of the borough's Democratic mayor to endorse Christie for a second term.  

No editing

"Fifty-fifty" is far from The Record's portrayal of Giuliani in that Sunday takeout by one of its so-called stars:

The former mayor is Christie's "staunchest defender," "Giuliani's voice has been loudest" in Christie's defense, and "Giuliani's staunch advocacy."

In fact, the story is way too long and awfully repetitive, more evidence of the abysmal lack of editing and fact-checking at the Woodland Park daily, which has been run for the last two years by former Timesman Marty Gottlieb.

Christie hires $1,000-an-hour lawyer at a discount

Thursday afternoon rush hour on River Road in Teaneck, as seen through a dirty windshield.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Taxpayers are beginning to learn how much they'll be paying for all of the high-priced legal talent flocking to the side of Bridgegate figures, including Governor Christie.

But don't expect The Record of Woodland Park to investigate a legal system with no ceiling on hourly rates that, in effect, restricts access to the courts.

Or discuss a system monitored by judges -- former lawyers -- who often reward the attorney far more than the client who has been injured or is a victim of discrimination.

How much?

Today's front page story on how much attorney Randy Mastro is charging Christie's office is so poorly reported and edited readers don't know his exact hourly rate.

Mastro is charging $650 an hour to represent the Governor's Office in a series of investigations into the George Washington Bridge lane closures in Democratic Fort Lee -- "a discount of more than 40 percent" (A-1 and A-6).

The story never gives Mastro's "normal rate," but says it is more than $1,000 an hour. And that doesn't include such expenses as postage, transcripts and other extras.

I don't know anything about this legal eagle -- or turkey -- but question the worth of a lawyer who charges around $35 for a 2-minute phone conversation with his client.

More lawyers

Another lawyer, Reid Schar, the former federal prosecutor advising the Legislature's probe, is charging $350 an hour, a fee first reported on Thursday by New Jersey Public Radio.

Also mentioned in today's story is Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie's deputy chief of staff, who was fired after an e-mail showed she had plotted with the Port Authority:

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

The Record hasn't reported the hourly rate of her lawyer, Michael Critchley Sr., or whether taxpayers will be footing his considerable bill.

Not so super

Another Page 1 story reports "the economic boost to the region from the Super Bowl figures to be considerably smaller than more rosy estimates" (A-1 and A-6).

But The Record's front page today is wrapped in another "Super Bowl Special," an upbeat, 8-page section designed to distract readers from all the negatives associated with pro football -- from a culture of inebriation to sexual slavery to a concussion crisis.

Sells her soul

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung gives 2 stars to the misnamed Recovery Room in Westwood, where the burger, topped with bacon, ham, cheese and mayo, is designed to send customers across the street to Hackensack University Medical Center at Pascack Valley (BL-16).

Ung doesn't explain why the "sole Veronique" ($19.95) is made with cheaper cod.

The real Riotto?

Today's Hackensack Chronicle reports one of four police officers, who sued the city and then-Police Chief Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa in 2009 and settled for $2 million, has been reinstated as a lieutenant.

The first paragraph identifies him as "Vincent Riotto" and the photo with the story is labeled "Anthony Riotto."