For 2nd day in row, front page has readers stifling yawns

A rare sight in Hackensack: Delivery of home-heating oil.

On Monday morning, a woman was clearing snow in front of a church on Summit Avenue in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

All this Page 1 coverage today and Monday of new state tests has readers wondering whether Editor Martin Gottlieb's grand kids live and attend school in North Jersey.

What yawners, not to mention the story on Girl Scout merchandising deals at the bottom of today's front page (A-1).

Gottlieb ran not one, but two favorable columns about Governor Christie on Monday's A-1. 

Today, Christie's controversial choice for the Pinelands Commission and a proposed pipeline seem like an afterthought (A-1).

In an editorial on A-8 today, Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin can't even muster strong criticism of Christie for balancing his budgets with money won in court battles with polluters.

"This misguided maneuver keeps money from being used for its intended purpose: eradicating pollution [italics added]." 

What a genius that Doblin is.

The only item of real interest on Page 1 today is a brief about U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, 78, a Maryland Democrat who says she is shifting her focus from "raising money" for another election campaign to "raising hell" (A-1).

Hah. 

Compare that with all of the stories Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson has written about the so-called war chests of special interest money that have kept Rep. Scott Garrett, a conservative crackpot from Wantage, in office.

In fact, Jackson's stories, which rarely focus on issues, feed voter apathy, another factor in Garrett's success in an overwhelmingly liberal 5th District.

Hackensack news?

Despite all the snow we've gotten, head Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, continue to enforce a drought on Hackensack news (Local section today and Monday).

They might protest, pointing to a story on L-2 today, reporting a Paterson school administrator is taking a job in Hackensack.

Targeting pedestrians

Reporter John Cichowski has sunk to a new journalistic low by putting a target on every pedestrian.

In his Sunday column, the irresponsible Road Warrior columnist actually quoted a maniacal driver claiming:

"At least once a week, I resist the urge to hit a pedestrian because he decides to cross at the last minute in front of me."

In the same column, Cichowski continues to struggle for accuracy in citing data from studies, one of his favorite ways of filling space:

He reported that "most states" showed a drop in pedestrian deaths, but the study he cited reflected an improvement in only 24 of the 50 states.

Seventy-five pedestrians were killed in the first half of 2014 in New Jersey, not the 74 cited by the confused Cichowski.

Etc. Etc.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Road Warrior 'jerks off' readers with more errors

The Record continues to publish one inaccurate Road Warrior column after the other, because none of the editors are doing their jobs of providing checks and balances on a reporter who clearly has lost his mind.

At the end of the line is six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, supervisor of the news and copy desks, who continues to laugh all the way to the bank.

Should a journalist side with speeders who run red lights?

Road Warrior John Cichowski of The Record has been writing about red-light cameras for more than three years, but the first paragraph of his column today demonstrates that he completely ignores that kind of driver -- speeders -- who are most likely to blow through lights and cause crashes. The Hackensack intersection shown doesn't have a red-light-running camera.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Road Warrior John Cichowski claims drivers who pass red lights fail only to "slip through ... while it's still yellow," according to the first paragraph of his column in The Record today.

This is the veteran reporter's third column on red-light cameras this month, in what amounts to a campaign against continuation of New Jersey's 5-year pilot program (L-1).

The program ends at midnight, but many cameras will remain in place. However, violators will no longer be fined $85.

This was hardly the highest fine for a traffic violation, but complainers completely got Cichowski's ear, drowning out the majority -- police chiefs, mayors and other officials who wanted the "safety" program to continue.

Drivers who don't speed and blow through red lights think the fine is a small price for violators to pay to reduce intersection crashes and cut deaths and injuries.

Lives saved?

None of Cichowski's recent columns have reported just how many lives have been saved in the five years of the red-light camera program -- in keeping with his irresponsible journalism on the controversy.

"Right-angle crashes at red lights typically kill 14 to 18 [people] yearly statewide," he reports on L-6 today, without saying if the number has been cut since the program began.

Of course, Cichowski has made so many errors in the more than 11 years he has been writing the Road Warrior column, readers no longer know whether anything he reports is correct.

Crosswalk law

On Nov. 20, he reported incorrectly that one of the "Infuriating Driving Issues of the Day" is that drivers must wait for a pedestrian in a crosswalk to reach the opposite curb.

But there isn't a single crosswalk statute governing that; there are four, depending on the width of  the street, number of lanes and other factors, and drivers don't always have to wait until the pedestrian reaches the other curb.

In that Nov. 20 column, Cichowski also reported pedestrian deaths have fallen since the crosswalk law took effect in 2010.

But "pedestrian deaths for 2014 have already exceeded the final tally for all of 2010, and only fell in one of the previous three years," according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

See: Infuriating Accuracy Issues of the Day

Booker's color -- not sports -- shaped who he is

Creative zoning in Hackensack. You can barely fit a dozen gorditas between a Mexican restaurant and a home on East Broadway, above. Churchgoers can have their oil changed while they're praising the Lord, below.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

A young, smiling Cory Booker appears on the front page of The Record today -- a perfect example of America's growing diversity.

What's all this nonsense about Booker being molded by "North Jersey's gridirons"?

I guess Editor Marty Gottlieb doesn't want to shove Booker's color down the throats of the many racists who read The Record.

The Democratic Newark mayor and U.S. Senate candidate stands for all the liberal values rejected by Governor Christie and Booker's opponent, Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan.

Booker's real weakness is personal ambition. He should have taken on Christie in the gubernatorial election and sent the GOP bully packing.

Dated photo

Another smile appears on Page 1 today -- the shit-eating grin of Columnist Mike Kelly, whose dated, unflattering photo also appears a second time on the Opinion front (O-1).

Two Kelly columns in one edition. Thousands of readers are smacking their foreheads in disbelief.

When I saw an updated thumbnail photo of staffer Ginny Rohan last week, I thought that meant the editors would be updating photos of Kelly and others.

No such luck.

GOP vetoes

At the bottom of Page 1 today, a story on the liberal use of vetoes by Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan reminds readers of another Republican who loves to veto, Christie.

When are we going to see that story, giving a lie to Christie's portrayal of himself as a great compromiser?

Two of his mean-spirited vetoes killed a hike in the minimum wage and a tax surcharge on millionaires that could have raised an estimated $1 billion.

Law breakers

On the front of Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski again demonizes red-light cameras, calling them "the modern-day equivalent of highway robbery" (L-1).

How irresponsible can Cichowski get?

Of course, The Addled Commuter hides the fact that most red-light violators are speeders, and that speeding is the leading cause of crash deaths and injuries.

Many sane drivers wish there were red-light cameras at every intersection, and can't wait for the authorities to install cameras to catch speeders, tailgaters and other maniacs on the parkway and turnpike, too.

The Borg family might even want to install cameras in the Woodland Park newsroom to catch staffers whose bylines are as rare as a blue moon.

Crappy food corner

Check out The Corner Table column on the front of Better Living today, glorifying a food truck in Englewood that sells low-quality Sabrett beef hot dogs pumped full of harmful antibiotics, growth hormones and preservatives (BL-1).

Staff Writer Elisa Ung is the fine-dining restaurant reviewer, but she could care less about how the food she promotes is raised or grown, and simply can't resist all the junk out there.

Hot dog "entrepreneur" Rosario D'Rivera calls her truck "Rosie's Weenie Wagon," a weird sexual image from a woman.

Ung turns today's column into a profile of D'Rivera, and we even learn she is the sister of Paquito D'Rivera, the great Cuban jazz saxophonist, but the so-called food journalist tells us nothing about the hot dogs.

You say you don't eat meat? Go to hell, Ung says.

Crossing a line

A freelance reporter for AIM Vernon, one of the many weeklies published by North Jersey Media Group, was fired after she spoke up at a Township Council meeting she was covering.

Mary Ellen Vichiconti, 60, ran for council in 2008, 2009 and 2011, according to Editor & Publisher.

Click on the following link to read the entire E&P story:

A Matter of Principles

When I was a reporter at The Record, I recall reading the newspaper's policy barring staffers from running for public office or engaging in politics.

Is that policy still in effect? Does it apply to freelancers?