Making excuses for a murderer, celebrating girls and guns

Defense attorney Robert Kalisch, seen on Dec. 8 in a courthouse elevator, delivered a long, rambling closing argument that failed to win a not-guilty verdict for his client, Sui Kam Tung, who is to be sentenced today for the love-triangle assassination of Robert Cantor of Teaneck.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A desperate editor teams up with a desperate defense attorney, and in the process, The Record once again prostitutes itself to sell papers.

Editor Deirdre Sykes splashes all over Page 1 the hollow claims of innocence from love-triangle murderer Sui Kam Tung, who shot Robert Cantor of Teaneck in the back of the head in 2011 (A-1).

Defense attorney Robert Kalisch, having failed to win a not-guilty verdict late last year, launches a public relations campaign for his client in the shameless Woodland Park daily and in a TV interview.

His client faces 30 years to life in prison when he is sentenced today in Superior Court, Hackensack.

Let's hope Tung, 52, who is known as "Tony," rots in jail and then hell.

Today's irresponsible story was written by Allison Pries, whose journalism credentials were so strong her first job at The Record was as an empty headed clerk in the business news department.

Girls and guns

Readers also are shaking their heads over Sykes approving a photo of Clifton High School student Nikki Klinger, 17, holding an assault weapon, her finger on the trigger (L-1).

Hard to imagine that was the only image available to illustrate the event, "Introduce a Girl to Engineering."

Maybe Sykes is arguing girls have an equal right to be viewed as potential mass murderers, just like the males who slaughtered innocent students and teachers at Columbine High School and Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Rare correction

A-2 today carries a rare correction of an error in the Road Warrior column.

Staff Writer John Cichowski has committed literally hundreds of errors in the dozen years he has written the column, but few of them have been acknowledged on A-2 by six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton.

Today, Houlton notes Cichowski blew the name of flying ice victim Michael Eastman's daughter, calling her Michele Redfern in the second paragraph of Thursday's column.

The confused reporter even quoted her mother, Catherine, calling her "Michele" in the fourth paragraph.

Her name is Nichole Redfern.

Local news?

In Local today, a story on downtown redevelopment carries a dated headline (L-3):

"Hackensack acts to renew downtown"

The first apartment project is already leasing, work is under way on others, and the Borg family will be laughing all the way to the bank when they sell the old Record property in Hackensack to a developer.

Yuck

Unfortunately, the Better Living cover photo illustrating today's Informal Dining Review shows a bread bowl filled with what looks like vomit (BL-1, BL-14).

It's actually spinach dip, one of the food distractions at The Plank Pizza Co. Beer Parlor in Saddle Brook.

Why didn't the Better Living editors run a more appetizing cover photo, such as one of the personal pizzas in the bar's name?

Christie blasts Dems who want to tax his millionaire pals

Public defender Robert Kalisch in an elevator at the courthouse in Hackensack on Tuesday after delivering a long summation in the love-triangle murder trial of his client, Tony Tung, who is charged with killing Robert Cantor of Teaneck. Members of the audience saw Superior Court Judge Edward A. Jerejian yawn visibly several times and not bother to cover his wide-open mouth.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page is dominated today by Governor Christie blasting "crazy and liberal" Democrats, and Donald Trump saying the governor "totally knew" about lane closures on the George Washington Bridge.

Readers could dismiss the news story and column as just "more politics" during the long buildup to the presidential and New Jersey gubernatorial elections (A-1). 

But Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi, who covered Christie's speech to business leaders, seems to be sanitizing the governor's dismal record in New Jersey, and doesn't even mention his war on the middle class (A-8).

And Columnist Charles Stile, as usual, defends Christie from Trump's bombast, repeating the fiction that "three separate probes failed to find a shred of evidence linking [the governor] directly to the political payback scheme" at the George Washington Bridge.

Racioppi doesn't mention that among 430 vetoes in six years, Christie has repeatedly quashed a tax surcharge on millionaires -- his supporters -- and also killed a hike in the minimum wage.

Stile ignores that one of the GWB "probes" he refers to was conducted by Christie's own $650-an-hour defense lawyer at a cost to taxpayers of $7.8 million, or that a federal indictment of the governor's aides still has not identified "unindicted co-conspirators."

On Tuesday, The Record's front-page story on Trump calling on the U.S. to bar all Muslims also was sanitized, because there was no mention of Christie trying to bar all Syrian refugees from New Jersey.

Love-triangle trial

The jury in the Teaneck love-triangle murder trial is expected to begin deliberations today (L-1).

On Tuesday, jurors kept their eyes fixed on public defender Robert Kalisch during a nearly two-hour-long summation claiming Tony Tung had absolutely nothing to do with the murder of Robert Cantor, a Teaneck man who was having an affair with Tung's wife.

They didn't seem to notice several wide-mouth yawns from Superior Court Judge Edward A. Jerejian or the loud camera shutter as Staff Photographer Carmine J. Galasso stood behind the jury box and made numerous images of Tung and Kalisch.

According to The Record, Bergen County Senior Assistant Prosecutor Wayne Mello told the jury:

"Consumed by hate, Sui Kam 'Tony' Tung fired a single shot into the back of the [head] of his estranged wife's lover in an 'execution' that was carried out in the bedroom where his wife first cheated on him.

"In a case that 'virtually screams motive, motive, motive,' Tung is the only person 'on this planet' who had reason to kill Robert Cantor, then torch his body ...."

Check out the awkward, nay stupid, headline on the Local front:

Execution or puzzle?

Road Worrier

After more than a dozen years of avoiding the most contentious commuting issues, Staff Writer John Cichowski today claims his Road Warrior column "usually likes to focus on news" (L-1).

But instead of writing about a lack of rush-hour bus and train seats, Cichowski today is fielding complaints about an unlighted menorah or the lack of a Christmas tree at the Secaucus Junction rail station.

Hackensack schools?

Today's stories on schools in Englewood, Englewood Cliffs, Bogota and even Paterson (L-1, L-2 and L-3) has Hackensack readers wondering why they never read anything about their school board or schools.

Ignore your health

The Better Living editors today publish a warning to people who obsess about "eating only healthy foods" (BL-1).

The story is designed to justify restaurant critic Elisa Ung's year-round obsession with desserts and other sugary treats, and all of the recipes the paper publishes that include butter, cream and other artery clogging ingredients.