The Record's readers blast Gannett redesign, staff changes as a 'disgrace,' 'horrendous' and 'a sad day' for local paper

Readers have posted many negative reviews of Gannett Co.'s redesign of The Record of Woodland Park, as well as staff changes, on the Facebook page of NorthJersey.com, the website of North Jersey Media Group.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The unannounced redesign of The Record of Woodland Park in November has upset many readers, leading some to sound off on Facebook and cancel subscriptions.

Gannett Co. hasn't published any negative letters to the editor of The Record, but invites readers to "review" the print edition on NorthJersey.com's Facebook page.

Of course, many loyal readers are older and don't use computers or smartphones, so that likely has limited the number of negative reviews.

On Nov. 19, reader Hank Hahn said:

"You new format of providing less news in all areas is a disgrace. After over 40 years of home delivery, I will not renew my subscription unless it improves in a very short time."

Don't hold your breath, Hank.

On Nov. 20, Ann Marie Cooke declared: 

"Have been a loyal and devoted reader of your newspaper for over 30 years. The new format of your print paper is horrendous. Sad to say, we've bought our last copy of The Record today."

Reader Joseph Dugan said:

"The Bergen Record needs to stop looking like The Rockland Journal News NOW!!!!!"

Another reader, Barbara McDermott, agreed. 

One woman complained Charlie McGill's portraits no longer graces the Sports section:

"I can't believe Charlie McGill is gone. What are you thinking? My "Record" went south a long time ago but this is just the last straw. Such a sad day. Why did you ruin such a great hometown publication. Sigh."

Check out this YouTube video of McGill talking about his "Athletes of the Week"  feature.

Today's paper 

Along with allowing Governor Christie to profit from writing a book while in office, a separate bill would end a legal requirement that municipalities and counties publish official notices in newspapers (1A).

"That would hurt their revenue streams," Staff Writer Salvador Rizzo says, avoiding the word "profits." 

Rizzo goes on, "One legislative source says the bill was meant as punishment for New Jersey's newspapers."

This is the second time The Record has reported the measure is designed to punish newspapers, but the Woodland Park daily doesn't say why.

Does it have anything to do with Christie ending his presidential campaign in February and immediately throwing his support behind Donald J. Trump?

That prompted The Star-Ledger and six other New Jersey dailies to call for the governor's resignation.

The Record was the only exception, and has never even reported what their editorials demanded.

Trump transition

As the Trump transition becomes more bizarre day after day, The Record generally has avoided reporting about it on Page 1.

Today's story on cyber attacks during the presidential campaign is an exception -- "GOP leaders join outrage at Russia" -- but recall the front-page takeout on Manhattan carriage horses on Sunday. 

Most of Monday's front page was devoted to one of the most boring topics under the sun: state politics.

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.

LOL: Republicans say tax hike to hurt low-income drivers

Low pump prices make this the ideal time to raise the gas tax -- which hasn't changed since 1989 -- and stabilize funding of the state's Transportation Trust Fund. The fund pays for repairs to roads and bridges, as well as projects to improve mass transit.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The biggest laugh line in today's paper comes from state Sen. Jennifer Beck, one of the many Republicans opposing a higher gas tax.

"This particular tax hurts low-income, working-class people the most," Beck says, according to Salvador Rizzo of The Record (A-3).

What a joke. When has Beck, Governor Christie and other Republicans ever expressed any concern for the working or middle classes in New Jersey?

More politics

Rizzo and other reporters at The Record think their job is to present important state issues only in terms of Democrats v. Republicans, as today's story on "competing economic plans" shows.

Let's hope Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin sees through the GOP's nonsense, and backs the logic of drivers paying for the wear and tear they cause on roads and bridges.

If New Jersey residents are "overtaxed," as Beck and her colleagues claim, that has to be a reference to local property taxes, which are continuing to climb in Hackensack and other communities.

Working-class drivers who can't afford a hike in the second-lowest gas tax in the nation after Alaska should sell their cars and take mass transit.

Shoot 'em up

You don't see much municipal news in The Record, because the editors waste so much space today on a new 'Star Wars' movie and local Law & Order stories (A-1, BL-1, L-1, L-2 and L-3).

Readers get the full gamut -- from the "mystery" of why a Maywood man crashed a car in Rochelle Park (A-1) to the molesting of 14 teens at a church event (L-1) to tons of court and crime news -- nine stories and a photo in Local alone.

Incorrect letter

The Record's news editors and opinion writers still are solidly in Christie's corner on the GOP presidential campaign trail, despite the wreckage he has left behind in the Garden State.

That's why readers like Joseph A. Del Buono of Allendale try to set the record straight (A-10).

But Del Buono errs on  the number of vetoes Christie has executed since he took office in early 2010.

He says it's 59, but The Record quoted Christie himself taking credit for more than 430.

So why was Del Buono's letter published without correcting the number of vetoes?

Far more scrutiny of Christie on trail than he got in Trenton

The senior round-trip fare on an NJ Transit express bus to Manhattan from Hackensack is one of the biggest travel bargains around.

These NJ Transit buses outside the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel are among hundreds parked in New Jersey during the day, awaiting the afternoon rush hour. Then, they'll be driven bumper-to-bumper through the tunnel to the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, causing huge delays for home-bound commuters.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's scrutiny of Governor Christie on the presidential campaign trail is unprecedented, especially when you compare the coverage to his years in Trenton.

The GOP bully has been in office since early 2010, but it wasn't until this year -- in his second term -- that the editors bothered to add up the hundreds of vetoes he has used to get his way with the state Legislature's Democratic majority.

Still, Staff Writer Charles Stiles, among the first to promote the governor's presidential ambitions, wrote one upbeat column after another supporting Christie's claim of being a compromiser who was able to work with Democrats.

Isn't it rich?

Yet, as today's front-page analysis shows, most of Christie's initiatives have hurt the middle class, and he has completely failed to fund the pension system for state employees or back a tax to pay for road and bridge repairs (A-1 and A-10).

Even in the wake of the attacks in Paris, touting his years as U.S. attorney prosecuting terrorists rings hollow in view of all the time he has spent out of state, and the mess he has made in Trenton. 

"Spending in the state budget has grown every year. So have New Jersey's high tax bills for homeowners ...," Staff Writer Salvador Rizzo reports deep on the continuation page. "Private-sector job growth has been among the slowest in the country." 

Out of the bubble

The Record's local editors gave reporters a rare assignment on Wednesday: Ask people what they think about an issue.

Three reporters worked on today's Page 1 story to gather reaction to Christie and other governors who want to keep Syrian refugees from coming to their states.

But they quote only two people, both immigrants, and report on only one Syrian refugee, who arrived in 2013.

On Tuesday, a story included an interview with another Syrian refugee who moved to Paterson.

About 75 Syrian refugees have moved to the state since January.

Shouldn't The Record make some attempt to report if any of them have acted in a way to justify Christie's racism and xenophobia?

Local news?

The lead story on the Local front today reports the estate of Mahwah Public Works Director Ed Sinclair is seeking $20 million in a lawsuit, claiming officials "caused his death through stress" (L-1).

There is no mention of Sinclair's obesity, and the challenge facing his lawyer to prove he died from being fired and reinstated, and not from a condition related to his tremendous weight.

On Aug. 13, Cliffview Pilot.com reported Sinclair, 57, died of a massive heart attack, but that isn't mentioned in The Record today.

The Sinclair suit is only one of the crime and court stories that dominate the local-news section today.

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza were so desperate for local news they had to run a story on Comcast dropping a sports network (L-3).

Christie has been lying to N.J. voters since '09 campaign

Further adventures in navigating Bergen County's antiquated road system: A short drive from Englewood to Hackensack at about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon was agonizingly slow, especially when a tractor-trailer tried to turn into narrow Forest Avenue in Teaneck from Teaneck Road, above and below. I guess it would be too much to expect the cops to direct rush-hour traffic, as they do in Manhattan.

Cedar Lane in Teaneck is always a challenging drive, especially during the afternoon rush hour, with township police lying in wait for drivers who don't yield to pedestrians in the many crosswalks. An elderly woman trying to back into a parking space too small for her car stopped one lane of traffic dead for several minutes.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Today's Page 1 story on Governor Christie holding town-hall events in New Hampshire is the second to tell readers what they already know from his 2009 New Jersey campaign and his record since he took office.

Or, as The Record's so-called analysis puts it:

"Like politicians from time immemorial, [Christie] tends to gloss over the weak spots or present them in a more favorable -- sometimes less accurate -- light" (A-1).

What State House Bureau reporters Salvador Rizzo and Melissa Hayes are trying to say is that Christie, in an apparent bid for the GOP presidential nomination, lies a lot.

Just like he did when he was swept into office in November 2009 after promising to lower New Jersey's notoriously high property taxes and force inefficient home-rule towns to consolidate agencies.

Censorship

On the Local front today, censorship of a high school newspaper editor isn't much different than squelching any mention in The Record that Christie's chief gubernatorial fundraiser, Jon F. Hanson, has close personal and business ties to the Borgs, who own the paper (L-1).

Ed Schwartz, 47, of Ridgewood is an expert on sustainability known as "Eco Ed," The Record reports today (L-1).

But why did the Woodland Park daily wait until Schwartz's final "battle" with cancer to profile him?

An Associated Press brief on the Business page reports the Urus SUV is expected to be sold in 2018 "with a production of 3,000 vehicles a year, more than doubling Lamborghini's current output of 2,530" (L-7).

Second look

Despite its extraordinary length -- or because of it -- Mike Kelly's 100-plus-inch column on Rabbi Shmuley Boteach of Englewood got only limited reaction from readers on North Jersey.com.

And most of the comments were negative. It's unclear how many readers actually plowed through the entire, long-winded puff piece, which started on Page 1.

One North Jersey.com reader refers to the rabbi as "Shmuckley."

Kelly's Sunday column runs on the front of the Opinion section.

Why wasn't his Boteach column labeled "Opinion"?