Trying to guess where North Jersey racists live

A new cafe is opening in the space on Sussex Street in Hackensack once occupied by John's Coffee Shop, above, and a sign on a storefront at 159 Main St. promises a new Indian restaurant, below.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Extremism and racism were central to the doomed U.S. Senate campaign of former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, who called Newark "a black hole" and released a map with a city neighborhood labeled "West Africa." 

Now, readers of The Record can finally look at the vote totals for the Tea Party crackpot and winner Cory Booker, and amuse themselves with trying to find North Jersey's closeted racists.

Many of them are voters who complain Democrats are trying to take away their guns or who fall for the classic Republican big lie: lower taxes.

Racial backlash?

The belated town-by-town vote totals in Wednesday's special election show that Booker carried Bergen and Hudson counties, but lost Morris County to the GOP right winger (A-6).

Among the towns giving Lonegan more votes were Allendale, Alpine, Carlstadt, Emerson, Hasbrouck Heights, Mahwah, Montvale and Paramus.

But Lonegan lost his hometown, Bogota, as well as Englewood, Teaneck, Hackensack and Tenafly, where Publisher Stephen A. Borg lives in a $3.65 million McMansion.

Booker trounced Lonegan in Teaneck, where the vote total was higher than in Hackesnack, the most populous community in Bergen County, but one that is known for voter apathy and low turnouts.

Booker is New Jersey's first African-American senator, and one of only two blacks in that august body, but will he encounter the same racial backlash as President Obama has?

The Record's chart is confusing, with county vote totals listed before individual towns instead of after.

Local-news drought

What is the point of Road Warrior John Cichowski's column about Westwood's former traffic safety officer and his 250 DWI arrests (L-1)?

Today's thin Local section is missing Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood news, and an expanded local obituary, but Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza found room for another Dean's List (L-6).

Page fizzles

In Better Living, free-lancer Jeffrey Page's entertaining story about a "real seltzer" maker from Fort Lee doesn't tell readers how much the stuff costs -- likely because Page is hiding sticker shock (BL-1).

Instead of trying to scoop the competition or writing about a subject no one else has the courage to tackle, Columnist Mike Kelly rehashes "the lessons" of Booker's victory (O-1).

Kelly also is sticking with his dated, unflattering column photo and silly shit-eating grin. 

Forced busing

In a letter to the editor, Denise Black of Egg Harbor relates the atrocious service she received when she took an NJ Transit bus to Manhattan from Atlantic City, and then an extremely long line at the Port Authority Bus Terminal that resembled a "herd of animals" for the return trip (O-3).

That's funny. Why is a reader reporting on the quality of bus service and not The Record's transportation reporters, including Cichowski and Karen Rouse?

Media's focus on political conflict turns off voters

The clubhouse at Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The shockingly low voter turnout in Wednesday's special U.S. Senate election -- less than 25 percent -- tells you one thing:

When The Record and other media devote big chunks of Page 1 to the rantings of radical U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan, voters are turned off and don't even show up at the polls.

How many times during the government shutdown did Cruz claim "millions of Americans are being hurt" by the Affordable Care Act, and not a single reporter challenged the Canadian-born senator?

Booker victory

Today's front-page coverage of the election of Newark Mayor Cory Booker over Lonegan, 55 percent to 44 percent, was another close call for Democrats (A-1).

Readers who wonder how Lonegan got elected mayor of Bogota should meet a Teaneck woman who says she always finds the book she wants at the Bogota library, because no one in the town knows how to read.

But The Record has forgotten or ignores the $24 million Governor Christie squandered to keep Booker off of the Nov. 5 gubernatorial ballot, fearing the popular Democrat would help boost challenger Barbara Buono to victory.

Parents' plea

The Local front today is dominated by the campaign of  Emil and Manal Sous to get passage of a bill in the state Legislature dubbed "Michelle's Law" that would require drivers involved in fatal accidents to undergo blood and urine screenings for drugs and alcohol (L-1).

The driver of a car that struck and killed their daughter Michelle in front of her North Haledon home on March 17 was never charged with a crime or even issued a summons.

The parents' campaign seems reasonable, but The Record has for years reported pedestrian fatalities without ever asking whether criminal laws should be revised to make a driver pay for killing someone.

On too many occasions, drivers tell police they "didn't see" the pedestrian, and survivors have only civil lawsuits as recourse.

Bikes, not equality

On L-2 today, a story reports that Englewood is asking the state for money to install bicycle lanes city officials hope will lure cyclists to its struggling downtown for coffee or lunch.

It's hard to believe the wealthy city can't find $120,000 to create the lanes without state help, or that it even costs that much to paint parallel lines.

Maybe Mayor Frank Huttle III, who is married to a state assemblywoman, should be asking the state for help in desegregating its elementary and middle schools, not screwing around with bike lanes. 

News for the 1%

Staff Writer Kibret Markos continues to ignore everything else going on at the Bergen County Courthouse, one of the state's busiest, to cover the Hudson News inheritance battle (L-3).

In major Hackensack news, a man was arrested "on suspicion of setting fire to an apartment door" (L-3).

In a pitch to readers who have high cholesterol and are proud of it, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung obsesses over a "maple bacon doughnut" (BL-1).

Second look

In his Sunday column, Road Warrior John Cichowski provided eight "misleading or false answers" to 17 of his own questions about New Jersey roads -- that's nearly 50 percent.

In an e-mail to management, the editors and the clueless reporter himself, a concerned reader even pointed out Cichowski forgot his own extensive reporting on ways to cross the Hudson River without paying a toll or fare.

See the full e-mail on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Is John Cichowski really that stupid?

Is government shutdown motivated by GOP racism?

Several Hackensack Fire Department vehicles responding to a homeowner's call about a problematic gas stove lit up a street in the Fairmount section like a Christmas tree on Sunday night.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

I searched The Record today and Monday in vain for mention of Saturday Night Live's scathing satire about the roles of House Speaker John Boehner and Rep. Michele Bachmann in the government shutdown.

"It's our party. We can do what we want," the gay Boehner and slutty Bachmann characters repeat over and over as they take part in an orgy.

The Boehner character, his face glowing with the speaker's odd coloring, is shown kissing the bare chest of another man.

Click on the following link to see a video clip:

'We can do what we want'


No local reporting

I also haven't been able to find a report in The Record about all of the North Jersey residents hurt by the shutdown -- a GOP attempt to blackmail President Obama into delaying or "defunding" the Affordable Care Act.

The front page of today's paper is dominated by two news stories discussing state and federal politics, including another attempt to fool readers into thinking crackpot Steve Lonegan has any chance against Cory Booker  in the U.S. Senate race (A-1).

On TV news, I heard snippets about the shutdown affecting Head Start and the nutrition program known as Women, Infants and Children (WIC).

They're just folks

What the federal programs have in common is that they serve minorities, people of color who aren't exactly considered The Record's demographic.

The Woodland Park daily has devoted more space to Ridgewood residents complaining about the proposed expansion of The Valley Hospital within its own campus and the installation of tall utility poles than it has to Head Start, WIC or other government programs for the working class.

That's no surprise, considering the newsroom's lack of diversity and the white hacks writing news and feature columns.

This kind of editorial racism is being mirrored by congressional Republicans and Tea Party radicals who still have not gotten over the election of a black president.

What else can you conclude from the repeated attempts to derail health-care reform, which will give coverage to 30 million uninsured people -- blacks and whites?

Shoot 'em up

If today's front page doesn't bore you to death, check out all the Law & Order news Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza displays on the Local front and just about every other page of the section.

It's Sforza's way of telling blacks and Hispanics that getting arrested is a sure way of making the local news section he supervises.

Christie-Buono

Why isn't a rare column about issues in the Nov. 5 gubernatorial election on A-1 instead of L-1 today?

Isn't tonight's debate between Governor Christie and state Sen. Barbara Buono important enough?

How's your cholesterol?

The Better Living feature on a new french fries stand at Garden State Plaza in Paramus is indistinguishable from an advertisement (BL-1 and BL-3).

No byline or other staff credit appears with the text, which quotes the millionaire owner as gushing, "I love french fries; they taste amazing" (BL-3).

On the opposite page (BL-2), the photo of a ricotta-vegetable souffle looks like vomit.

Finally, editors are focusing on the uninsured

Signs provide plenty of reading along River Street in Hackensack, where The Record prospered for more than 110 years before the Borg family's North Jersey Media Group abandoned the city for the sticks, precipitating a slide in local-news coverage that persists to this day.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

On Page 1 of The Record today, Editor Marty Gottlieb drops the filter of politics to focus on the people who have been living without health insurance.

For the first time since selfish Republicans again tried to derail the Affordable Care Act, the paper carries profiles of North Jersey residents who hope to find affordable health care. 

Now, where are the stories about the behind-the-scenes maneuvering by health insurance company lobbyists, and the millions of dollars in contributions flowing into the campaign accounts of Tea Party radicals and other conservative Republicans?

Lazy reporting

But lazy journalism still dominates the front page in another column citing polls that claim Democrat Cory Booker now holds only a 13-point lead over Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan in the U.S. Senate race.

Lonegan, you may recall, recently kept a straight face when he compared governing Newark to his years running tiny, dysfunctional Bogota. 

And what about all those polls predicting a close race between President Barack Obama and GOP candidate Mitt Romney last November, when, in fact, the Mormon was blown out of the water?

Politics are the refuge of scoundrels like Staff Writers Charles Stile and Herb Jackson, who don't have the stomach for covering the issues that affect voters.

Errors pile up

Staff Writer John Cichowski is another so-called journalist who refuses to do the legwork to cover the issues of most concern to commuters in his Road Warrior column.

On the Local front today, Cichowski acknowledges the column started 23 years ago this week, written by a different reporter, Jeff Page, but doesn't admit he's no Jeff Page, despite 10 years of trying.

Cichowski's laziness is well-known, including his refusal to cover mass transit or report on declining enforcement by the state police of speeding, tailgating and other reckless driving.

Morons define issues

The addled Cichowski also allows drivers to hijack the Road Warrior column, and spin exaggerated tales of problems -- from highway detours to glare to red-light cameras.

And Cichowski has committed so many errors and given so much inaccurate advice on road rules, toll discounts and other subjects that a reader in Hackensack started a Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Local news? Nothing from Hackensack and Teaneck for yet another day.

More failures

On the Opinion front today, another failed columnist claims the health-care exchanges "flopped" after they went online last week -- even though consumers have three months to buy coverage (O-1).

Of course, it's Staff Writer Mike Kelly who flops, especially with the shit-eating grin evident in his dated column photo.

On the Better Living front today, the imbalance in food coverage is evident -- the challenges of feeding a family on assistance shares the page with Staff Writer Elisa Ung's obsession with dessert (BL-1).

Ung again goes far afield in The Corner Table column, which is supposed to be devoted to restaurant issues, by stuffing her pudgy face with a new line of scones, muffins and croissants at Starbucks.

Hotel promoter

What are readers to make of Travel Editor Jill Schensul's gushing cover story today on new hotel "amenities" (T-1)?

Here's another major travel piece without prices, suggesting Schensul was comped by the big hotel chains or she agreed to write the lavishly promotional copy to land more advertising for her pathetically thin, 4-page section.

Editors ignore GOP attacks on minority rights

Hackensack's Main Street often resembles a ghost town, despite the efforts of a public-private partnership called the Upper Main Alliance. Curiously, some of the empty storefronts are owned by C.J. Lombardo Co., whose CEO, Jerome J. Lombardo, is chairman of the very same Upper Main Alliance. On the 200 block of Main, a welcome sign of renewal: Attili's Grill & Cafe, above, will replace Pfeiffer's/El Potrero Grill.

A few doors down, a sign promises a new Hispanic bakery.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The Record's elaborate coverage of the March on Washington's 50th anniversary sets up a phony comparison between President Obama's speech on Tuesday and the spellbinding "I Have a Dream" delivered by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (A-1 and A-18).

Mike Kelly's boring Page 1 column appears designed to obscure the president's basic message:

That sinister forces -- including Governor Christie, Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan (A-1) and other conservative Republicans -- are trying to dismantle the rights won by minorities over the past 5 decades.

"It was another humid August day," is the best Kelly -- aka "The Shit Eating Grin" -- can manage for his first sentence on such a momentous occasion. 

The column goes downhill from there.

The last paragraph of the A-18 editorial finally acknowledges the president's real message: 

"In the end, Obama [is] asking Americans to take up a new march for unity and equality."

Hackensack views

The victory of a reform slate in this year's Hackensack City Council election appears to have prompted head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Buffoon Dan Sforza to end the drought on Hackensack news.

But the local editors continue to ignore two big stories:

1) The failure of the public-private Upper Main Alliance to revive the fortunes of Main Street, despite years of promotion.

2) The continuing, crushing burden of three, large tax-exempt entities -- Bergen County, Hackensack University Medical Center and Fairleigh Dickinson University -- on homeowners and other property tax payers in the city.

GOP politics dominate today's headlines

A tractor-trailer holding up traffic on Summit Avenue at Passaic Street, an antiquated two-lane road that is a notorious traffic bottleneck in Hackensack. Passaic is narrow and has no turn lanes on either side of Summit, unlike its intersection with Prospect Avenue and other cross streets.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

On Page 1 of The Record today, GOP bully Chris Christie endorses Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan's bid for a U.S. Senate seat from New Jersey -- a political marriage made in hell.

On the Local front, the Hackensack City Council retains City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono, despite his ties to the powerful Zisa family, which ruled Hackensack for decades.

And council members strongly suggested Republican loyalist Anthony Rottino will get the new post of director of economic development (L-1).

So much for Hackensack's non-partisan municipal elections.

But The Record's error-prone copy desk published an incorrect headline on the continuation page (L-6), catching Production Editor Liz Houlton napping.

"Hackensack retains key official"

The main headline on L-1, above, refers to Lo Iacono (LOW-yack-a-no), the city manager.

But on the continuation page, the headline says:

Rottino: Retained by council

Horsey set

What do you make of the silly front-page story about the imminent removal of the carousel at Paramus Park mall, and the social-media campaign to save it (A-1)?

Another, larger carousel is available a few miles away at Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, though the story by Staff Writers Evonne Coutros and Joan Verdon conveniently omits that fact.

Why is this story on Page 1?

The mother of one bratty kid actually has the nerve to call the 18-seat Paramus Park carousel "a Bergen County icon," and The Record actually has the nerve to print the inane comment.

Another 'icon'

Today, one of The Record's "icons," Road Warrior John Cichowski, calls the Manhattan end of the George Washington Bridge a "lip" (L-1).

Imagine if you can get that "lip" to meet the other "lip" in Fort Lee? Certainly, they'd say, "Moron."

On a rare trip away from his computer, Cichowski reports on the inhospitable bus terminal at the Manhattan end of the bridge, and its delayed renovation.

He doesn't say whether commuters have any more success getting a seat on a bus during the rush hour than those going to the midtown bus terminal or whether the uptown terminal has seats that are any more comfortable than the torture devices downtown.

That's the real story: 

The continuing lack of commitment to mass transit by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which encourages commuters to drive and pay the exorbitant tolls that keep the wasteful bistate agency going.

Column hog

In his column last Friday, Cichowski "made-up perspectives, and his personal, unprofessional blogs in The Record continue to contradict facts, state statutes, studies, experts and rational experiences," according to a concerned reader.

Read the full e-mail to management on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Assessing the Road Warrior 

Editors are doing a better job of covering the dead

The rush-hour stampede for a seat on an NJ Transit train at Manhattan's Penn Station is one of the unpleasant features of using mass transit, but The Record would rather write story after story on Superstorm Sandy damage to locomotives and rail cars.

By Victor E. Sasson

Editor

You can't exactly call a story about how many dead people are buried in North Arlington a bright spot, but there is so little else of interest on Page 1 of The Record today it will have to do.

Editor Marty Gottlieb keeps shoving Superstorm Sandy reports and politics down our throats, including a Herb Jackson column that pretends the U.S. Senate election between Democrat Cory Booker and Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan isn't a forgone conclusion (A-1).

Service is story

Staff Writer Karen Rouse has been scooping other media on NJ Transit's incompetence in storing equipment in a low-lying rail yard that was swamped by Superstorm Sandy (A-1).

But 10 months after the storm, she has yet to connect the dots, and tell readers whether all those ruined rail cars have 1) intensified the scramble for a seat during the rush hour, and 2) what NJ Transit is doing about the problem.

Talk about deadlines

The story on Holy Cross Cemetery by Jay Levin, the local obituary writer, would have been a lot better, if anecdotes appeared out front and the opening paragraph's gee-whiz statistics were left for the continuation page (A-6).

As it is, I lost interest plowing through all of those numbers on the front page.

As for the U.S. Senate, Governor Christie's lame pick to fill the late Frank Lautenberg's seat has been a no-show on 21% of the votes cast (A-3).

What excuse did former state Attorney General Jeffrey "Who?" Chiesa offer? A family vacation. 

Local news

There is more weirdness today.

Why run a huge Page 1 photo of an overweight Charley Samuels, 15, of Ridgewood at Sandy Hook after the 17.5-mile Ederle Swim, but not a recognizable photo of 46-year-old Lynn Ascione, the Ramsey woman who beat the teen's time decisively (L-1)?

It's become The New York Times' suburban edition

Our tax dollars at work. The white vehicle -- marked "FORT LEE AMBULANCE" -- pictured on Wednesday afternoon, moments after it left the parking lot of Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood, the Italian-food purveyor, where the driver shopped. Fort Lee has a volunteer ambulance corps.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Why is it front-page news in The Record that Egyptian riot police are killing members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which many call "one of the largest Islamic terrorist movements" in the Arab world?

Sounds like a good thing to me, and, surely, there are more important events taking place in North Jersey.

Editor Marty Gottlieb doesn't think so. 

The former New York Times bigwig appears to be acting in lockstep with the world media, including the BBC, whose detailed, hand-wringing radio news report from Egypt I heard this morning.

As for The Record's sensational coverage, readers have to turn to the continuation page to learn the Muslim Brotherhood attacked "21 police stations and seven Coptic Christian churches" across Egypt (A-8).

Isn't that great? And the Associated Press article in The Record doesn't say a word about the Muslim Brotherhood's reputation as a terrorist organization.

Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia:

"The Society of the Muslim Brothers  (Arabic: جماعة الإخوان المسلمين, الإخوان المسلمون, the Muslim Brotherhood, transliterated: al-ʾIkḫwān al-Muslimūn) is the Arab world's oldest, most influential and one of the largest Islamic terrorist movements, and is the largest political opposition organization in many Arab states."

Master v. slave

Tea Party crackpot Steve Lonegan is so out of touch with the reality of everyday life in New Jersey he is comparing his contest against Democrat Cory Booker for a U.S. Senate seat to George Washington's army against the forces of King George III (A-1). 

It's appropriate Lonegan identifies with the American revolutionaries: They were slave holders.

No more lines

The lead Page 1 story today reports 1.5 million drivers will be given the chance over the next year to renew their licenses through the mail, rather than to wait on line at a MVC office (A-1).

Hopefully, that also will put an end to all of those Road Warrior columns that tried to elevate waiting on line every 4 years to a crime against humanity.

Focus is wrong

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes continues to give better play to minor accidents (L-3) than to local obituaries, such the one on L-5 today that brings Marie Damiani to life as the demanding owner of Steve's Sizzling Steaks in Carlstadt.

Another truck killed another elderly woman (L-1), reminding readers of the garbage truck that killed a 74-year-old woman from the Philippines who was visiting Bergenfield last week (Saturday's L-1).

Fatal accidents such as these cry out for a criminal negligence law to punish drivers.

Hackensack news

On Sunday, a story on L-3 reported that a court hearing will be held on a lawsuit filed by the backer of a 19-story, long-term, acute-care hospital on Prospect Avenue in Hackensack.

Instead of "LTACH," the acronym that has been widely used for years by opponents, the confusing headline refers to the proposal as "Hackenack hospital."

Meanwhile, Hackensack Scoop reports on City Council patronage -- past and present -- including mention of Richard Malagiere, who was the zoning board attorney when LTACH was rejected in January 2012.

Click on the following link:

Out with patronage or maybe not 

Bogota's Tea Party radical is headed for certain defeat

I saw few fellow U.S. Senate primary voters on Tuesday at the Fairmount School on Grand Avenue in Hackensack.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

If former Bogota mayor Steve Lonegan is elected to the U.S. Senate from New Jersey, he'd knock himself out trying to deny health insurance to tens of millions of Americans who are living and dying without it.

The Tea Party radical also would fight to give employers the "freedom" to create millions of jobs, The Record reports today in front-page stories on the victory of Lonegan and Newark Mayor Cory Booker in Tuesday's primaries.

Of course, Lonegan doesn't mention that wealthy business owners are prisoners of their own greed, refusing to cut their profits by hiring workers and spending money to insure them.

The conservative Republican rose to his level of incompetence as the three-term mayor of tiny Bogota, where he cut spending, but apparently was unable to lower property taxes (A-6).

Today's stories say Lonegan was state director of a Tea Party group, Americans for Their Own Prosperity, until March (A-1) or June (A-6).
 
Wealthy racist

The wealthy racist is wrong for North Jersey and wrong for America. Does anyone doubt Lonegan will fail now as he has in the past when seeking higher office?

I'm sure Governor Christie is happy, having thrown away millions on a special election to ensure Booker doesn't appear on the GOP bully's November ballot.

Finally, the Record's photo captions often raise questions in readers' minds -- such as who is that black man in the room of white Lonegan supporters, a hotel employee, a reporter (A-6)?

Or is that President Obama crashing the party? LOL.

Paving news

Anyone who bothers reading the Road Warrior column today could be forgiven if they think they've picked up a dry paving industry journal (L-1).

Staff Writer John Cichowski fabricates a debate over the merits of milling and "a super pavement mix," ignoring that speeders and runaway trucks are intent on killing  people whether the road is smooth or rough.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes indicates her staff is struggling to bring in local news by running a big photo of a downed traffic-light pole on L-1.

A story on L-3 reports the Hackensack Board of Education, a remnant of Zisa family rule, has named Robin E. Coles to a vacancy.

Coles is described as a parent who "is active in her church and community," but readers learn nothing about her views on education or what kind of job the city's dysfunctional school board is doing.

Wretched excess

Italian-Americans and other fettuccine lovers are heaving this morning as they scan a recipe for BLUE CHEESE ARTICHOKE PASTA (BL-1).

Clueless food blogger Kate Morgan Jackson recommends readers use 6 ounces of full-fat, artery clogging blue cheese, 1 cup of heavy cream and a half cup of butter to prepare a half-pound of fettuccine (BL-2).

She advises readers to warm the plates to keep the pasta hot during the ambulance ride to the emergency room.

Inadequate journalists love sucking on A-Rod

At the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, the body language is clear from people lining up for NJ Transit's No.165 bus to Hackensack and Westwood at mid-afternoon on Monday. Only an eldery woman was desperate enough to sit in one of the four folding "seats," below. 

These seats are listed as implements of torture under the Geneva Convention.

By Victor E. Sasson

Editor

Feeling inadequate, Editor Marty Gottlieb of The Record and sports Columnist Bob Klapisch are going ga-ga over the turmoil in the life of multimillionaire athlete Alex Rodriguez (Page 1 and A-6).

Readers, however, are gagging on all of this coverage of Rodriguez, who was given the sexually suggestive monicker of "A-Rod" by copy editors with short-count headlines to write -- not because of his alleged prowess in the bedroom.

More boring politics

The rest of the front page today is wasted on politics, including another futile bid for higher office by arch-conservative Republican Steve Lonegan, former mayor of Bogota (A-1 and A-4).

Does anybody believe the exaggerated story on A-3 that Chris Christie, our piggish governor, "would fall only 4 points short of Democrat Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical presidential contest" in 2016?

The Record and other media continue to report polls as gospel -- even after President Obama trounced Mitt Romney last November in what was reported ad nauseum as a close race.

More bad mistakes

On the front of Local today, the funeral of an 8-month-old girl killed by a falling light pole reminds readers of all of the errors in the Sunday Road Warrior column about penalties for jitney drivers who talk on cellphones.

Unfortunately, the errors and omissions are repeated in today's editorial calling for a crackdown on those drivers (A-8).

Staff Writer John Cichowski (aka Road Warrior) completely overlooked "jail time of up to 10 years and fines up to $150,000 based on a 2012 law for cellphone violations, when any drivers are involved in accidents where there is a death or injury," according to a concerned reader. 

Homicide charge

In fact, he didn't even mention that the distracted jitney driver who knocked down the pole, killing the North Bergen girl in her stroller, was charged with vehicular homicide under that law.

Cichowski also left out relevant information when citing "a federal law that imposes fines as high as $2,750 if commercial drivers use hand-held devices in non-emergency situations during interstate travel."

Road Warrior failed to mention the federal law also disqualifies drivers for up to 120 days for multiple violations within a 3-year period. 
 

Cichowski also overlooked the maximum fine of $250 under New Jersey motor vehicle law for use of hand-held devices in non-emergency situations, citing only a $100 fine for all drivers.
 

To read the full e-mail to management and editors, click on this link to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Readers are hanging up on the Road Warrior 

Eye on The Record 

will return next week

Letting readers eat journalism cake

Curbs along Euclid Avenue, near Prospect Avenue, in Hackensack are being repaired in anticipation of what longtime residents say is the first complete repaving of the  Fairmount section street since 1979.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

In a single story on the front page of The Record today, Staff Writer Karen Rouse has managed to say more about the English sport of cricket than she has in the past few years about the rush-hour ordeal of using mass transit -- her beat.

Maybe, Editor Marty Gottlieb and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes are trying to make amends for portraying Jamaicans and other minority Paterson residents as little more than drug dealers, prostitutes and greedy public officials.

The feature story -- complete with photos and a large graphic that tries to explain cricket rules (A-1 and A-6) -- undercuts my argument that if you're a minority, the only way to get on Page 1 of The Record is to break the law.

A story about cricket appears in The Record once every 5 years or so. Most readers would be content if that was once every 50 years.

GOP failures

Also on Page 1 today is a political column about two Republicans seeking their party's nomination to run against Newark Mayor Cory Booker for the U.S. Senate.

Both Alieta Eck, a physician from Somerset, and Steve Lonegan, the conservative crackpot from tiny Bogota, oppose the federal health-care overhaul, dooming their candidacies to failure (A-1).

Meanwhile, Booker is unveiling a plan to curb childhood poverty nationally (A-3) -- countering Republicans like Lonegan and Governor Christie who cater to the elite.

The Record's editors continue to promote their love and support for Christie, leaving it to readers to cut through all of the political B.S. and expose what a miserable failure he is as governor.

Telling it like it is

In "YOUR VIEWS" on A-11, Dianne Douthat of Wayne notes "business subsidies have skyrocketed" under Christie, but "New Jersey's unemployment rate is still the sixth-highest in the nation, and we rank 47th in economic growth."

In other words, New Jersey may be "Stronger Than The Storm," but good luck finding a job here.

In another letter to the editor on A-11, Paul White of Ridgewood comments on a column by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin:

"The column continues Doblin's willingness to overlook the governor's poor behavior and his politics favoring the elite," White says.

Crumbling reporter

Readers get a break today from Roads Scholar John Cichowski, whose Sunday column was the 84th containing reporting problems since Sept. 12, 2012, according to a concerned reader:

"In his July 7 column, the Road Warrior endangers vehicle drivers and N.J. residents with his mistaken analysis about efforts to fix road infrastructure based on the Reason Foundation report on performance of U.S. state highway systems.

"Road Warrior has become a dangerous menace to everyone with his legendary incompetence and ability to misinform readers about results and conclusions of valid studies based on his own made-up information and invalid assessments.

"Unfortunately, the overwhelming consensus of road infrastructure and safety experts is that restraint in spending is not innovative and is irresponsible governance, threatens the state economy and our safety, and will greatly exacerbate more congestion, deterioration of our roads and bridges, and damages to our vehicles."

See the full e-mail to unresponsive management and editors on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Look out for that bumbling reporter