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| A hazy morning greeted drivers inching along 34th Street toward the East Side of Manhattan on Friday. Construction and a bus-only lane made rush-hour traffic even worse than usual. |
By Victor E. Sasson
Editor
A Page 1 story on Governor Christie's meeting with The Record's editorial board sounds just like another well-edited campaign appearance.
The upbeat Friday story, reported by Staff Writer Melissa Hayes, minimizes The challenge posed by Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono.
And it tells readers nothing about the composition of the editorial board, which here sounds bored and lazy.
Is Publisher Stephen A. Borg on the board? Does Borg or his father, Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, still have to sign off on the paper's editorial endorsement of candidates for public office?
Spin city
Basically, Christie is allowed to tell voters what he'll do, if he wins a second term, with nary a word about his many failures in his first term.
On A-2 Friday, Christie also addressed the disastrous decision that led to $120 million in damage to NJ Transit's rail fleet during Superstorm Sandy, but his comments are contradicted by a story on the front page today.
National Public Radio reported on Friday that Christie had changed his story about the rail fleet a number of times.
The GOP bully also deflected blame for the loss of $400 million in federal education funds a couple of years ago, blaming it on a clerical error.
On A-5 today, readers learn that Christie has ignored a $7.7 million federal grant to educate state residents about the Affordable Care Act, just as he vetoed legislation that would have allowed New Jersey to set up its own health-care exchange.
That led to less competition and is likely to mean smaller savings for people buying health insurance.
Hackensack and Teaneck news go missing for another day today.
Capitol madness
Friday's front page was dominated by the distraught woman who rammed her car into barriers in the Capitol before she was shot dead by police.
Initial reports were that the car was being driven by Michele Bachmann, one of the Republicans blamed for the partial government shutdown.
On Friday, Mike Kelly, the reporter with the shit-eating grin, shows he's more comfortable dealing with answering machines and Rep. Scott Garrett's aides than interviewing disadvantaged people who are being hurt by Garrett and other Tea Party crackpots (Friday's A-6).
More GWB hype
An editorial on Friday's A-22 backs up the hysteria in the Road Warrior's highly exaggerated column on the closing of some George Washington Bridge upper-level toll lanes recently.
The editorial doesn't mention that the vast majority of drivers experienced no delays, especially if they used the truck-free lower level.
Friday's Road Warrior column continues to explore the many aspects of "glare," a minor commuting problem (Local front).
In his previous column on Wednesday, Staff Writer John Cichowski took a "long, long detour" from the truth, according the concerned reader who created the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.
To read the full e-mail to management and top editors, click on the following link:
Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza also brought readers the latest report on utility poles (Friday's L-1).
Spreading untruths
Friday's restaurant review reminded me that the hummus at Hamsa was devoid of garlic and possibly the worst version I have ever tasted in decades of eating the Middle Eastern chickpea spread.
Tavlin, the Tenafly restaurant that has succeeded Hamsa, uses many of the latter's recipes, Staff Writer Elisa Ung reports on Friday's BL-20.
That's the kiss of death as far as I'm concerned, and I'll stick to far more authentic and far less expensive places in Paterson.
