Editors equating Trump sexual assaults with Clinton emails

These cartoons appear on Cagel.com. This one is from Alen Lauzan, a cartoonist who lives in Chile.

This one is from Adam Zyglis of The Buffalo News.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Associated Press -- a cooperative news and information service owned by 1,400 U.S. daily newspapers -- has always been known for one thing: Speed.

Accuracy, perspective, knowledge of issues -- not so much. 

So it's no surprise The AP story leading The Record today equates the scandal over GOP wacko Donald J. Trump's sex assaults with Democrat Hillary Clinton's emails (A-1).

What is a surprise is that the Gannett-owned daily continues to rely on The AP -- also known as The Associated Mess --for coverage of the presidential race instead of using stories from The Washington Post or its own USA Today.

"With Election Day four weeks away," today's AP story begins, "both presidential candidates [on Tuesday] dealt with their own troublesome issues:

"Donald Trump in a pitched battle with his own party as his candidacy nears collapse, and Hillary Clinton grappling with leaks about her long-criticized private email server."

"Troublesome issue" hardly comes close to describing the disgust over Trump's predatory attitude toward every woman who comes within reach.

And "troublesome issue" doesn't do justice to Trump's endless lies -- and lies about his lies -- in the first two debates.

Today's AP story shows the danger of the generalized lead loved by all wire service reporters.

Governor Christie

Get a load of the photo of Governor Christie leaving his state police helicopter on Tuesday, when he attended a Trump fundraiser in Ridgewood (A-7).

Christie, who is sticking by the GOP presidential predator, looks rumpled, overweight and stressed out over always having to defend Trump.

Breaking four days of silence, the GOP thug said he is "embarrassed" by Trump's "vile language," but won't withdraw his support from his fellow racist, State House Bureau reporter Dustin Racioppi says.

Christie also has been beaten up by continuing revelations in the Bridgegate trial (A-1), including testimony he knew about the retaliatory George Washington Bridge lane closures as they were happening in September 2013.

"I'm the fucking Governor of this state," he told a Monmouth County freeholder who described Christie as a "fat fuck," according to other testimony.

Hilarious.

Wrong-way Cichowski

Today's Road Warrior column speculates on whether gas selling for $2.25 a gallon will discourage people from driving and cut traffic deaths (L-1).

That's ridiculous. 

Staff Writer John Cichowski doesn't even mention drivers may switch to more efficient cars to negate the 23-cents-a-gallon hike, which he says will take effect on Nov. 1.

For example, most minivans have more cargo space than 7-passenger SUVs, and get better gas mileage.

The right to bear arms claims another innocent victim

Did anyone go to work today? This is Summit Avenue in Hackensack at about 8:15 this morning, usually the height of the rush hour.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A 29-year-old mother of four died in a Walmart when her 2-year-old son reached into her purse "and her concealed gun fired," The Record reports today.

You'd think this story -- not just a brief -- would appear on Page 1.

But it got pushed aside by dry "process" stories -- one on the Affordable Care Act and the other on Democrats launching a futile attempt to override Governor Christie's Port Authority veto (A-1).

As it is, The Associated Press story on the mother's accidental death raises more questions than it answers, much like the stories edited by the paper's local assignment desk.

The story doesn't identify the woman, but says she "had a concealed weapons permit."

So, this another case of the so-called right of citizens to bear arms ending an innocent life.

What a great country. We have so many freedoms, including the right to die by gunshot.

More gun deaths

Just below that story, another Associated Press report says the number of law enforcement officers killed by firearms jumped by 56% this year (A-3).

That included 15 ambush deaths, including the fatal Dec. 20 attacks on two police officers in Brooklyn.

A-2 carries another embarrassing correction -- a name was misspelled in a story on the retirement of a Clifton deputy fire chief.

Christie veto

On A-8 today, an editorial urges the state Legislature to override Christie's veto of Port Authority reforms, but notes lawmakers have "failed to override a single Christie veto" since 2010.

What The Record has never reported in its overwhelmingly favorable coverage of the GOP bully -- including endless portrayals of him as a compromiser -- is whether he has set a record for vetoes by a New Jersey governor.

In a letter to the editor on A-8, Ted Noble of Wayne says there is enough evidence "to indict Christie for mismanagement of New Jersey."

Nazerah Bugg

Of all the 2014 local deaths recognized on Page 1 and the Local front today, the murder of a 14-year-old Paterson teen was among the most unjust.

Nazerah Bugg, an aspiring basketball player, was shot and killed on a street corner on Sept. 20, the victim of gang gunfire (L-1).

Her death followed the July murder of Genesis Rincon, 12, as she was riding her bike to a grocery store in Paterson.

Paterson police laid off 125 officers after Christie cut state aid to the impoverished city in 2011.

The Record has reported "mismanagement of the city budget" contributed to those personnel cuts.

Marty's 'balanced' front page is all wrong for North Jersey

You can't argue with the license plate of a Smart car I saw on East 77th Street in Manhattan on Thursday, but its gas mileage is laughable -- much less than in a hybrid.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

You can almost see Editor Martin Gottlieb picking out stories to balance the front page of The Record today -- the shelling of a school in Gaza, a sensational Bergen County trial and an even more sensational lawsuit against Hackensack police, and a local "Loch Ness" teaser.

Most, if not all, of the stories are irrelevant to the lives of the vast majority of North Jersey residents, who live under a broken home-rule system of government that penalizes them with high property taxes.

Waste of space

Putting international news on Page 1 is a true waste of space, given the hours of TV coverage with the same focus the night before.

The Associated Press reports on the fighting in Gaza that Gottlieb has been running on Page 1 are the kind of body count journalism that seems prejudicial.

Is the media making any attempt to document Hamas' use of Palestinians as "human shields" by placing rocket launchers in residential neighborhoods, as Israel charges?

Instead of photos of the launchers, most of the stories are merely Hamas said/Israel said -- another case where the media shirk their responsibility and settle for sound bites.

Sloppy local section

Gottlieb may be putting a lot of care into balancing the front page today and every day, but that contrasts with the local staff's inability to completely report and intelligently edit even basic stories.

The major element on the Local front today doesn't even say whether passenger Miles Reme, 20, was wearing a seat belt before the crash in Ridgefield that killed the former high school athlete and seriously injured two other 20-year-olds, including driver Tamer Ammar (L-1).

The driver's DWI conviction, his being charged with reckless driving, and arrests for allegedly distributing Xanax and marijuana don't appear until deep on the continuation page (L-6).

Second look

In his July 13 column, Staff Writer John Cichowski made at least two big errors in discussing a plan to repave Paterson's pockmarked streets, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers.

Cichowski wrote the mayor proposed to borrow $37 million, but on July 10, a story in The Record reported the mayor wants to spend $37 million and borrow $35 million of that.

The befuddled reporter also misspelled the name of Councilman Andre Sayegh, calling him "Andrew."

See:

More errors from Road Warrior Joan Cichowski

Tea Party, Associated Press deserve what they get

A small parking lot and walkway on South River Street in Hackensack, above and below, will provide access to the Hackensack River.The new walkway, next to a large solar farm, was closed when I visited this past Monday.

I believe in the principle of certain groups being tax exempt, but not the Tea Party's radical, no-tax Republicans, who have sowed so much divisiveness in Washington (See Page 1 of The Record today).

Remember how the Tea Party compared President Obama's health care reform to the Holocaust?

The Associated Mess

I also believe in the principal of an unfettered press, but can't really get upset by the Justice Department issuing subpoenas for The Associated Press' telephone records (See Thursday's A-4).

The wire service's irresponsibly hysterical stories are used on the front page of The Record and hundreds of newspapers, and they form the basis of TV and radio news reports.

Look at Page 1 of The Record on Wednesday, when The AP reported "President Obama seemed to lose control of his second-term agenda."

Is that the same as losing control of your journalistic bowels?

On Thursday's A-1, the wire service reported the president "was hurrying to check a growing controversy."

Is it growing as fast as Governor Christie's waistline before he had lap-band surgery?

GOP plays The AP

All of these "scandals" and "controversies" are based on complaints from Republicans, who have set back America's middle class more than any other group.

Recall how bored wire service reporters caused panic among Obama supporters last year -- with daily reporting of polls and surveys that allegedly showed a real horse race in the presidential contest.

But the election wasn't close at all: Obama beat Mitt Romney handily in both the popular vote and in the Electoral College.

The story is politics

Yet, The AP continues to politicize every bill and every vote in Washington as a battle between Obama and Republicans, and rarely discusses issues -- just as The Record politicizes every story out of Trenton.

Today, political Columnist Charles Stile can't bring himself to criticize Christie for breaking his 2009 campaign promise to cut property taxes in New Jersey or to label re-election ads as deceptive (A-1).

Hackensack election

On the front of Local, Staff Writer Hannan Adely finally addresses voter apathy, which was a factor in the Hackensack City Council elections in 2009 and 2005 (L-1).

This week's historic victory of a reform slate, Citizens for Change, showed candidates were able to target discontent, despite low voter turnout.

The winning slate hopes to move the municipal election to November. It's about time.

Now, what about Hackensack's school board election in April, when turnout was less than half of the municipal election's?

Francis W. Albolino and two other candidates backed by the Zisa family political machine won.

That's a powerful argument for moving that election to November, as well.