Editors see politics in every Christie belch, burp and fart

Plunging gasoline prices continue to have an adverse impact on the environment: Sales of hybrid cars fall, owners postpone trading in their gas guzzlers for more efficient vehicles and many people drive more, aggravating air pollution. This Delta station is in Teaneck.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

For the third time this week, The Record's front page features Editor Marty Gottlieb's Three Bimbos, including yet another Charles Stile column on how Governor Christie's actions play in Iowa.

The third bimbo, inmate Teresa "Real Housewife" Giudice, appears in a Page 1 brief.

Stile isn't even doing any original reporting, but merely regurgitating "Republican operatives and donors in ... Christie's corner," as his first sentence notes (A-1).

Missing from nearly every Stile column in the past five years is how Christie's actions play in New Jersey, where he has tried to kill the middle class and repeatedly vetoed a tax surcharge on millionaires.

GWB scandal

Today's off-lead is Staff Writer Shawn Boburg's retrospective on the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal -- one year after the media uncovered an explosive e-mail from Christie's chief of staff:

"Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

But even this story tries to put Christie's likely involvement in political retribution against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee in the best light.

Boburg's second paragraph notes the e-mail "unleashed a massive political scandal ... and caused changes big and small" (A-1).

Though the reporter mentions "action by the legislatures in both New Jersey and New York," he is silent on the veto of those reform packages by Christie and his New York counterpart.

So, it's unclear what Port Authority "reforms" are being cited in the Page 1 headline.

And The Record and other media haven't acknowledged their failure to uncover the roles of Christie aides and cronies in the scandal in the two months before his November 2013 re-election. 

Paris massacre

Gottlieb, former global editions editor of The New York Times, gave up business trips to Paris for a trans-Hudson commute.

But in today's Page 1 coverage of the attack on a satirical newspaper in Paris, no one asks whether police could have prevented the killing of 12 people on Wednesday.

That was the same way Gottlieb handled the invasion of Westfield Garden State Plaza by a disturbed young man with a rifle on Nov. 4, 2013.

The show of force by Paramus police was too late to prevent panic among shoppers and employees, as well as the man's suicide.

Mercedes-Benz

Two more stories on the move of Mercedes-Benz USA to Atlanta appear in the paper today (A-1 and B-1).

Staff Writer Hugh R. Morley tries to compare the quality of life in Charlotte and Atlanta -- including restaurants, museums and art center -- to North Jersey, where residents and visitors have the world's greatest city, New York, just across the river.

The stories also put into context the loss of up to 1,000 jobs by 2017, when Mercedes is expected to move into a new U.S. headquarters in Atlanta.

Mercedes' employees are a small fraction of the more than 22,000 workers who commute to corporate headquarters in Montvale, Park Ridge and Woodcliff Lake every day (B-2).

Mercedes-Benz follows Christie in leaving New Jersey

On Tuesday afternoon, residents of Prospect Avenue in Hackensack and elsewhere in North Jersey were relieved to see only a dusting of snow.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

At least New Jersey still has Ferrari.

Today's edition of The Record carries two front-page stories and a third inside on the decision by Mercedes-Benz, the U.S. arm of the luxury car maker, to leave Montvale for Atlanta (A-1, A-6 and L-7).

Given the South's history of anti-Semitism and slavery, the move might be a great fit for the German company.

Hitler rode in an open Mercedes-Benz built especially for him, and Diamler-Benz, BMW, Audi and other German companies enriched themselves during World War II by employing slaves who weren't killed in the concentration camps.

The great success of Toyota's luxury brand, Lexus, often is attributed to Jewish customers who, recalling the Holocaust, vowed never to buy a Mercedes or any other German car.

Jersey impact

Even if you're among the small minority of readers who own a Mercedes, the move will not affect you one bit, and these and a flurry of earlier stories completely avoid discussing whether the development is more fallout from Governor Christie's failed economic policies.

Who can say whether all the time Christie has spent out of state pursuing his White House dreams influenced Mercedes officials, who reasoned if the state's chief executive wants to leave, why shouldn't we?

And if The Record's executives rode their Mercedes-Benz delivery trucks when they abandoned Hackensack -- holding their middle fingers high in the air -- what's wrong with Mercedes heading to a warmer climate?

The Record cites high taxes as one reason Mercedes is relocating most of its 1,000 jobs, but doesn't remind readers how Christie broke his 2009 campaign promise to lower our ruinous property taxes.

Home-rule expenses

Nor is the home-rule system of government discussed, and the high cost to taxpayers living in Bergen County towns of paying for nearly 70 police chiefs, 70 school superintendents, 70 police departments, 70 fire departments and 70 of everything else.

Mercedes is the latest auto importer to leave North Jersey.

Englewood Cliffs was once home to the U.S. headquarters of Volkswagen-Porsche, Peugeot, Citroen and Alfa-Romeo.

Ferrari Maserati North America remains on Sylvan Avenue. Jaguar Cars moved its U.S. headquarters from Leonia to Mahwah. 

BMW, which outsells Mercedes in the U.S., hasn't said anything about moving its headquarters out of Woodcliff Lake.  

Other news

On Tuesday, the do-nothing Republicans took complete control of Congress for the first time in eight years, and did a lot of saber rattling, but nothing to pass any legislation (A-1 and A-4).

Fair Lawn's Coffee with a Cop event sounds like a great idea for other communities, including Paterson (L-1).

But the photo that runs with today's story could have been chosen more carefully.

It shows Patrolman Gerald Graziano with his arms crossed as resident Jeff Zammitti speaks to him.

Is the patrolman trying to keep warm, feel insecure or rejecting the resident's comments? 

A weather photo on L-3 today didn't even require the photographer to leave the Woodland Park building The Record now calls home.

Three Bimbos

You've heard of the Three Tenors?

Tuesday's front page of The Record carried the same Three Bimbos that appeared on Sunday's Page 1: Christie, Columnist Charles Stile and Teresa Giudice.

In Tuesday's long Stile column (A-1) and Melissa Hayes' news story (A-4) on Christie's relationship with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, there is no mention of a Port Authority contract the governor steered to a company that is partly owned by the Cowboys.

For that, you'll have to read a report today on an ethics complaint filed by the American Democratic Legal Fund (A-3).

Teresa Giudice

The headline on Tuesday's Page 1 story about Giudice going to prison for mortgage and bankruptcy fraud is just awful:

"Next 'Housewifes' scene
starts away from spotlight"

"Giudice begins prison term in dead of night"

I don't see anything in Staff Writer Virginia Rohan's story on the possibility Giudice will likely become another inmate's "housewife" (A-1 and A-6).