Brussels learned nothing from Paris terror that killed 130

Belgian officials say the two men in black blew themselves up at the airport in Brussels on Tuesday, and that they are hunting the man at right. A total of 31 people were killed and more than 250 were injured in the airport blast and a second explosion in the subway.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In the 15 years since 9/11, the United States has spent billions on homeland security and successfully avoided another large-scale terror attack.

In November, an Islamic State cell killed 130 in Paris, and Belgian "counter-terrorism authorities" arrested the last known participant in those terror attacks last week, according to The Record's news services.

Despite all of that, other Belgian-born members of the same Islamic State cell were able to walk into the airport on Tuesday with suicide vests and a suitcase packed with explosives and detonators.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility, saying its members detonated suicide vests both at the airport and in the subway.

Local news

The 145-year-old First Presbyterian Church on the East Hill of Englewood was destroyed in a fire on Tuesday night, North Jersey.com reports today.

But the story in today's print edition of The Record is incomplete, apparently due to early deadlines (L-1).

The editors see no reason to delay the press run for important local news. Hey, let them read it on the Web site, the reasoning seems to be.

Later this morning, Hackensack Daily Voice.com described the church as "ravaged," not destroyed, and a photo showed the walls of the sanctuary intact and the steeple still standing.

In a rare story on Hackensack, the Woodland Park daily reports the City Council on Tuesday night approved a proposed settlement of a lawsuit filed by Anthony Rottino, who was replaced as interim city manager in June 2014 (L-1).

The city would pay up to $250,000 to settle the whistle-blower claim.

But where is the local news?

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Bloated county payrolls, a tax-evading mayor and wife, and a politically connected insurance broker make up a classic North Jersey front page today, but they only distract readers from the continuing lack of news from Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood in The Record of Woodland Park.


The story on the North Arlington mayor facing a judge for evading a measly $5,300 in federal taxes doesn't really deserve A-1 play, but apparently the editors didn't have anything stronger.


With all those weighty stories out front, the Local section is almost completely devoted to non-profits and fund raising. Memo to editors: Another story about the Hackensack Police Department isn't news to residents.


Check out the lead paragraph of Mike Kelly's column on L-1. What can he possibly mean by the "uneven history of America's environmental movement"? Don't all movements have uneven histories, especially his journalistic bowel movements? This is a veteran journalist who cannot manage anything more than banality.


But I have to at least give him some credit for doing a decent job on this heart-warming subject (monk parakeets) -- which is basically a repeat of a column he did last year -- in contrast to all the drivel he has turned out about homeland security, Tom Kean Sr. (photo), Bernard Kerik and the Times Square bombing suspect.


Does The Record need Bill Pitcher, the $70,000-plus food editor, to produce a couple of vegetarian recipes for Better Living today? That's all the food coverage you'll find. What a waste of money.

More rehashing of the news

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Should we praise the FBI for finally recognizing the threat of homemade bombs nearly a decade after 9/11, as The Record of Woodland Park does today by putting the story on Page 1? And who else brings us the news but Columnist Mike Kelly, chief rehasher at the former Hackensack daily.


If you want background on a big story, Kelly is the guy to go to. His column today is filled with lots of old news, but not much perspective on the failure of homeland security officials -- until now -- to recognize a threat that Israel and the rest of the world has known for decades -- the crowd-murdering, almost impossible to stop suicide bomber. Lucky for us -- and for homeland security officials -- the suspect in the attempted Time Square bombing was such a klutz.


The last time I saw Kelly, outside the paper's old headquarters in Hackensack, I told him the updated photo that runs with his column is unflattering. Is that a smile or a smirk? Is that his sport or suit jacket thrown casually over his shoulder? Is he trying to strike the pose of a model journalist or just a model?


Is he saying, Stick with me for the latest insight on the news, or Stick with me while I push words around and never go out on a limb with strong opinions columnists are supposed to express? It's the latter, of course.


The Local section is devoid of any news from Hackensack or Englewood, but Road Warrior John Cichowski has yet another column on teen driving decals and actually quotes adults who fear the decals will help sexual predators find their victims. I was a reporter and news copy editor at The Record for nearly three decades and worked on numerous stories about teen sex victims -- no one needed a decal to find a teen in those days, and no one needs one now.


In Better Living, Food Editor Bill Pitcher says you pay for quality -- not quantity -- at Rocca in Glen Rock, but never backs that up with any information about the provenance of the food, so readers can make an informed decision. (Pitcher and the other restaurant reviewer, Elisa Ung, who is on leave, have the word "quality" on a save/get key and throw it around with abandon, usually with no basis in fact.)


For example, a Rocca entree of four scallops for $31 seems high, as he suggests, but if they are from a day boat, they would be the freshest you could find and free of preservatives, and might be worth the price. Surely, the $70,000-plus food editor has heard of day-boat scallops?


He's not the only overpaid editor at The Record -- there's Frank Scandale, Deirdre Sykes, Frank Burgos, pals Barbara Jaeger and Liz Houlton, and on and on. The paper is top heavy with editors who attend a lot of meetings, but who have failed to stop its slide into mediocrity.



Today, hype is king -- as in Publisher Stephen A. Borg's "The Trusted Local Source" and North Jersey Media Group's "responsible journalism."

Sadly, the joke is on readers.