Where are all those wealthy job creators?

I took this photo at Whole Foods Market in Paramus on Aug. 30, and lived to tell about it. Today, The Record's lazy editors claim the company would "not allow reporters and photographers into any of its three North Jersey locations." What a joke.

The lead story on Page 1 of The Record today doesn't bother exploring why all those rich job creators -- who are enjoying the lowest tax rates in more than 50 years -- are refusing to hire workers and help restore the battered economy.

Instead, The Record and other media are licking their chops as they gauge the impact of the latest jobs report on President Obama's chances of winning a second term.

The media is obsessed with landing the biggest story of this young century -- the defeat of the nation's first black president -- and will twist the facts to sell papers and mislead voters. 

Danger of sports

Editor Marty Gottlieb continues to squander front-page space on sports and school spirit (A-1 photo package).

But the danger of all this devotion to sports is clear from the death of a 71-year-old Haworth man who went to see his grandson's freshman soccer game (A-1 and L-1).

More Law & Order

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Syke's Local news section today gives readers 12 Law & Order stories or reports on the police, including a gee-whiz cover photo of a teen driver who couldn't handle his Mustang's power (L-1, L-2, L-3, L-6 and L-7).

The only Hackensack news today (L-3) and Friday (L-1) is re-opening of the former Court Street Bridge -- coverage ordered by the Borg siblings, who are dreaming of the many millions they'll reap with the sale of 20 nearby acres.

The old River Street headquarters of The Record and North Jersey Media Group is far more valuable with the bridge's alternate route to interstate highways.

What's the point of today's Road Warrior column on which state has the worst drivers -- based on readers' e-mails and an "insurance report" (L-1)? 

It merely highlights the lack of enforcement by state, county and local police -- a subject The Record has avoided like the plague.

Our dead neighbors

Two local obituaries of interesting residents (L-6 on Friday) makes readers wonder why there is so little coverage of their neighbors while they are still alive, and so much coverage of the Borg family's friends and business associates.

Pure organic food

The Better Living cover story today (BL-1) clarifies a flawed study on the benefits of pesticide- and drug-free organic food that grabbed front-page headlines this week.

But the big photo of organic fruit was taken at Fairway Market, near the Woodland Park newsroom, even though that small chain is a minor player in organics -- compared to Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's.

In a shameless admission, the story actually says Whole Foods wouldn't "allow" reporters and photographers into their stores.

Were they wearing signs? I've taken numerous photos in Whole Foods and many other supermarket chains. What's with the so-called pros at The Record?

In Friday's 3-star rave, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung doesn't explain why the 16-seat Francesca's Pizzeria in Lyndhurst doesn't serve wild-caught fish or say whether the sardines served are fresh or canned (BL-18-19).

This place is perfect -- for takeout.

 

Where are all those 'job creators'?

Image via Wikipedia

President Obama is being blamed for the economic fallout
 from the tax cuts pushed through by President Bush, left.

Governor Christie and other rabid Republicans in Congress and in State Houses across the country have fought tooth and nail to preserve tax cuts for all those millionaire "job creators."


We're still waiting.


The front page of The Record today reports Wall Street took a 512-point dive on Thursday -- but you can be sure Publisher Stephen A. Borg and his fellow millionaires continue to laugh all the way to the bank, while employees at the paper and elsewhere watch their retirement accounts take another pounding.


Way back on Page L-7 of today's paper, two Rutgers economists say only 2.2 million of the 8.8 million jobs lost in the recession have been replaced.


On Wednesday, again on L-7, Staff Writer Kathleen Lynn reported U.S. private employers added 114,000 jobs in July, but also announced job cuts of 66,414 last month.


Can't bear it


The bear-attack report that led the paper Wednesday turned out to be wildly inaccurate, according to the off-lead on A-1 today.


Maybe the lesson for Editor Francis Scandale -- whose news judgment is seriously flawed -- is to reserve the front page for bear fatalities, not any old scare.


Page A-2 today carries the third correction in three days.


Just two days after wasting most of the Better Living front on the cast of "Jersey Shore," editors run another photo of the bimbos and bimbas on A-3 today.


Barack Obama is lucky he is president and not an employee of North Jersey Media Group, where he would have ended up on the Borgs' elimination list on the day he turned 50 (A-5).


Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin savages the president in his OpEd column today (A-19), but he's consistently treated Christie with kid gloves.


Like a rabid dog, Road Warrior John Cichowski has sunk his teeth into the MVC story, and won't let go (L-1).


Beached whale


If you count the tip and tax, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung spent more than $300  at Joe's Crab Shack in Clifton and all she got was overcooked, over-salted food served in one of the noisiest restaurants in North Jersey.


And who waits more than an hour to eat at a restaurant? What a rube. No place is worth that.


Still, she gave it a one-and-a-half star rating (Fair to Good) "mainly because the staff is terrific." 


Ung should know food is paramount; you can't eat the wallpaper or get a date with your server. 


It's easy to see how flawed her judgment is by the 2 Stars she gave to a crappy, faux-Caribbean chain restaurant in Wayne called Bahama Breeze. 


Only five months later, then-Food Editor Bill Pitcher gave the same 2-Star rating to Legal Sea Foods in Paramus, the best seafood chain in the Northeast (Pages 19 and 20 in Better Living).


Joe's, schmoes


I ate at Joe's Crab Shack with my wife and son -- without waiting -- and we spent nearly $100 on dinner. But my $29.99 Crab Daddy Feast was overcooked and the meat was dry and tasteless. 


I complained, and got the chain to send me a $40 gift card.


Why doesn't she do the same, and try to recoup some of the $300 the paper wasted, including $6.99 on a piece of Key lime pie?


Joe's Crab Shack is a disaster, and should have been rated Poor (no stars). It certainly is no "beach party."


Here's a comment from a friend who ate there:

"I went to this place [Joe's Crab Shack] late Saturday night and witnessed one of the most disgusting things I have ever experienced in my life. I had our waiter sit down next to us to offer suggestions then get up, take a paper towel, blow his nose in it, and then drop it in that little garbage can in the middle of the table."