On weather or election, we're sick of the hype

  One homeowner prepared for the storm by covering outdoor furniture.

Editor Marty Gottlieb delivers another screaming Hurricane Sandy headline on Page 1 today -- for the fourth day in a row.

"Bracing for the worst" is today's banner headline, hard on the heels of "Ready or not, here it comes" on the weak Sunday edition.

We may not be ready, but here it is Monday morning in Hackensack and we haven't seen any steady rain.

Sure, the trees are swaying in the wind and our power flickered out for a few minutes, but that's it so far.

OK. The storm center has yet to hit the New Jersey coast, and all of the bad things we've read in the paper may indeed come to pass.  

But once you've read the predictions of weather doom, there is pathetically little in the rest of the paper, especially the Local news section run so poorly by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy yes man, Dan Sforza. 

Hype sells papers

The hurricane hype is eerily familiar to readers who have been pounded into senselessness by coverage of the presidential election for the past year and a half.

President Obama's lackluster performance in the first debate was a godsend to Gottlieb and others media leaders.

They were able to whip up another horse race to keep readers engaged in an election process they lost interest in many months before.

Meanwhile, GOP hopeful Mitt Romney's many lies went unchallenged, as he moved toward the center and said anything to get elected.

Pascrell endorsement

The paper's endorsement today of Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. D-Paterson, was welcome (A-11).

The Record has paid far too much attention to the challenge by Republican Shmuley Boteach, an Englewood rabbi and author who is a master at manipulating the media.

Did any of the many stories on Boteach's campaign for the 9th District seat in Congress report how he bought an Englewood mansion, knowing full well the one next door was owned by the Libyan Mission to the U.N.?

Did The Record recall the almost daily coverage of Boteach's so-called protest in the summer of 2009 when the mission announced that Libyan leader Moammar Ghadafi planned to stay in the East Hill home? 

Did the paper's political reporters or columnist reprise Boteach's recent attempt to have his mansion declared a synagogue so he could gain exemption from city property taxes? 

No contest

It's likely the paper ignored all of Boteach's many weaknesses to make the race against Pascrell seem tighter than it is, just as it is doing with coverage of the presidential contest.

Buried in Sunday's Page 1 story on jobs is a report that the Congressional Budget Office predicted in January the nation will add 10 million jobs from January 2013 to January 2017 (A-5 on Sunday).

Similarly, private economists have predicted that the economy is likely to create 12 million more jobs in four years, regardless of who is elected.

If those predictions are credible, why hasn't anyone challenged Romney's ridiculous boast that as president he would "create" 12 million jobs?   

See previous post on

more Road Warrior errors  

Check the lost-and-found for all those jobs

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

People wait on line to speak to job recruiters at a career day program.

Is The Record of Woodland Park trying to hide its role and the role of every other employer in the dismal jobs picture -- a main issue in next month's congressional elections? On Page 1 today, a refer carries the headline:

Jobs not growing
in Garden State

Gee, if you could grow jobs like tomatoes or corn, New Jersey would be in great shape. But the text below the headline says "the state lost 20,200 jobs" last month as the rest of the U.S. added them. How did it "lose" jobs? Did anyone check the employment lost-and-found?

Of course, the Borgs and every other employer would like nothing more than if readers believe jobs could be "lost" and "found." Publisher Stephen A. Borg is especially sensitive about this issue because of the $3.65 million he sucked out of North Jersey Media Group in the form of a mortgage for his 8,000-square-foot home in Tenafly.

If Greedy Stevie had stayed in his $2 million home, could he have postponed the downsizing that followed several months later or made it less severe? 

The quality of the paper had been going downhill under the incompetent leadership of Editors Francis Scandale, Deirdre Sykes, Tim Nostrand, Jim McGarvey, Barbara Jaeger and others, but when Borg jettisoned many experienced workers and moved to Woodland Park, the decline gathered great speed.

In the employment story on L-8, the first Business page, Staff Writer Hugh Morley does not use the word "employers" or "companies" or "businesses" or "small-business owners" anywhere. Jobs are identified as "government" and "private sector." It's other-worldly. 

So, if you read between the lines, you learn that businesses in New Jersey fired, downsized, laid off or otherwise royally screwed 9,400 more people in September than they hired. How many thousands of families saw their lives turned upside down, while Stephen sipped a great Bordeaux at the Englewood wine bar in which he and his big sister have invested?

Recently, the Business pages had a Q&A with an executive from Ramsey who said it was "too expensive" to hire employees. What goes unsaid by this moron, Borg and others is that the worker who remains standing is expected to do the work of two, three or more who have been shown the door, while the executives keep more of the money for themselves.

The L-8 story reports "the state lost 10,800 government jobs." Was that because of Governor Christie's state aid cuts, which have fallen most heavily on the middle and working classes? Not a word on the cause of the jobs "loss" appears in the story.

This is Zisa's defense?

On A-1 today, the defense attorney for suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa complains  the investigation of him was one-sided and he was denied the chance to testify before the grand jury. He also proclaims his innocence, but if this is all his attorney has, he'll soon be going down in flames. 

Why is this on Page 1, in place of the debate between Bergen County executive candidates?


Monsy catches up to the weeklies

Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado has a second story in the paper today, an L-1  report on  zoning and other changes proposed for Main Street that are many months old. 

She buries on the continuation page that one of the changes sought is a return to two-way traffic, and omits any mention of how The Record's abandonment of Hackensack has affected businesses.

Better Living


Thursday's Better Living section has been missing food coverage for years, but a Starters column appears today, moved up from its usual Friday slot. Unfortunately, this first look at a new restaurant in Tappan, N.Y., completely omits prices, making the piece sound suspiciously like an advertisement.