Obama, Warren, Sanders are driving nails into Trump coffin

On Thursday, President Obama led other prominent Democrats in endorsing Hillary Clinton as the party's choice to run against wacko racist Donald J. Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election. (Credit: cnn.com)

Part of the TV news coverage on Wednesday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Even as President Obama and other Democrats line up behind Hillary Clinton, The Record continues to publish Governor Christie's hollow defense of racist Donald Trump.

And the Woodland Park daily appears to have censored the harshest words for Trump from Clinton rival Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (A-1 and A-8).

Emerging from his White House meeting with Obama, Sanders warned a Trump presidency would be a "disaster," according to CNN, and that he will work as hard as he can to stop the hatemonger from reaching the White House. 

As for Warren, she said, "Donald Trump is a loud, nasty, thin-skinned fraud who has never risked anything for anybody and serves nobody but himself," CNN reports.

Crappy AP story

Instead of reporting that harsh assessment of Trump, Editor Deirdre Sykes again went with The Associated Press on Page 1 today, quoting Warren as saying she was "ready to get in this fight and work my heart out for Hillary Clinton to be the next president of the United States" (A-8).

Wouldn't it be rich if Clinton chose Warren as her running mate against Trump, and they buried that Republican male chauvinist pig under a landslide of votes from women, Hispanics and other minorities?

Christie bluster

Meanwhile, Sykes quotes Christie defending Trump for the second day in a row, this time on the front page, even though the governor never addresses charges the Republican presidential nominee is an unapologetic racist (A-1).

Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi's first paragraph reports:

"Donald Trump stands accused of building a presidential campaign on continued racist, sexist and xenophobic attacks, but his campaign is no worse" than past presidential candidates, "according to Governor Christie."

But nowhere in the long story that follows does Christie cite one racist or xenophobic rant from previous candidates he claims were just as bad as Trump (A-8).

Nor has any candidate become the laughing stock of the nation by proposing to build a wall to stop Mexicans from entering the U.S.

And Racioppi didn't find room to remind readers that Christie himself wanted to prevent Syrian refugees from coming to New Jersey and the rest of the United States even before Trump called for an end to Muslim immigration.

Public workers

Staff Writer Salvador Rizzo leads today's paper with a state Supreme Court decision that reverses a lower court, which protected cost-of-living raises for retired public workers (A-1).

That handed a victory to Christie, who froze the payments in 2011 as part of his war against teachers and other public workers.

But for some reason, the editor who wrote the clunky headline refers not to reversal of the lower court, but to the original lawsuit:

"Pensioners' suit defeated"

That treats the high court's decision as if it were a sporting event.

Suits aren't "defeated," though they could be rejected or dismissed.

Hackensack GOP

In another rejection of Trump's hate-filled campaign, Hackensack Mayor John Labrosse and Deputy Mayor Kathleen Canestrino -- both Republicans -- have officially registered as independents.

Noting Hackensack's diversity, they issued a statement, calling Trump's "divisive and racist statements ... completely unacceptable" (L-3).

The city is home to two mosques.

Mystery meat

For someone who has boasted of her Asian heritage, Staff Writer Elisa Ung has a warped idea of what constitutes Asian "fusion" or "influence" (BL-16).

Every single dish she praises in her Informal Dining review of The Front Porch in Hawthorne is made with mystery chicken, beef or pork.

Where are the Asian mainstays of tofu, vegetables and seafood?

In the text and photo caption, the restaurant's name is given incorrectly as "the Front Porch."

Editors boring us again with high school football, politics

The former Sears appliance store at 480 Main St. in Hackensack, above and below, is being demolished to make way for an ALDI supermarket, from a German company that also owns Trader Joe's. The store will be close to apartments on Main Street and on Euclid Avenue.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Deirdre Sykes of The Record is a fool if she thinks tens of millions of Democrats haven't decided whether to vote for Hillary Clinton or wacko racist Donald Trump.

Today's front page is dominated by an idiotic headline over another crappy Associated Press story that tries to inject suspense into the nominating process and Nov. 8 presidential election:

"Time to get onboard?"

In New Jersey and other states, the tens of millions of Democrats who were "Ready for Hillary" long before she declared her candidacy are poised in five months to make her the first woman to hold the presidency.

The AP story leads with a "fractured" Democratic Party instead of focusing on the all-out civil war among conservative Republicans on whether to back Trump and endorse his hate speech against Muslims, Mexicans and others (A-1).

Football 'war'?

Sykes leads today's paper with some nonsense about a high school "football turf war" that is only of interest to a couple of dozen parents and coaches (A-1).

She sure knows how to bore readers.

Mansions such as this one on the East Hill, hundreds of apartments on both sides of Route 4 and a large industrial section generate tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue for Englewood, yet the city's public schools are failing and downtown store vacancies are mounting.

Englewood election

A story on Englewood politics ends with Councilman Michael Cohen, winner of the Democratic primary on Tuesday, vowing to "limit tax increases" (L-1).

Sykes and Staff Writer Matthew McGrath want you to think Englewood is a municipal paradise where the only worry is high property taxes.

In fact, vacant storefronts, elementary and middle schools with few white students, and a high number of failing high schoolers tell another story -- one The Record ignores, even though North Jersey Media Group Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg has lived in a mansion on the city's East Hill for decades.

Brace for five months of hysterical Clinton-Trump coverage

Work is underway to convert the former United Jersey Bank Building at 210 Main St. in Hackensack and an adjacent structure into apartments, above, as seen from Moore Street.

The former bank's parking garage on Moore Street was being demolished on Saturday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record and other media will make sure the five months until the November presidential election won't be pretty.

Today's front page celebrates the milestone of Hillary Clinton becoming the first woman to lead a major American political party as she clinched the Democratic presidential nomination (A-1).

But below the fold, Editor Deirdre Sykes trots out the paper's burned-out political columnists -- Charles Stile from Trenton and Herb Jackson from Washington -- signaling her distaste for issues-based coverage.

She has that in common with The Associated Press and much of the electronic media, which will do their best to portray the contest between Clinton and wacko racist Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, as one of the closest, if not the closest, in history.

Jackson claims "leaders of both parties debated whether Trump's unpredictability could end the state's streak of backing Democratic presidential candidates that goes back to Bill Clinton in 1992" (A-1).

As for Stile, he's quoting Governor Christie as claiming "Trump is not a racist" (A-1 and A-7).

What a joke. 

Of course, Trump is a racist, and he's drawing support from an exclusively white electorate who have always hated the nation's first black president.

Obama v. Romney

The media have a lot invested in keeping voters interested in coverage of a presidential race that seems to begin right after the inauguration.

That's what happened in 2012, when the media quoted pollsters and experts as claiming the contest between President Obama and the GOP's pathetic Mitt Romney was too close to call.

In fact, the incumbent buried Romney in both the popular vote and in the Electoral College.

Mexicans, Muslims

Why haven't the major TV news networks or The Associated Press ever just laughed in Trump's face when he says he is going to build a wall on the U.S.- Mexican border, and get the Mexicans to pay for it?

Why haven't the media denounced the billionaire for his hate speech against Mexicans, Muslims and other minorities? 

Trump can't possibly win on a platform that seeks to "Make American Hate Again" and "Make America White Again."

Local news?

The first paragraph of another front-page story claims the plan for a 14-story hotel and conference center at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center was "once heralded as a cornerstone of revitalization efforts in South Paterson" (A-1).

That's the kind of flawed local reporting The Record is known for.

Since the 1960s, South Paterson's bustling Middle Eastern bazaar of restaurants and other food businesses, and the city's Farmers Market have drawn shoppers from Bergen County and other parts of the metropolitan area.

With new commercial buildings and a strip mall, as well as one of the biggest mosques in North Jersey, renewal of the neighborhood on the Clifton border has never waited for the hotel and conference center that St. Joseph's has now abandoned.

Even if cleared in Bridgegate, Christie still is biggest loser

This front page ran in the Daily News in January 2014, and proved prophetic. The News, Star-Ledger and other newspapers have covered Governor Christie and his administration far more honestly than The Record of Woodland Park.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Since Governor Christie took office in early 2010, New Jersey has become a laughing stock.

And a couple of months ago, Christie's endorsement of fellow Muslim-hater Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination prompted the editorial boards of seven major New Jersey dailies to call for his resignation.

"He has answered every crisis with neglect during his disastrous second term," The Star-Ledger noted on March 3, calling on him to leave office for "New Jersey's sake."

The state's biggest newspaper listed the state's fiscal crisis as second worst in the nation, including Atlantic City on the brink of bankruptcy, a mass-transit system in disrepair and an infrastructure fund fast running out of money.

The Woodland Park daily was the only major New Jersey paper that continued to give Christie the benefit of the doubt, filling its column recently with upbeat assessments of his selection as Trump's transition chief -- in the unlikely event the billionaire racist is elected in November.

"Make America Hate Again" is one critic's take on Trump's message.

By his side

Today and Thursday, The Record ran self-serving statements from Christie that all but absolved him in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal less than two months before he was elected to a second term in 2013.

The Record has done exhaustive reporting on the scandal, and now takes credit for leading other media companies in getting federal prosecutors to release a list of "unindicted co-conspirators" that was kept secret after Christie's close aide and crony were charged with conspiracy.

Two of three access lanes to GWB upper-level tool booths were closed in the week of Sept. 9, 2013, as political retribution against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor, supposedly for not supporting the governor's reelection campaign.

A second list "is expected to offer the broadest portrait yet of who knew about the conspiracy but did not report it" (A-1).

Worst governor ever

Whether one or both lists are released today and whether Christie is on them is irrelevant in view of his mean-spirited rule of New Jersey, and his war on the middle and working classes.

For a hands-on governor to claim he didn't know what his closest aides and cronies were doing is preposterous, and he long ago was convicted in the court of public opinion.

No matter what happens in Bridgegate, Christie's reign has been disastrous for the state and its residents.

He is the biggest loser, and we are the victims of his personal ambition.

Today's paper

I've seen some terrific headlines in The Record recently, but the one over the GWB scandal today is just ridiculous:

"Seeking
clarity in
political
morass"

Readers have no clue from the main or sub-headline what "political morass" the headline writer is referring to, and it could very well be the deadlock in Congress or the State House.

Of course, a big problem is the huge story on GWB repairs that is displayed next to the scandal story, even though the project doesn't get under way until next year (A-1).

Infrastructure stories such as this are a poor choice for Page 1, but Editor Deirdre Sykes is desperate, because she can't inspire her transportation reporters -- Paul Berger, Christopher Maag and John Cichowski -- to cover the actual commuting crisis in North Jersey.

Rare victory

Another Page 1 story today marks a rare victory over the Christie administration's poor environmental policies (A-1).

The state is dropping plans to "bring large-scale development to Liberty State Park" in Jersey City.

Hackensack police Lt. James Prise, second from right, at the March 8 ceremony in City Council Chambers with his wife and children.

Hackensack news?

Staff Writer John Seasly has done a poor job of covering Hackensack, but he has been all over the embarrassing public ceremony in March to recognize the promotion of the city's first black police lieutenant to captain, another first for an African-American.

Less than a month later, Lt. James Prise was returned to his original rank after he learned he had failed part of his state civil service exam.

Now, Councilwoman Deborah Keeling-Geddis, who also is black, issued a public apology and said Prise "did not deserve to suffer this indignity" (L-1).

Today, Seasly reports her statement "angered the mayor and deputy mayor, who accused her of political maneuvering and of going against the lieutenant's wishes."

Poor coverage

Seasly disappointed Hackensack residents by not covering the issues in the April 19 school election or the Zisa family's attempted political comeback by backing three of the nine candidates.

The election deserved attention, because only about 1,300 of 20,000 registered voters usually cast ballots.

This year, only 895 of them approved a $79 million tax levy to support the $104 million school spending plan, bigger than the city's own budget.

School taxes make up 44% of the total bill in Hackensack.

Voter apathy, apparent in Hackensack's local elections, can be traced to The Record's irresponsibly poor coverage of the city it once called home.

Wacko Trump labeled a racist by everyone but news media

Hackensack officials have agreed to store artifacts and other items from the New Jersey Naval Museum until the USS Ling is relocated. Now, the museum's artifacts are displayed on North Jersey Media Group property at the old River Street headquarters of The Record, where the World War II sub is tied up.

The gangway to the submarine, and other artifacts. The museum is closed and tours of the sub are suspended. The Ling is stuck in the mud of the Hackensack River.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump's tirades against Mexicans and Muslims made it clear the billionaire was just another white racist.

Yet, the news media likes to say Trump represents millions of "angry white men."

Of course, we know his supporters are racists who blame their problems on hard-working immigrants instead of the greedy corporations who have sent millions of their jobs overseas. 

Why have the news media -- including The Record of Woodland Park -- generally avoided calling him a racist even as Hispanic cooks in Manhattan's best restaurants are spitting in his food? 

'Novice' or racist?

On Wednesday's front page, the first paragraph of an Associated Press story identified Trump as a "political novice," and that was echoed Thursday night on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley. 

A Record editorial on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee ran down in great detail his insults to Mexicans, and his pledges to deport 11 million illegal immigrants and ban all Muslims from entering the country ("GOP at the abyss" on Thursday's A-12).

Editor or hack?

But Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin never calls Trump what everyone else knows he is -- a racist and white supremacist.

Even in his opinion column on A-13 today, Doblin refuses to label Trump a racist for his Cinco de Mayo posts on Twitter and Facebook.

A news story today reports the Latino Victory Fund released a statement that said:

"Donald Trump is doubling down on his racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Latino and anti-Mexican rhetoric."

But hacks at The Associated Press made sure to undercut the validity of that statement by describing the Latino fund as "a left-leaning political group" (A-4).

Donald Trump with big sister Maryanne Trump Barry, a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. She was nominated as a federal district judge in Newark by President Reagen in 1983, and appointed to the appeals court in 1999 by President Clinton.

Media made Trump

Much of Trump's support is rooted in the slavish media reporting every one of his hateful words in a presidential campaign we grew tired of months ago.

The editors of The Record only seem interested in stirring up controversy, not exploring issues and reporting on what would be good for New Jersey and the nation.

In covering Governor Christie since he took office in early 2010, editors and columnists have focused relentlessly on politics -- instead of issues and policies.

So, it's no surprise The Record remains the only major New Jersey daily that hasn't called on Christie to resign after he dropped out of the race and threw his support to Trump.

Today's paper

On the last workday of one of the dreariest weeks in memory, Editor Deirdre Sykes finally produces a Page 1 weather story (A-1).

And why is "vaping" dominating the front page instead of an environmental story on New York City imposing a 5-cent charge for using a disposable plastic grocery bag -- a fee that New Jersey certainly could use (A-3)?

Senior citizens

On the Local front today, Staff Writer Colleen Diskin has a rare report on senior citizens who aren't institutionalized (L-1).

Sykes and other newsroom staffers have been treating seniors like shit for decades -- stories on autism have been far more numerous than those on Alzheimer's disease.

Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to ignore the challenges facing older drivers like himself -- even as "pedal confusion" leads them to plow into pedestrians and storefronts, often with fatal consequences.

And the food editors promote mystery meat and artery clogging desserts as if they expect their older readers to live forever.

Hackensack news?

Staff Writer John Seasly covered Tuesday night's meeting of the Hackensack City Council, but wrote only one story -- yet another report on who is leading the Police Department.

Seasly didn't mention the council approved a resolution to store artifacts from the New Jersey Naval Museum until the USS Ling is relocated from North Jersey Media Group property at the old headquarters of The Record in Hackensack.

The Record hasn't reported whether the newspaper's owners, the Borg family, will pay for the relocation of the World War II submarine, which is stuck in the mud of the Hackensack River.

The Borgs, NJMG and The Record abandoned Hackensack in 2009 after prospering there for more than 110 years -- dealing a death blow to many Main Street merchants.

Now, with the blessing of the City Council, the Borgs plan to sell their 19.7 acres aong River Street to an apartment developer, and laugh all the way to the bank.

Lead in fountains

Saddle Brook is the latest district to turn off school drinking fountains where "unacceptably high levels of lead" were found (L-6).

Hackensack residents haven't seen a similar story reporting on lead levels in drinking fountains used by their children in what is the biggest school district in Bergen County. 

Mystery BBQ

Staff Writer Elisa Ung raves about a glazed doughnut stuffed with barbecued beef, bacon and cheese, but doesn't tell readers whether the meat is the cheap, low-quality stuff of unknown origin usually found in Korean restaurants.

Her 3-star Informal Dining review of Kimchi Smoke BBQ Shack in Bergenfield is long on mindless promotion and short on the information readers need to stay healthy (BL-16). 

News taking a back seat to politics, restaurant promotions

The front page of the Daily News. Philip Affuso of Ridgewood wrote a letter to the editor of The Record today, predicting the Republican Party, with Donald Trump at the head of the ticket, will meet "a crushing defeat in the general election" and may also lose control of the Senate and House (A-10).

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The front page of The Record today reflects the media's obsession with politics and sensationalism instead of news.

The idiotic Associated Press story splashed all over Page 1 describes Donald Trump as "a political outsider," not the hate monger who has rallied millions of racists to his cause (A-1).

Now that the two parties' presidential nominations appear to have been decided, what will The Record and other news media write about until the November election?

When Governor Christie dropped out of the GOP race and threw his support to Trump, every major New Jersey daily except The Record called on him to resign.

Should we expect an avalanche of boring columns from Staff Writer Charles Stile -- one of the governor's biggest boosters -- analyzing Christie's chances of becoming Trump's running mate for hate?

Newark murder

The headline over a follow-up to the murder of a white college student, who lived in off-campus Newark housing, uses two words from Christie's reaction, calling the death an "extraordinary tragedy" (A-1).

Editor Deirdre Sykes assigned four reporters to work on the story, as if minority Newark residents don't die in robberies or drive-by shootings nearly every day thanks to a police force that is unable or unwilling to protect them.

The story never explains why Joseph Micalizzi's life is worth any more than those unnamed victims.

Sykes and her gullible reporters also swallow Christie's B.S. that the slaying is "an extraordinary tragedy, not only for this university's community but also for us as a state and for me as a father" (A-6).

His son is graduating from Princeton, so how is the Micalizzi murder a "tragedy" for Christie? 

Local news?

After weeks of coverage, the big local news today is the suspension of Wyckoff Police Chief Benjamin Fox, who allegedly condoned racial profiling in a 2014 email (L-1).

North Jersey's home-rule communities seem to have their fair share of bad police chiefs, led by Hackensack's Ken Zisa.

Yet, The Record took no interest in the Zisa family's new political initiative, Team Hackensack, which backed two of the winning candidates in the April 19 school election.

'Hamilton' and Paterson

The Broadway musical "Hamilton" may have been nominated for 16 Tonys, but does the show touch on Alexander Hamilton's role in setting up the nation's first planned industrial city that later became Paterson, known as "Silk City" for all of the mills that were powered by the Great Falls?

Readers have no clue from today's coverage on the Better Living front (BL-1).

The editors also knock themselves out promoting the return of Park & Orchard, an Italian-American restaurant in East Rutherford (BL-1).

But readers might be experiencing sticker shock, with pasta dishes priced at $22 to $29 -- more than at many restaurants in Manhattan. 

Chef is out

And why should readers care about the employment problems of Adam Weiss, who left as executive chef of Due, an Italian-American restaurant in Ridgewood (BL-2)?

Weiss is best remembered for advice that sent many readers' blood pressures soaring, even if they weren't watching their intake of sodium as recommended by American Heart Association:

When he was working at Due, an overweight Weiss mocked using only one teaspoon of salt per gallon of pasta water.

"No," he insisted in a September 2014 interview with The Record. "It has to be salted like the ocean, because when you drain it you want the salt to adhere to the pasta."

What nonsense. Many home cooks don't even salt pasta water, knowing the sauce they use already has plenty of sodium.