Tea Party, Associated Press deserve what they get

A small parking lot and walkway on South River Street in Hackensack, above and below, will provide access to the Hackensack River.The new walkway, next to a large solar farm, was closed when I visited this past Monday.

I believe in the principle of certain groups being tax exempt, but not the Tea Party's radical, no-tax Republicans, who have sowed so much divisiveness in Washington (See Page 1 of The Record today).

Remember how the Tea Party compared President Obama's health care reform to the Holocaust?

The Associated Mess

I also believe in the principal of an unfettered press, but can't really get upset by the Justice Department issuing subpoenas for The Associated Press' telephone records (See Thursday's A-4).

The wire service's irresponsibly hysterical stories are used on the front page of The Record and hundreds of newspapers, and they form the basis of TV and radio news reports.

Look at Page 1 of The Record on Wednesday, when The AP reported "President Obama seemed to lose control of his second-term agenda."

Is that the same as losing control of your journalistic bowels?

On Thursday's A-1, the wire service reported the president "was hurrying to check a growing controversy."

Is it growing as fast as Governor Christie's waistline before he had lap-band surgery?

GOP plays The AP

All of these "scandals" and "controversies" are based on complaints from Republicans, who have set back America's middle class more than any other group.

Recall how bored wire service reporters caused panic among Obama supporters last year -- with daily reporting of polls and surveys that allegedly showed a real horse race in the presidential contest.

But the election wasn't close at all: Obama beat Mitt Romney handily in both the popular vote and in the Electoral College.

The story is politics

Yet, The AP continues to politicize every bill and every vote in Washington as a battle between Obama and Republicans, and rarely discusses issues -- just as The Record politicizes every story out of Trenton.

Today, political Columnist Charles Stile can't bring himself to criticize Christie for breaking his 2009 campaign promise to cut property taxes in New Jersey or to label re-election ads as deceptive (A-1).

Hackensack election

On the front of Local, Staff Writer Hannan Adely finally addresses voter apathy, which was a factor in the Hackensack City Council elections in 2009 and 2005 (L-1).

This week's historic victory of a reform slate, Citizens for Change, showed candidates were able to target discontent, despite low voter turnout.

The winning slate hopes to move the municipal election to November. It's about time.

Now, what about Hackensack's school board election in April, when turnout was less than half of the municipal election's?

Francis W. Albolino and two other candidates backed by the Zisa family political machine won.

That's a powerful argument for moving that election to November, as well.

Busy front page is mostly filler

Image by jessamyn via Flickr

 The Saturday edition of The Record of Woodland Park is especially weak today, with only one breaking news story on Page 1 -- the paralysis of air travel. Those promos to inside stories fill the bottom of the front page; they come and go with no rhyme or reason.

"It's Google for cops" could have read: "It's filler for news editors." This is not front-page news, but just another one of those stories written by the police reporter, Marlene Naanes, designed to please the sheriff, cops and police chiefs, in the apparent hope they will be more forthcoming about crime, accidents and other mayhem.

No Hackensack news appears in the paper today, not even the school budget. (Photo: Hackensack hotel room.)


It's bad enough that head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes apparently has ordered Hackensack reporter Monsy Alvarado to ignore any news except the legal problems of Police Chief Ken Zisa. But is Alvarado -- at the behest of Sykes or any other editor -- deliberately distorting the news?

In a story inside Local on April 12, Alvarado reported the "official" opening of a police substation on Hudson Street with no mention of Zisa. Did she do the story by phone? Did Zisa refuse to speak with her?

A couple of days later, the Hackensack Chronicle, one of North Jersey Media Group's weeklies, quoted Zisa in a story about the outpost. Then, in the edition dated April 15, The County Seat had a Page 1 photo showing Zisa at the ribbon-cutting and it also quoted him in the story. 

The latter weekly is published by Gail Zisa and edited by Lauren Zisa. The back page of this weekly carries a full-page ad for the firm of Joseph C. Zisa Jr., the city attorney. (Hey, some people refer to the former home of The Record as Zisaville.)

So, has Sykes ordered Alvarado to investigate Zisa, who is being sued in state and federal courts by police officers? Let's hope this probe doesn't suck up the nearly three years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in staff salaries that went into the Sykes-inspired vendetta against former Hackensack Chief of Detectives Michael Mordaga.

Can anyone say for certain whether the money squandered on the Mordaga probe -- and the $3.65 million mortgage NJMG gave Publisher Stephen A. Borg -- could have prevented the elimination of jobs held by dozens of experienced advertising and editorial workers, and the unilateral salary cuts for those who stayed?