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| The Panera Bread Bakery-Cafe in Queensbury, N.Y., on July Fourth. |
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
The front page of The Record today carries another so-called ANALYSIS, reporting the sad state of the New Jersey economy:
Governor Christie's "latest state budget," Staff Writer John Reitmeyer reports, contains more borrowing and more business tax breaks; higher property tax bills and no money for "transportation upgrades and open-space preservation" (A-1).
Why didn't this frank discussion of the mess Christie has made of the Garden State -- while catering to the rich -- appear before he vetoed the Democrats' budget proposal on June 30?
In a familiar story, Christie cut funding for women's health care, a tax-credit for low-wage workers and legal services for the poor, and delayed property tax relief to next year, according to a front-page story on July 1.
Silent endorsement
Yet the editorials that ran July 2 and 3 make no mention of the GOP bully's mean-spirited balancing of the state budget for the fifth year in a row.
Similarly, today's lead story on the woes of North Jerseyans struggling to rebuild their shore homes doesn't even attempt to assess whether Christie bungled federal Sandy aid, just as he tried to sabotage the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in New Jersey (A-1).
Editor on vacation?
I've been on vacation out of state, but what is Editor Martin Gottlieb's excuse?
The onetime cub reporter for The Record went on to a stellar career at The New York Times, including a Paris posting, before he was hand-picked by the Borg publishing family to run their flagship daily paper in early 2012.
Not much has changed
The Brooklyn-born Gottlieb, 66, has been running the Woodland Park newsroom for nearly three years, but readers could be forgiven if the only changes they notice are longer stories, a relentless focus on politics and an even greater emphasis on front-page sports than his incompetent predecessor.
Readers are still ill-informed by a local-assignment desk filled with the same old, lazy sub-editors and stale, burned-out columnists that have been around for decades.
More lazy reporting
One of those lazy columnists appears on Page 1 today, trying to peddle a commuting story that affects only a few hundred people, if that (The Road Warrior, A-1).
Road Warrior John Cichowski and the paper's other transportation reporter, Karen Rouse, have labored in recent years to ignore growing mass-transit congestion, including a lack of rush-hour seats on trains and buses, and the delays faced by commuters trying to return to their North Jersey homes from the antiquated midtown-Manhattan bus terminal.
How does today's column on "a cheaper commute" over the George Washington Bridge benefit the vast majority of commuters, who are victims of Port Authority toll increases that amount to highway robbery?
Out of whole cloth
Cichowski is so lazy he will grasp at any straw as an excuse to write a column, such as his lame Page 1 effort on June 27 to tie the deaths of three men trying to fix a disabled truck on Route 287 to the average motorist whose car breaks down on a busy highway.
I pity the driver and passengers who follow his advice to stay inside a car with their seat belts on as trucks and other traffic flies by -- instead of getting the hell out of there.
The Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers notes that advice is definitely not posted on the AAA web site, aaa.com, as Cichowski claimed.
Bankrupt section
Today's Business front story on mergers and acquisitions among community banks (B-1) makes no mention of Spencer Savings Bank assuming NJM Bank's deposits and loans, according to a letter sent to customers in late June.
The Business editors presumably are waiting for a press release.
The SMALL BUSINESS story today focuses on a restaurant in Conshohoken, Pa., not one in North Jersey (B-7).
Bring lots of dough
In Better Living today, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz and Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung continue their breathless promotion of expensive restaurants -- in a form of payback to those big advertisers (BL-2).
Food coverage has gone decidedly upscale in recent years, with no attempt to report on casual restaurants where four can eat for $50.
Lame local reporting
Today's Local front carries a story on Fort Lee trying to prepare for a steep rise in school enrollment (L-1), but no one has reported that Hackensack faces the same problem.
With hundreds of new apartments already built, under construction or proposed, the Hackensack City Council and Board of Education have yet to address the issue.
Dissing Hackensack
Looking through the papers I missed since I left Hackensack on June 26 is a chore I'm trying to avoid, but the lead front-page element on June 29 caught my eye:
"Change isn't easy for Hackensack"
One look at his dated column photo -- with the same unflattering, shit-eating grin -- shows change doesn't come easy at The Record.
Negative spin
I saw Kelly at a Hackensack City Council meeting last month, and he has a nice head of gray hair.
Isn't it time for The Record's editors to update his column photo, just as they did for TV critic Ginnie Rohan (BL-1)?
Kelly's column criticizing Hackensack's "unseasoned newcomers" is inaccurate and inflammatory, but it is typical of The Record's overwhelmingly negative coverage of the city it once called home.
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