Edgewater's volunteer fire force is a big insult to residents

Fire consuming the 408-unit Avalon apartments on Wednesday, leaving more than 1,000 Edgewater residents homeless. The Cliffview Pilot.com photo was taken by Carmen Fuentes. Are residents ill-served by volunteer firefighters?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Residents in the booming Gold Coast town of Edgewater deserve better than a volunteer fire force that has failed to extinguish at least three spectacular apartment fires in the past 20 years.

More than 1,000 borough residents were displaced by Wednesday's fire, which was far more serious than what The Record conveys on Page 1 today.

Despite all the residential construction along Edgewater's Hudson River waterfront in recent years, the borough continues to rely on a Volunteer Fire Department instead of employing a professional force.

Are borough officials economizing at the expense of residents and other property tax payers?

First Avalon

The Avalon apartment complex gutted on Wednesday literally rose from the ashes of the original.

The complex was under construction in August 2000, when a fast-moving fire leveled two unfinished apartment buildings, nine nearby homes and 12 cars, according to NJ.com.

Wooden construction was cited as one reason the fire moved so quickly, destroying the buildings in a half hour.

Third fire

Another Edgewater apartment building closer to the Hudson was destroyed by fire in the 1980s, when volunteer firefighters responded, then left, not realizing flames were racing unimpeded through the space under the roof called the cockloft.

According to The Record, Edgewater's volunteer force on Wednesday was assisted by 11 other departments and five NYFD fireboats, but the inferno raged out of control.

"The fire spread to the north end of the complex, unchallenged in its advance, until firefighters from Hillsdale arrived at 8:15 p.m. and started pouring water on that section" (A-6).

Today's Page 1 photo of the Edgewater fire looks like a glamour shot of a firefighter; to see photos that encompass the breadth of the damage, check out Cliffview Pilot.com:

River Road reopens


Slippery slope

In his column on Tuesday, Staff Writer John Cichowski, aka Road Warrior, tried to advise readers on how to drive in icy conditions after Sunday morning's chain-reaction crashes.

Cichowski ignored discussing why anti-lock brakes and vehicle skid controls, which are found on most cars, didn't prevent the crashes or whether a single, out-of-control vehicle or a speeding driver caused the pile-ups.

He did advise drivers to stay two to three car lengths behind the car in front at 20 mph to 30 mph, but those are the safe distances on absolutely dry roads.

According to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"Traffic safety experts generally recommend at least 6 seconds of travel time between you and the car in front of you on snowy or icy roads.

"That would require around 180 feet at 20 mph and 280 feet at 30 mph.

"Road Warrior also quoted insignificant safety advice from an 'expert on icy conditions,' who slipped and broke his wrist, and a clueless driver, who crashed his car on an icy road."

See: Road Warrior's slippery slope for drivers

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More sketchy and flawed reporting on driving, mass transit

In Fort Lee, construction of the massive Hudson Lights retail and residential project has spread to Lemoine Avenue and Main Street, above and below, closing nearby streets and disrupting downtown traffic. Meanwhile, across the street, the Plaza Diner is being renovated and expanded, but hasn't set an opening date.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's editorial today on the proposed $1 billion-plus expansion of New York Penn Station to benefit New Jersey commuters is unequivocal:

"Commuters need to get from point A to point B: everything else is negotiable" (A-8).

The editorial even acknowledges "the ongoing conversion of the Farley Post Office into Moynihan Station that will improve access to Penn Station tracks."

One-station focus

Two long front-page stories on Monday and Tuesday failed to mention the Moynihan Station Project, perhaps to make the situation for NJ Transit rail users seem more dire.

If readers thought Staff Writer Christopher Maag said nearly all he could possibly say about plans for Penn Station South on Monday, Tuesday's long follow-up was a surprise.

In fact, the follow-up read like an elaborate clarification and revision of his earlier cost estimates and how the project supposedly is at a standstill.

Broken numbers

As weak as The Record's mass transit reporting has been, Road Warrior John Cichowski's incessant focus on drivers can't hide the veteran reporter's inability to accurately report basic state police data and other numbers he uses with abandon. 

On Tuesday, two Road Warrior columns appeared -- Cichowski's take on the bankrupt state Transportation Trust Fund (A-1) and his lame explanation for why Sunday morning's icy conditions caused so many accidents (L-1).

If not drivers, who?

The paper's reporting and editorials on the trust fund have failed to emphasize the irrefutable logic that drivers who cause wear and tear on roads and bridges are the ones who should pay for repairs through higher gasoline taxes.

That's especially true of one driver from Clifton whose Tweet was published on Tuesday's A-1:

"$31 to fill up my monster gas eating car. Not bad at all."

Drivers of hybrid cars and other fuel-efficient vehicles wouldn't even notice a 10-cents-a gallon gas tax hike, and would gladly pay it in return for smoother roads and safer bridges.

More sloppy reporting

Today, I received an evaluation of Cichowksi's Jan. 13 column on annual state police road fatality statistics from the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, citing his foot-in-mouth disease:

We're safer, but Road Warrior is killing facts

On pedestrian deaths, Cichowski quoted state police data, but used the wrong figure for five of the six years he cited.

The Facebook critic also noted:

"In trying to protect pedestrians and reduce their fatalities, which was the most in 18 years in 2014, the Road Warrior gave out the simple advice that drivers should 'never, never' talk on the phone when driving.

"Unfortunately, the Road Warrior failed to advise pedestrians of the more important and widely publicized advice that they should never, never talk on the phone when crossing the street."

There were many other problems with the column and the abysmal lack of editing and fact-checking, including:

• Cichowski said driver and pedestrian deaths fell to their lowest level in "several decades," but to be correct, he should have written "seven decades."
• "The county’s pedestrian death count was so large that it doubled its driver death count, a highly unusual occurrence."

But what the reporter should have written is that pedestrian deaths at 24 were double the 12 driver deaths.

Sweet tooth

Restaurant Critic Elisa Ung's obsession with artery clogging desserts is well-known, but today, Better Living celebrates the achievements of Jessica Marotta, a young pastry chef at Local Seasonal Kitchen in Ramsey (BL-1).

Food Editor Esther Davidowitz, who wrote the profile, gives Marotta far more space than she does to Michael Ventura, a chef who has a healthier message:

"I don't use a lot of cream or butter because people have changed the way they eat" (BL-2).

Of course, many readers who are watching their cholesterol are waiting for confirmation from the all-seeing and all-knowing Davidowitz that it is actually possible to cook delicious food without using butter or cream.

Restaurant business

Tuesday's Better Living front appeared to be an inside look at the restaurant business, but a lot was missing.

Staff Writer Steve Janoski interviewed chefs and owners at only high-end restaurants, and didn't discuss the shockingly low hourly pay for tipped workers such as servers (BL-1).

The restaurants exploit servers, then put the burden on customers to tip well to help provide those workers with a living wage.

Nor did the reporter make any attempt to tell readers just how much more naturally raised food would cost a restaurant over food raised with pesticides, antibiotics and other additives.

Janoski interviewed Christine Nunn, chef-owner of Picnic on the Square in Ridgewood, who seemed to be saying she makes less than $30 in profit on each table.

And why can't Nunn buy napkins and tablecloths for less than the $9,600 to $12,000 a year she pays a linen delivery service?

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Train station opus raises more questions than it answers

New Jersey-bound commuters in the NJ Transit Waiting Room at Penn Station in Manhattan. The Record's Sunday story on a new train station seemed to have a big hole in it -- about the size of two more Hudson River rail tunnels.

When an NJ Transit train is assigned a track in the Amtrak-owned station 10 minutes before its scheduled departure, commuters scramble to get a seat.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Thousands upon thousands of words on the potential expense of Amtrak buying land for a new midtown Manhattan rail station ran under a big, black headline on Sunday:

The $1B question

But the story on new trans-Hudson rail tunnels for New Jersey commuters by transportation reporter Christopher Maag of The Record raised its own $2 billion question.

Why is there no mention of the Moynihan Station Project, billed as the new Manhattan home for Amtrak and now under construction across the street from Penn Station in Manhattan? 

According to the Moynihan Station Development Corp. Web site:

"This project will create access to the Penn Station tracks and platforms through the James A. Farley Post Office Building for the first time.  The new entrances at the corners of 8^thAvenue and 31^st and 33^rd Streets will provide commuters with access to an expanded and ADA-compliant concourse underneath the Farley Building that will serve tracks 5 – 21 and serve as the commuter concourse for Moynihan Station."

It's also difficult to find a point of view in Maag's story on whether new Hudson River rail tunnels and a new station are essential to help relieve increasing traffic congestion -- no matter what they cost.

In the past decade, The Record's editors and reporters also have ignored the Port Authority's refusal to expand rail and bus transit.

Consumer news?

If Maag's front-page opus on Sunday didn't put you to sleep, a story on the Business front should do the trick:

Retail's brave new world

Inside Business, there is not one but two stories on the Detroit Auto Show (B-2 and B-6).

Izod Center

If you missed two front-page stories on the Izod Center last week, take a look at Columnist Mike Kelly's rewrite on Sunday's Opinion front (O-1).

Is there anything new here? Fresh? No. 

That shit-eating grin in his thumbnail photo is the reporter's way of saying he's pulled another fast on his editors and readers.

Angelo's Ristorante

Sunday's The Corner Table column from Staff Writer Elisa Ung reports Angelo's Ristorante hasn't changed much in 60 years (BL-1).

Waiters still wear tuxedos, a classy touch, but the montage on the Better Living front has readers doing a double take at the photo of founder Angelo Piccirillo, especially around his shirt collar.

Juxtaposed with his white collar is a triangular piece of white tablecloth from the dining room photo. That's pretty weird -- and sloppy.

Today's paper

As property taxes have increased, The Record has ignored the stubborn lack of consolidation in the nearly 90 towns in Bergen and Passaic counties.

Any possible move toward greater efficiency gets the editors so exited they run the speculation on Page 1, as you can see in today's report on a third town joining the Becton Regional High School District.

Second look

Staff Writer John Cichowski clearly didn't spend his vacation trying to make his so-called commuting column more accurate, according to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

"In his Jan. 11 column, the Road Warrior awakened from his comatose state of not publishing for four weeks and reached new lows with an unsubstantiated exaggerated claim that current falling gas prices below $2 willkill 9,000 more people annually in the United States due to more driving based on lower gas prices.

"Road Warrior reported on this claim of a sociology professor from South Dakota based on a minor study, which was also not in any way representative of the entire U.S., as admitted by the professor, that was disputed by every demographer and traffic safety expert that the Road Warrior referenced.

"This Road Warrior column repeatedly gave 'false' credence and ended with this claptrap claim, even though the Road Warrior completely forgot that he was working on a column published two days later that showed NJ road fatalities for drivers and passengers reached new historical lows in 2014, even though gas prices have plummeted from near $4 per gallon in 2013 to around $2 per gallon. 

See: Road Warrior poses a danger to credibility

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Reporter John H. Kuhn set an example that few follow

On River Street in Hackensack, you can make one stop for cheap gasoline and even cheaper, low-quality hamburgers.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I seriously doubt that many of the reporters at The Record will read the obituary of John H. Kuhn on the Local news front today.

And if they do, it's unlikely they'll try to match the disabled reporter's energy or his insistence on going out into the field to cover a story (L-1).

"He [Kuhn] churned out many thousands of stories over 43 years, often four or more a day," Staff Writer Jay Levin says.

"In the newsroom and in the leafy, affluent towns he called his own, the longtime Norwood resident was known as Mr. Northern Valley."

Today, the bylines of some members of the staff appear infrequently, as they take it easy under the protection of their benevolent local assignment editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

Stories are longer, though often not complete, and many of them are done by telephone or are based on press releases.

At The Record of Woodland Park, local news is no longer a priority, and Law & Order and court stories often dominate the section called "Local."

Brendan Jordan

The coverage of Brendan Jordan's death in a New Milford school gymnasium on Jan. 7 is typical of how the local-news staff covers stories.

Today, 10 days after the 7-year-old was fatally injured by a falling bench, a front-page story reports a safety mechanism wasn't engaged and a backup safety device was missing, "according to a police report released on Friday" (A-1).

The staff didn't attempt to do any independent reporting or ask the obvious questions about maintenance before release of the police report.

And New Milford School Superintendent Michael Polizzi "declined to comment" on the report, firm in the knowledge The Record's reporters always take "no" for an answer.

A sidebar with comment from the boy's parents, Tyler and Veronica Jordan, also on Page 1, doesn't ask the obvious question:

Will the Jordans hire an attorney and file a lawsuit against the district that may ultimately force the superintendent and his maintenance staff to pay more attention to school safety?

Eye on The Record 

will return next week

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Front-page news, views from everywhere but North Jersey

Construction of a Justice Center on Court Street in Hackensack, above and below, seems to be moving as slowly some of the civil lawsuits filed in the Bergen County Courthouse.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

With all of Paterson's troubles, why did Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record race down to Camden to assess whether it's the success story Governor Christie claims it is?

Christie has totally ignored Silk City, where gun violence took the lives of two innocent young girls last July and September.

And why did Editor Martin Gottlieb put Kelly's piece on Page 1, where the poor writing and lack of editing are even more embarrassing than the reporter's dated thumbnail photo, complete with its shit-eating grin.

Kelly's main character, Camden resident Clifton Bond, "pondered a landscape handcuffed by poverty and crime...." (A-1). 

"Pondered"? A "handcuffed" landscape? Is English Kelly's first language?

Stale Stile

Columnist Charles Stile has been known to write about Christie's White House ambitions as many as three times in a single week, as if he is on the GOP bully's payroll.

Today, for a change, his boring political column focuses on another Republican who wants to be president, Jeb Bush, younger brother of one of our worst presidents, George W. Bush (A-1).

Stile reports Christie raised funds for George Bush's 2000 campaign, but so did real estate mogul Jon F. Hanson, a close friend of the Borgs, who control  North Jersey Media Group, publisher of the Woodland Park daily.

You won't find any mention in The Record of Hanson raising money for W and for Christie himself, and Hanson wasn't identified in a recent story on his companies' role in a sale-leaseback deal for NJMG's Rockaway printing plant.

Vinnie Carzo

Also on Page 1 today is a heart-warming story about Vinnie Carzo, 20, a disabled Wanaque man who was made an honorary funeral director.

But you have to question the editor's decision to play this story on the front page when the obituaries of many prominent North Jerseyans are literally buried inside the paper.

Izod Center

If the 34-year-old Izod Center is expected to open "in a new form" in 2017, why has The Record made such a fuss over its closure, playing the news on Page 1 two days in a row?

Deep in the Izod story, Hanson -- Christie's sports and entertainment adviser -- is identified as a director of Yankee Global Enterprises, owner of the Yankees.

Legends Hospitality, a joint venture of the Yankees and Dallas Cowboys, provides concessions for the Prudential Center, the Newark arena that may see increased attendance after the Izod closing.

And, of course, Christie's friendship with the owners of the Cowboys is well-known.

Talk about a ruling class. No wonder Christie has repeatedly vetoed a tax surcharge on the Borgs and other millionaires.

Body in trunk

In Local, a photo on L-2 of investigators gathered around a body in the trunk of a BMW could be a scene from one of TV's popular CSI series.

The story says the victim, Jordan Johnson, lived in a luxury Fort Lee high-rise with his girlfriend.

But reporters make no attempt to explain whether Johnson was gainfully employed or how he had obtained a "large amount" of jewelry and cash stolen from the apartment.

Chilean sea bass

Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung holds herself out as an expert on steaks and desserts, but she doesn't know much about fish and the potential for ingesting a lot of harmful mercury.

She complains the Chilean sea bass she was served at Matthew's Italian Restaurant in Clifton (2.5 stars) "was so grossly overcooked that it took some serious knife work to cut a slice" (BL-14).

But she should have said the real problem with the server describing the dish as "sea bass" is that "Chilean sea bass" or Patagonian toothfish has elevated levels of mercury not found in the much smaller fish. 

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Food warehouse flier is more gripping than front page

The Main Street entrance to the Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack. Today's front page of The Record is dominated by the possible closing of another building that has far less architectural or human significance.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record must be pretty desperate for news, judging by a story on the possible closing of the Izod Center that covers three-quarters of Page 1 today. 

You'll find more interesting reading in the flier from the International Food Warehouse on Essex Street in Lodi (one of today's inserts).

A story on A-3 today reports overnight PATH service won't be cut, but The Record has ignored the Port Authority's refusal to expand rail and bus transit to ease increasing traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings.

Readers speak out

Two letters to the editor reacted negatively to Governor Christie's State of the State address (A-10).

But the only opinion piece on the speech is from Carl Golden, a former Record reporter who went on to work as the mouthpiece for two of Christie's Republican predecessors (A-11).

Clifford Hamblen, a retired Ridgefield Park police officer, objected to Christie calling pensions an entitlement or "something that is given to you, such as a welfare payment or a grant" (A-10).

Hamblen said he "earned" his pension over 30 years, and paid "a larger percentage of my salary into it over time."

An entitlement, he wrote, is Christie spending millions of taxpayer dollars to insulate himself from blame in the George Washington Bridge lane-closure scandal.

Andrew Abraham of Teaneck calls Christie "an ambitious bully who cares only for himself and little for the people he is supposed to serve" (A-10).

Weak editorials

The Record's editorials, on the other hand, have been only mildly critical of Christie and have barely taken notice of what probably is his record number of vetoes since he took office five years ago, including killing a tax surcharge on millionaires.

Could the Woodland Park daily's editorials be influenced by North Jersey Media Group Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg's close friendship with the governor's chief fundraiser, Jon F. Hanson?

A fund sponsored by Hanson's Hampshire Cos. just made a sale-leaseback deal for NJMG's Rockaway printing plant.

Brain teasers

A follow-up to the minor accident involving Bergen County Executive James Tedesco leave at least one question unanswered (L-3).

Tedesco was driving a county owned vehicle and dropping off his chief of staff, Michele DiIorgi, at her car Tuesday evening when the official was involved in a 4-vehicle crash on Route 17 in Rochelle Park.

Why didn't DiIorgi meet Tedesco at the county offices in Hackensack, and car pool to Trenton from there?

On the same page today, readers must fill in the blanks left by a caption for a photo showing a six-car crash on Route 208 in Fair Lawn.

The local assignment editors have devised this method of brain teasing -- incomplete stories and photo captions -- to help readers avoid dementia.

Unfortunately, that hasn't worked with at least one staffer, Road Warrior John Cichowski.

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Christie-friendly editors do great P.R. for GOP bully

A trailer parked on East 85th Street in Manhattan shows the value of copy editors and copy editing. When North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, lost sight of that simple fact during a major downsizing in 2008, the quality and accuracy of its flagship daily began to decline noticeably. That slide continues, as A-2 corrections show, but they are only a fraction of the actual screw-ups.  

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Governor Christie has always done a masterful job of public relations to hide the sad state of the Garden State, and today, he is aided and abetted by The Record's editors and reporters.

Once again, the staff of the Woodland Park daily, including Columnist Charles Stile, desperately parse every word of the GOP bully's State of the State address for a definitive sign that he'll run for president in 2016 (A-1, A-6 and A-7).

Christie champion Stile called the speech "an early draft of a Christie for President campaign mailer" (A-1).

Toliet paper would be an appropriate material for such a mailer in view of all the bullshit Christie has used to bury New Jersey residents in the past five years.

Staff Writers Melissa Hayes, John Reitmeyer and Dustin Racioppi don't waste any time spinning Christie's speech, using the first paragraph of their lead Page 1 story to parrot "a pledge to veto any income-tax increases." 

Instead of breathing a sigh of relief, New Jersey's middle class knows the Democratic-led Legislature has never tried to raise their income taxes, but that Christie has repeatedly vetoed a tax surcharge on his millionaire supporters.

The main headline has readers shaking their heads as they stare at a familiar photo of the Assembly chamber in Trenton (A-1):

"Christie's bigger stage"

Readers have to turn to A-7 for the truth, as reported by Staff Writer Christopher Maag:

"Roads are crumbling. Bridges are falling. And New Jersey's fund to fix those problems is out of money.

"But Governor Christie did not address the state's transportation crisis ..., saying only that New Jersey has a 'world-class transportation system.'"

And an editorial on A-8 manages only mild criticism of what the writer calls Christie's lack of leadership.

More corrections

Two more embarrassing corrections on A-2 today give readers the impression the paper has fired all of its copy editors, and that six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton is a miserable failure at her job.

Houlton supervises the copy desk, where reporter's and editor's grammatical and factual errors are supposed to be caught and corrected.

But copy editors have always been regarded with contempt, and it shows in the final product.

Are you Charlie?

More Page 1 coverage of the slayings of Paris cartoonists continues to focus on satirical images of the prophet Muhammad (A-1).

What you won't find in mainstream coverage is the opinion of people of color who live in France, as expressed in The Maroon Colony:

"I’m not Charlie for several reasons: Charlie Hebdo for many people of color in France, particularly in Paris, that don’t benefit from mixed or proximity-to-White French- privilege is extremely racist. It’s a particular brand of French racism and xenophobia sheltered under the grey tent of “satire”. It’s belittingly. It’s demeaning. And it’s a larger, published example of the explicit forms of aggression that many people of color in Paris live with, daily."

Judicial nominees

The obit page seems an odd choice for a story about 11 lawyers who have been nominated for state Superior Court, including nine for Bergen County (L-6).

The story doesn't say whether the nominees have to contribute a lot of money to Christie or his party.

Driver re-training?

Does County Executive James Tedesco need a refresher course in how closely to follow another vehicle?

Tedesco was driving an unmarked Bergen County police vehicle on Tuesday evening when he struck the rear of another vehicle on Route 17 north, part of a "chain-reaction accident" involving four cars (L-2). 

The county executive should get points for car pooling to Trenton for Christie's State of the State speech with his chief of staff, Michele DiIorgi, but the story doesn't say where they were going when the accident occurred in Rochelle Park.

They won't kill you

Staff Writer Steve Janoski's story on so-called superfoods is another example of why you should never rely on the media for medical or nutritional advice (A-1 and BL-1).

None of the superfood packages I've seen claim to cure disease or "ward off cancer," as the reporter says.

But Janoski fails to report that quinoa, chia seeds and other so-called superfoods do have one big advantage over the animal fats you'll find in meat and dairy products.

They won't clog your arteries and kill you. 

Even the headline is offensive:

"Getting real about 'superfood' love"

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Stupid headline hides truth about GOP-led Congress

A sign in the unisex bathroom at Pushcart Coffee on Ninth Avenue and 25th Street in Manhattan.

Shivering tourists on a walking tour of Manhattan's Theater District on Saturday, another frigid, sunless day.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A headline declaring "deep divide in D.C." certainly is familiar to anyone who has read a newspaper in the last few years.

But after months of hysteria in The Record and other media about Tea Party radicals and other Republicans taking full control of Congress and dismantling President Obama's health care law and other initiatives, reality has set in.

On Monday's front page, more than two months after the 2014 election, Columnist Herb Jackson reports voter turnout was pushed down "nationally to its lowest point since World War II," and ending gridlock is "overly optimistic, to say the least."

Jackson blames voter apathy on a "bitter election," but the media also are at fault for ignoring issues in favor of conflict and sound bites, and failing to reveal the lies in GOP attack ads.

However, the main headline on his column used the old "deep divide in D.C." and ignored the real truth -- no end to gridlock in the new Congress, despite Republican majorities.

Monday's A-2 carried another long correction of a story in the Local news section, the one on Sunday about Brendan Jordan, 7, the New Milford boy who died in a school accident.

Today's paper

Page 1 today is dominated by Staff Writer John Cichowski's Road Warrior column -- based on press releases, phone interviews and fatal accident reports (A-1).

If the past is any guide, Cichowski likely has committed a number of errors in citing state police data, and he continues to refer to pedestrian deaths as "crashes."

Weak laws

Cichowski should be calling for stronger laws to hold drivers criminally responsible for killing a pedestrian.

Now, drivers can use the excuse that they "didn't see" the pedestrian as a get-out-of jail card.

Older drivers

The challenges facing older drivers is another issue the lazy, demented reporter has neglected in the more than 11 years he has been writing the column.

That can be plainly seen today in the two photos that run in Local, where head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza, hold up another older driver to ridicule.

Look at the helpless expression on the white-haired woman's face -- as captured by an ambulance-chasing freelancer -- after she drove her 2009 Honda Civic "over a guardrail and retaining wall and down an embankment at a condominium complex" in Ridgewood (L-3).

Of course, the woman didn't "drive" her car through the guardrail on Monday afternoon.

She likely mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal, a common error for elderly drivers.

Is driver retraining available for older drivers such as this woman? 

Cichowski could care less, and Sykes and Sforza fear any such public service stories would deprive them of the filler accident photos they so desperately need to complete their weak local news report.  

Second look

On Sunday, Columnist Mike Kelly criticized Governor Christie for not attending the funeral of another pedestrian, Cliffside Park Special Police Officer Stephen Petruzzello, who was killed by a driver who claimed she didn't see him (Opinion front).

But Kelly gets absolutely no editing, and thinks readers have nothing better to do than plow through a dozen long introductory paragraphs about Christie the football fan and a gubernatorial vacation.

The criticism appears on the continuation page, and many readers may have been so bored by all the background they never saw it.

It seems silly to tell someone who has been a columnist for more than 20 years: Put your criticism in the first paragraph and leave the background for later.

But it's necessary with Kelly, one of the paper's chief word pushers.

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Page 1 mattress ad introduces journalism whores

A welcome vacation from The Record's Road Warrior ended today with the return of Staff Writer John Cichowski, one of the paper's journalism whores, who are desperate to fill their columns with any old nonsense. Today, the so-called commuting columnist reveals the startling news that low gas prices supposedly have people driving more, getting into more crashes and dying more. The column contains no data from New Jersey, and is based on the research of a professor in South Dakota who has never visited the Garden State. 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's advertising executives knocked themselves out to make an ad wrapped around today's front page look like real news -- P.C. Richard is adding "mattress galleries" to its stores.

Readers who aren't racing out to the retailer's Wayne store won't find much to read in the Sunday edition besides unusually weak efforts from two of the paper's journalism whores, Columnists John Cichowski and Elisa Ung.

First, I defy anyone to make sense of Staff Writer Lindy Washburn's piece on penalties for people who didn't buy health insurance under the Affordable Care Act -- the only story the ad doesn't obscure (A-1).

Or even understand why the story is running now on Page 1, because, as she notes in her fourth paragraph, "how many will pay penalties or be exempted from them, how many will see their tax refunds increased or decreased by ... April 15 remains to be seen."

Under the ad

One you remove the mattress ad, you're confronted with a large photo of the severely injured Daniel Breslin, a Bergen County police officer whose SUV was rear-ended by a drunk driver on April 19, 2014 (A-1).

Staff Writer Stefanie Dazio, a police reporter, doesn't dwell on details of the near-tragic accident nor question why Breslin, in his rush to help a fellow officer, violated common sense and his training by stopping his police vehicle in a travel lane on Route 46 in Lodi.

Kitchen sink

The Road Warrior column roams far and wide today, from the recent terrorism in Paris to 20 years of crash records from Minnesota, Alabama and Mississippi.

But the reporter, Cichowski, apparently was too lazy to gather data from New Jersey (L-1).

Cichowski is one of the paper's journalism whores, climbing into bed with any so-called expert, including a professor from China who has never observed drivers in the Garden State, but who is the focus of today's ridiculous column.

Did Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza act as Cichowski's pimp today or was it another one of the local editors?

Bottom feeding

The Corner Table column from Ung reports on vegetarian food at two crappy fast-food restaurants, White Castle and Burger King, and at Chipotle, which offers naturally raised poultry and organic items (BL-1).

But her column is silent on vegetarian fare at two upscale burger places, Zinburger and Shake Shack.

In her restaurant reviews and columns, Ung often climbs into bed with the wealthy owners who advertise in The Record.

Turkish at home?

I guess there is nothing wrong with filling nearly half of her Travel section with a Detroit Free Press report on "a foodie tour" of Turkey.

But for those who have no plans to go there, couldn't Editor Jill Schensul make an effort to list some of the many Turkish restaurants in North Jersey?

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Borgs rely on Christie ally in sale of Rockaway plant

Some visitors to the Bergen County Courthouse on Main Street in Hackensack park at Costco Wholesale, 80 S.River St., to avoid the $5 fee at the temporary lot leased from North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The sale-leaseback deal with a close Borg family friend is the latest chapter in the troubled history of North Jersey Media Group's Rockaway Township printing plant.

On Friday, Stephen A. Borg, publisher of The Record, announced an agreement with a fund sponsored by the Hampshire Cos. of Morristown, but not that family friend Jon F. Hanson is the real estate companies' founder and chairman.

Hanson and Christie

Hanson, 77, a close friend of NJMG Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg, also is Governor Christie's adviser on casino and sports development projects.

The real estate developer has received extensive and favorable coverage in the Woodland Park daily, though Staff Writer John Brennan never discloses Hanson's ties to the Borgs.

But in June 2014, The Guardian newspaper reported a joint venture that included Hanson's Hampshire Cos. was awarded a $105 million tax incentive in 2013 by the Christie administration for a hotel and office project in Paterson.

The Guardian said Hanson is one of Christie's chief fundraisers, and both men served as top fundraisers for the presidential campaign of George W. Bush in 2000.

The newspaper said Hanson's ties to Christie also extend to insurance giant Prudential, where the businessman retired from the board of directors in 2011.

Later that year, the company received a $250 million tax incentive from the state Economic Development Authority to move its offices a few blocks.

Hanson and Mac

In 2011, Eye on The Record reported Hanson and Malcolm Borg purchased a private jet from a woman who was later featured in a Business page story in The Record:

"A Web site listing recent sales by Freestream Aircraft Ltd. says a Citation Excel was 'exclusively purchased on behalf of Mr. Malcolm Borg and Mr. John Hanson,' though Hanson's first name is misspelled.

"The price isn't given, but Freestream sells jets that cost $10 million to $50 million.

"Borg discusses the process of buying the plane in this testimonial about Rebecca Posoli-Cilli, president of Freestream's U.S. office in Hackensack:

'Rebecca’s sales team, but especially Rebecca, was the best thing that happened to us when my friend and I decided to sell our 1984 Citation III and upgrade into a late-model Citation Excel. She had the patience of Job in dealing with me, the lead partner, in the acquisition of our Excel. Without her, we would not have made the great choice we did. She found us a plane with 1100 hours that was 95% equipped with everything desired; she took care of all the pre-buy inspections and details; and she negotiated the upgrades to our avionics with Duncan Aviation. 

'Without Rebecca, my friend [Hanson] and his family and my family and I would not be enjoying the wonderful convenience of having our own jet at our disposal. She was simply incredible on all counts, and I recommend her to any potential airplane purchaser without reservation.' 

• Malcolm A. Borg, Managing Partner – Trio Air Holdings, LLC

Rockaway plant

The Rockaway printing plant was built during a recession in the early 1990s as Malcolm Borg sought to extend The Record's reach into Morris County.

But when the elder Borg sought a loan to buy another daily newspaper, banks told him he was overextended.

The plant began printing other newspapers, including USA Today and the Irish Echo, and became a big profit center.

After Stephen Borg took over as publisher of The Record and Herald News in 2006, the four-color presses in Hackensack were worn out, and he moved the printing of those dailies to Rockaway, enabling him to lay off more than 50 pressman.

According to NJMG, the printing plant produces the company's two daily newspapers, more than 40 of its community newspapers and also prints USA Today, Greater Media Newspapers, Gannett Westchester-Rockland Newspapers and the New Jersey Herald.

Decline in quality

The move to Rockaway, a major downsizing of the staff in 2008 and the abandonment of Hackensack in 2009 appear to have contributed to a precipitous decline in the quality and accuracy of local journalism at The Record.

Today, for example, an A-2 correction notes a story on Friday identified Ridgewood Mayor Paul Aronsohn as village manager.

That's a really stupid mistake, but typical of the sloppiness since Liz "Queen of Errors" Houlton was promoted to six-figure production editor. 

The front page often reads like a national paper, thanks to Editor Marty Gottlieb, a former bigwig at The New York Times.

And the Local section reads more and more like a police blotter, as many of the stories in today's edition show, thanks to the laziness and incompetence of Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza (L-1 to L-6).

Today's paper

Typical of media hype and exaggeration is today's Page 1 headline comparing the killings of newspaper editors, police officers and hostages in Paris to the 2011 attack on America:

France 
grapples
with its
own 9/11

In two long front-page stories remembering Brendan Jordan, The Record makes no attempt to find out whether improper maintenance caused the freak collapse of a folding bench that fatally injured the 7-year-old in a New Milford school on Wednesday.

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