Since 2010, Christie has staged events for gullible media

Work has begun in earnest on a large parcel of land bordering Lemoine Avenue in Fort Lee opposite the first of two 47-story towers in the Hudson Lights residential-retail project, below. Critics say when completed, the project will generate traffic resembling the politically inspired gridlock during the George Washington Bridge lane closures last September.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Remember Governor Christie's "Reform Agenda"? His "Jersey Comeback" and "Stronger Than the Storm"?

Remember how a gullible media and apathetic voters swallowed whole all of the events the GOP bully started staging as soon as he took office in January 2010?

Well, having lied his way out of the George Washington Bridge scandal, Christie is once again cranking up his "running for president in 2016" P.R. machine, and he has The Record's editors and reporters right by his side (A-1).

More no comment

Today's Page 1 story on a staged, second groundbreaking in Wayne and another manufactured event in Camden is hardly news, so why is it on the front page?

It certainly doesn't come off as an expose, and no reporter attempted to ask Christie why he is trying so hard to burnish his image. (A-1).

Indeed, with a June 30 deadline looming, why isn't a state budget story on The Record's front page today and every day?

From bad to worse

If you think the political paralysis in Washington is bad now, imagine what it will be like if Tea Party crackpot David Brat actually gets elected after his GOP primary victory over Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia (A-1).

The Record and other media love this kind of story, because it helps them avoid covering issues and what is good for the country -- that's too much heavy lifting for the mental lightweights in the Woodland Park newsroom.

Editorial laziness

It's amazing how Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin can deplore the drive-by shootings and other gun violence in Paterson without a single reference to the effectiveness of the police chief, Christie-inspired state aid cuts and layoffs in the Police Department (A-8).

There would be hardly any news in Local today if it wasn't for police, court and related news (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6). 

It's Wednesday -- hump day for six-figure head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her assistant, Dan Sforza, who was promoted to sit next to Sykes' throne despite a mediocre reporting career.

I am sure they are already looking forward to the weekend, and having more crime, court, accident, utility pole and fire news to fill their pages.

Safety lesson?

The Local front story on the Sept. 7, 2012, death of Matthew Killen on a highway shoulder focuses on keeping his memory alive, but never explains why no charges were filed against the tractor-trailer driver who struck and dragged him to his death (L-1).

Did Killen contribute to his death by "standing by his disabled Hyundai," as the story reports (L-6)?

Could he -- and others in similar circumstances -- safeguard themselves, and if so, how would they do that? 

For some reason, this kind of safety information rarely appears when newspapers report traffic deaths at the time they occur or in obituaries.

Road Warrior errors

Staff Writer John Cichowski could provide such safety information in his Road Warrior column, but he has proven so unreliable on almost any subject, he'd probably screw that up, too.

According to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers, Cichowski's Friday column "continued to provide worthless, made-up, and mistaken information about New Jersey teen driving safety, fatalities, and Graduated Driver License restrictions."

"The Road Warrior even provided the wrong telephone contact information for the New Jersey Teen Safe Driving Coalition. 

"The Record's editors and the Road Warrior never corrected this contact information, even though the head of the coalition pointed out the mistake and provided them with the correct contact number."

See:

Road Warrior wages war on truth

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Christie is a master at deflecting criticism, blame

Jazz musicians volunteer to play in the lobby of Englewood Hospital and Medical Center on Tuesdays. Today, two more jazz musicians and a pianist are scheduled to perform.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The Record's editors are flummoxed by Governor Christie's refusal to raise the motor-fuels tax that funds road repairs and mass-transit improvements.

Even though Christie grabbed more than $1 billion in rail-tunnel money to fix the Pulaski Skyway, an editorial today says increasing the low tax is "not an inviting option" for reviving the insolvent Transportation Trust Fund (A-10).

What a joke. 

Why can't Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin get behind the simple concept that repairs should be financed by taxes on the people who use the roads -- drivers, and bus and trucking companies?

Motorists could easily defer a hike of a few cents in the gas tax by buying more-efficient cars, and lead-foots can save lots of gas by obeying the speed limit.

An old story

Christie has been getting away with this since he took office in January 2010.

He dismissed John E. Wallace Jr., the only African-American justice on the state Supreme Court, arguing the panel was "too liberal, and in nearly every follow-up for a year or more, the editors conveniently forgot to identify Wallace as black.

The state blew $400 million in federal education funds, Christie blamed that on a clerical error by bureaucrats and his education czar took the fall.

He killed the Hudson River rail tunnels -- the biggest expansion of mass transit in decades -- explaining his overweight wife complained she would have to walk too far to the subway, and the editors rolled over and played dead.

Blame game

And, recently, he put taxpayers on the hook for the $1 million it took to hire lawyers who produced an elaborate whitewash on his role in the George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee, and blamed four days of gridlock on underlings.

Now, state legislators investigating charges of political retribution are sniping at each other (A-1), deflecting the biggest question of all:

Why doesn't Christie -- the central figure in the Bridgegate scandal -- testify under oath?

More poor editing

Tuesday's Page 1 story on Verizon was not only obscure, it required a clarification today (A-2).

A story on A-3 leaves long-suffering commuters wondering whether Ronnie Hakim, NJ Transit's new executive director, will add more seats to rush-hour trains or help cut the long lines at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

The Record continues to cover mass transit in the laziest way possible -- driving to NJ Transit meetings in Newark -- and forcing commuters to suffer in silence or vent in letters to the editor.

Mystery crash

On the Local front, another story about Nick Romano, 17, of Wayne, who was killed in a crash, continues to keep readers in the dark about the cause, even though another 17-year-old was driving (L-1).

The reporter interviewed a Wayne police lieutenant about the investigation, but apparently didn't ask if the teen driver was speeding or texting (L-2).

Lost restaurant

In Better Living, Chef Hal Elkady of high-end Zestt in Tenafly says, "You get what you pay for; the quality of the food is extremely important" (BL-2).

But the "COFFEE WITH THE CHEF" feature not only doesn't back that up with any information about the beloved roast chicken he serves, some editor screwed up and a heading says the restaurant is in "Englewood."

On the Better Living cover, a line referring to interview also says the restaurant is in Englewood, but the address is given as 10 W. Railroad Ave., Tenafly (BL-2).

This feature is written by none other than Food Editor Esther Davidowitz.

Also on BL-2, "FYI" or "What's new, what's happening, what's trending in the North Jersey dining scene" appears to have been put out by public relations people working for the featured food and liquor businesses.

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Reporters ignore long-suffering bus commuters

The Port Authority provides a clean, comfortable enclosure for NJ Transit customers waiting for the No. 165 and No. 166 buses at the agency's midtown bus terminal in Manhattan, above. The four fold-down, spring-loaded seats are thinly disguised torture devices banned by the Geneva Convention.

The terminal has finally gotten what it has needed for years: A listing of all bus departures with route number, time and, most important, the platform number where the bus can be boarded. Platforms change, especially late at night. A ticket clerk said the Bus Terminal Interactive Map, which has a touch screen, was installed about a month ago. I saw two of the three in the terminal, but none for commuters using the main entrance on Eighth Avenue.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The Record's transportation reporters, including Karen Rouse and Road Warrior John Cichowski, believe NJ Transit bus riders are the lowest of the low.

They have routinely avoided reporting about local and Manhattan bus service for years or the long-suffering riders who have had to endure creaking coaches, packed buses and long lines at the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.

They also have ignored complaining letters to the editor, so it was a surprise to see Editoral Page Editor Alfred P. Dublin devoting part of his opinion column to conditions at the terminal (Friday's A-19).

But Doblin's main focus was contrasting the aging terminal with the new marble concourse of the World Trade Center's PATH station, and he ran a photo of a leaking ceiling for emphasis.

Not that bad

That photo is misleading. I took the No. 165 bus to have lunch in the city on Friday, and the main public spaces are clean and in good condition, with a variety of food and coffee concessions, and a connection to the city subway system.

And you can't beat the senior round-trip fare of only $3.80.

The real problems are the cramped enclosures at platforms where riders board buses, forcing almost everyone to stand in lines that can stretch down escalators and around lower levels.

And for many years, until touch screens listing buses and platforms were installed about a month ago, occasional terminal users often wandered around searching for the departure point of their New Jersey-bound buses.

Shouldn't the Port Authority be encouraging commuters to take the bus, given mounting traffic congestion at the Hudson River crossings, and improve conditions at the terminal?

This photo was taken during rush hour on a Friday night in the summer of 2012 at the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal, where the line from an upper-level platform stretched down an escalator to the second level, above. 

Taking the bus

On Friday, I was lucky to get a No. 165 Turnpike Express in Hackensack, and reached the Manhattan terminal in under 30 minutes. 

My return on the 1:40 p.m. No. 165 local to Oradell (from Platform 212) was torture. Passengers filled 46 of the 49 seats.

I asked the driver about letters to the editor, complaining about long lines at the terminal during rush hour, and he said he didn't know what caused them.

The trip stretched to 1 hour and 40 minutes, thanks to Ridgefield Park police, who closed one lane of Route 46 for a house construction crew, adding at least 20 minutes in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

The scheduled travel time to Main and Anderson streets in Hackensack is under an hour.

Earlier, on Boulevard East, the driver passed stops requested by three passengers, telling two women who were together, "At least it's downhill [to the stop he passed]."

Buses jockeyed with several private jitneys, often referred to as the "Spanish bus," which provides seats to and from the city riders can't find on NJ Transit.  

In bumper-to-bumper traffic on Route 46, the driver of the No. 165 cleaned his nails, and then stopped to pick up two passengers standing about 50 feet apart, even though I saw no bus-stop signs near them.

Later, he allowed a man who said he had no money to board.

Today's paper

The death of Wallington Fire Capt. Gregory Barnas has gotten a tremendous amount of coverage since he died on Feb. 28, including Friday's Local front, where a headline referred to a "hero's funeral"; nearly all of Page 1 and all of A-6 today.

Today's edition carries a front-page column by Mike Kelly, whose first sentence is puzzling:

"Big funerals say a lot about small towns." Really?

Putting aside whether Barnas is or isn't a "hero" for going out to fight a restaurant fire -- then falling off the roof and dying -- none of the coverage addresses long-standing concerns of residents in towns with volunteer firefighters. 

Town officials shortchange residents by not having professional firefighters, such as those in Hackensack, Teaneck and Englewood. 

The Record reports today that Barnas, 57, also was a full-time captain with the Jersey City Fire Department, and a member of the fire department in Waymart, Pa., where his family has a vacation home (A-1).

Wasn't he stretched a little too thin?

At the Ninth Avenue end of the bus terminal in Manhattan, a memorial to firefighters and police officers who died responding to the 9/11 attack on America, above and below.

'Human depravity'

Today's Local section relies heavily on Law & Order news (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6), meaning Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza couldn't find legitimate municipal news to fill all of that space.

Another in a series of accident photographs, showing a car door or doors that were removed to reach an injured driver, appears on L-2.

The most riveting story is the sentencing of a troubled 22-year-old Cliffside Park man in the brutal rape of two sisters, 9 and 11 years old, in 2012 (L-1).

Don't miss this line from Staff Writer Kibret Markos, who I would guess is exaggerating:

"Even in a courtroom accustomed to stunning accounts of human depravity, this one left many in the audience with gaping mouths" (L-1).

Markos then proceeds to describe the rapes in detail on L-6 -- detail that likely wouldn't have been allowed by the editors even a decade ago.

Readers might be asking themselves why they haven't previously seen "stunning accounts of human depravity" in Markos' coverage of the busy Bergen County Courthouse in Hackensack.

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Editors take pains to hide journalists who sell out

Rocklin's on Cedar Lane in Teaneck. The convenience store first opened about 80 years ago, the current owner says. Take that 7-Eleven.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

What happened when members of the press pressed Christie press secretary Michael Drewniak for answers to pressing questions about the George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee?

The F-words flew, and they were aimed squarely at a newspaper reporter and editor.

Is that anyway for a former reporter for The Star-Ledger to act after spending many years shoving "the right to know" in the faces of reluctant or stonewalling news sources?

Of course not, but "former reporter" tells you little about Drewniak, Governor Christie's chief spin doctor, who appears to be as mean-spirited as his boss, known far and wide as the GOP bully.

Light on details

Today's Page 1 story in The Record is missing any information on how many years Drewniak spent as a reporter at the state's biggest newspaper, what he covered and how he covered it.

So, readers don't know whether he won his job as chief spokesman for Christie the crusading U.S. attorney because he could be trusted to tell former colleagues to go to hell when they got too close to the truth about his boss, as he appears to be doing in the four-month-old GWB scandal.

Or, whether the spokesman job was a "reward" to Drewniak for being the kind of journalist who could be molded by Christie to remain loyal and highly partisan above all else. 

But we can assume Drewniak gave up newspaper journalism for a far higher salary -- that he basically sold out.

Don't expect any details in The Record, which doesn't like to discuss salaries -- whether for its own reporters, Christie's press secretary or special Bridgegate prosecutor Reid Schar (A-1).

Inside journalism

Another former newspaper reporter, Carl Golden, is quoted today as saying it would be wrong to assume that Drewniak's appearance in Bridgegate e-mails "automatically indicates he did something wrong" (A-4).

The Record doesn't tell readers Golden is one of its former Trenton reporters or that in the past it ran his Sunday Opinion pieces on Christie without identifying him as onetime press secretary to two former Republican governors, Thomas H. Kean and Christie Whitman.

Really, how much value does anything written about Christie by a longtime GOP flack have, and why does The Record present Golden's pieces as insightful as opposed to just more conservative B.S.?

In fact, The Record's coverage of Christie -- in news stories, columns and editorials -- has been so kind readers can just imagine that reporters, columnists and editorial writers are competing for a much higher-paying job in a hoped-for Christie White House.

Expletives deleted

Christie's Port Authority cronies, Bill Baroni and David Wildstein, sent Drewniak questions from reporters about the controversy, which now appears to be political retribution against Fort Lee's Democratic mayor.

In one e-mail, Drewniak was asked to respond to a Star-Ledger reporter, but he "used an expletive" and called the reporter a "mutt," The Record reports on A-4 today.

He used the same expletive in response to a request for comment from a Star-Ledger editorial writer:

"[Expletive] him and the S-L [Star-Ledger]," Drewniak wrote.

Can we assume Drewniak called them "fucking mutts," and wrote "Fuck him and the S-L"?

Punitive damages

The Record also quoted Brigid Harrison, a political science professor, as saying she "also was troubled by the disrespect shown to reporters, and its reflection on Christie" (A-4).

"That tone clearly damages his [Drewniak's] reputation. They're his constituents, the people he is charged with having a relationship with on the part of the governor. It's evident that he holds many of them in disdain."

We can only guess at whether Drewniak's own questionable performance as a reporter and his leaving the profession as a sell-out is haunting him now and shaping his opinion of all of those ink-stained wretches who pester him day in, day out.

For some reason, Harrison is not identified as one of The Record's Sunday Opinion columnists.

Why only now?

Why haven't we read more about Drewniak before today, especially in view of his long service to Christie in the U.S. Attorney's and Governor's offices?

On the front-page today, he is described as "rarely mincing words, often insulting or simply dismissing anyone who fails to adopt the administration's message."

I guess The Record's Melissa Hayes, Charles Stile, Alfred P. Doblin and others have nothing to worry about in view of their adoring coverage of Christie until the Bridgegate scandal broke last week.

Hackensack news

Today's A-1 report doesn't say whether the $2 million settlement with two former Hackensack cops and two others will be covered by insurance or come out of the city treasury.

About a third of the $2  million is expected to go to the plaintiffs' lawyers.

Thomas Aiellos and Vincent Riotto are among two dozen cops who sued the city.

They detailed "shocking allegations of corruption and civil rights violations" under former state assemblyman and Police Chief Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa, who is appealing a 5-year prison term for criminal misconduct and insurance fraud (A-1). 

Riotto will be reinstated as a lieutenant under terms of the settlement.

Thumb sucker

In Local today, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza buried a story on a lawsuit alleging a gunman entered Westfield Garden State Plaza on Nov. 4 past "careless" security and opened fire before killing himself (L-6).

Swaddled in his own security blanket, the snoozing Sforza has refused to investigate whether the state's biggest mall has any effective security beyond cameras and unarmed guards directing traffic -- lest he alienate the retailers who are among the paper's biggest advertisers.

The suit by Alexandra DiMarco, 21, of Tappan, N.Y., alleges she "fell to the ground, broke her elbow and suffered cuts and bruises" during a stampede of shoppers (L-6).

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The Record's claim of a 'scoop' is ringing hollow

A ramp in Fort Lee gives drivers access to the lower level of the George Washington Bridge. It remained open during the four days of gridlock in September caused by a Christie administration plot to close two of the three access lanes to upper-level tollbooths.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Amid all of Governor Christie's apologies and firings on Thursday, The Record claimed it had scooped other media on obtaining the shocking e-mails at the root of the politically inspired traffic gridlock in Fort Lee. 

The Woodland Park daily sent out an e-mail to subscribers with this title: "A look behind The Record's big scoop."

The e-mail boasts:

"As you may know, The Record broke the big story this week linking Governor Christie's office to the lane closures at the George Washington Bridge."

Tip to Borg

The e-mail also provided a link to a Washington Post blog that relates Publisher Stephen A. Borg got a call in early September from a friend who complained, "It was taking me hours to get into New York," and that Borg told Editor Marty Gottlieb, who passed on the tip to the somnolent assignment desk.

Although The Record may have been first with news of the lane closures -- in an error-filled Road Warrior column -- it didn't come close to scooping other media on the e-mail exchange between a top Christie aide and his Port Authority crony, who set the closures into motion.

Times weighed in

On Wednesday morning, the Web sites of The New York Times and The Record broke the news at about the same time that Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly told David Wildstein, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."

And The Times -- Gottlieb's former employer -- was first to report U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman has opened an inquiry into whether any laws were broken by the closures on Sept. 9-13, 2013.

Today, for the second day in a row, The Record devotes its entire front page to the fallout, Christie's 2-hour news conference in Trenton and his pilgrimage to Fort Lee to apologize to his supposed political nemesis, Mark Sokolich, the borough's Democratic mayor.

Looks guilty?

If I didn't know better, the Page 1 photo of Christie parting a sea of news photographers and cameramen looks a lot like a carefully orchestrated "perp walk," when crime suspects are paraded past the media.

But the two state troopers behind the GOP bully are his bodyguards, and I'm wondering if the butch one has trouble separating her duty to Christie and her feelings about his stance against gay marriage (A-1).

From many angles

Today's sidebars include a lame attempt by Columnist Mike Kelly to profile Bridget Anne Kelly, the aide Christie fired (A-7).

Still, the reporter fails to get what everyone wants to read, an interview with the Ramsey native, who was fired and who will forever be called "Bridge" for short.

Is he believable?

The Record even critiques Christie's performance in front of the national and state media (A-8), but nowhere is there a suggestion of what many observers have concluded:

Christie may have been lied to by Kelly and others, as he claims, but isn't it likely he also is lying about what he knew and when he knew it, as he has done so many times since he took office in January 2010?

Recall his lame explanations for breaking his 2009 campaign promise of a property tax cut, dismissing the only African-American on the state's highest court and failing to win $400 million in federal education funds.

Damage control

Today, Columnist Charles Stile, a well-known Christie apologist, traces the damage control evident in the GOP bully's Trenton press conference (A-1).

Stile concludes Christie "failed to come across as someone who is all that eager to get to the bottom of the fiasco."

An A-18 editorial that likely was written or edited by another Christie lover, Alfred P. Doblin, ends this way:

"The longer it takes to get that information [what happened and why], the greater the odds that the governor's apologies will fail to restore the luster of his reputation."

Footnotes

Despite all the coverage of Bridgegate today, The Record missed an obvious angle: 

Street closings and traffic gridlock in Fort Lee caused by Christie's visit to the Art Deco Borough Hall on Main Street, hounded by a media horde.

Today is also the first time we learn anything about Florence Genova, 91, the Fort Lee woman who died on Sept. 9, likely a victim of emergency response delayed by the Christie administration plot to tie up traffic in the borough (A-7).

Readers aren't surprised, being well acquainted with the laziness of Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, who runs the local-news desk so ineptly.

Staff Writer Melissa Hayes' lead Page 1 story today refers to a traffic jam -- "the most Jersey of life's troubles" -- which has "threatened" Christie's "popularity and clout."

But readers have been disappointed for years by how Gottlieb, Sforza and Road Warrior John Cichowski ignore daily traffic gridlock in North Jersey, and the crying need for better mass transit to relieve it.

The ink wasn't dry on Cichowski's Wednesday column when events overtook him and made him sound like the babbling idiot he is reputed to be in the newsroom:

Road Warrior stalls again at the GWB 

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More Christie spin, more three-day-old news

Hackensack officials are counting on new luxury apartments, such as these under construction at State and Bergen streets, to bring more customers to Main Street stores and restaurants, a strategy that has already failed in nearby Englewood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Critics call the closing of Fort Lee access lanes to the George Washington Bridge political revenge exacted by Governor Christie's Port Authority appointees.

But Christie chooses to characterize the closures as "mistakes," and he pressured two flunkies, David Wildstein and Bill Baroni, to resign, as reported on Page 1 of The Record today.

Democrats in the state Legislature just spun their wheels when Christie rubber stamped exorbitant toll hikes on the Hudson River crossings, but they've matched his spin with exaggeration and hype of their own on the impact of the Fort Lee incident in early September (A-1 and A-9).

Now, Christie's every action involving the Port Authority or inaction on lowering college tuition for illegal immigrants is being interpreted by The Record in terms of how they will affect his presidential ambitions in 2016 (A-6 and Friday's A-3).

Striptease

Why is a new terminal for business jets at Newark Liberty International Airport news (A-8), and when will The Record address the impact of airplane noise on the quality of life in North Jersey?

An unintentional double entendre in a headline on the first Business page suggests people are stripping at shopping centers owned by Simon Property Group Inc. (A-8).

Minimizing death

On the Local front today, Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza catches up to three-day-old news -- a wealthy 73-year-old woman apparently was run down and killed on Wednesday during an errand on a narrow section of Grand Avenue in Englewood (L-1).

However, Sforza gave better play to the no-injury collision of a train and tractor-trailer carrying jars of stuffed olives, probably because of the wreckage photo taken by Tariq "Crash" Zehawi.

Even with two full days to gather information, the story about Myrna Sherman tells readers little about what happened to the matriarch of the Sherman tobacco family, and doesn't even discuss Grand Avenue's reputation for speeding drivers or previous pedestrian deaths.

The story also plays into the stereotype of Korean-Americans as bad drivers, reporting only that Sung Park, 22, of Ramsey was charged with reckless driving.

Did driver see woman?

"Sherman was either getting out of or into her parked car on Grand Avenue when she was hit by a Honda Odyssey [minivan] near Sheffield Avenue," today's story says, adding that the woman was going to the dry cleaners at 5 p.m.

Today, I called the dry cleaners, the Laundress at Grand and Sheffield avenues, and the owner said Sherman had parked on Grand Avenue in front of the store, and the minivan had turned the corner and struck the woman.

He said it was dark, and he doesn't believe the driver saw the woman. The portion of Grand Avenue where the accident occurred is narrow and carries two-way traffic.

Hackensack mess

Also on the Local front today, Staff Writer Hannan Adely continues to report on the new Hackensack City Council trying to come to terms with the mess left behind by officials allied with the Zisas, who ruled the city so ineptly for decades (L-1).

Today, she reports Hackensack University Medical Center has paid the city $176,000 for school crossing guards that were never billed, just as the city failed to bill the Board of Education $1 million for a police officer assigned to the high school for seven years.

Still, Sforza struggled to fill the section with Bergen County news, and had to resort to using four Paterson stories as filler (L-2, L-3 and L-5).

Friday's paper

Editor Marty Gottlieb wasted readers' time with Columnist Mike Kelly's Page 1 account from Newtown, Conn., on the anniversary of the massacre.

In his first paragraph, the tired columnist describes the removal of the same pile of teddy bears, ribbons, cardboard hearts, candles and cards that he described so lamely in his column a year ago.

Readers stopped there and just stared dumbly at Kelly's dated column photo and shit-eating grin. What a phony (Friday's A-1).

A couple of photos of Newtown would have sufficed to cover the anniversary.

Remember, Kelly is the same moron who repeatedly compared the Teaneck gunman who committed suicide at Westfield Garden State Plaza on Nov. 4 to the maniacs who killed so many at Columbine high and in the Newtown elementary school.

Also on Friday (A-21), Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin's silly rhymed couplets on the Port Authority-Fort Lee brouhaha ticked off many readers, including Jeff of Hackensack:

"Doblin's opinion pieces are usually the lowest of the low in terms of how he must continually mix and interconnect irrelevant metaphors, mottos, symbols, etc., in order to justify his somewhat senseless opinions about various matters.

"He believes that he is also a brilliant humorist and editorialist, who is able to seemingly combine the humorous with the serious in forging his supposedly classic opinions, which are unfortunately frequently way off the mark.

"However, his 'opinion' piece today about the Port Authority fiasco with the reduction of three dedicated tolls lanes to one for Fort Lee's entrance to the GWB has to be one his sickest, if not the sickest attempts at his frightful Goblin, I mean Doblin humor, which is mixed with Shitty, I mean Gritty, opinions to his dominions in the form of a frightful, I mean spiteful, attempt at a humorous, poetic, opinion fleece, I mean piece."

Hackensack news

Downtown Hackensack got some good news with a story about the purchase of a three-story building for a Korean cultural center (Friday's L-2).

Young Cho, board chairman of the non-profit Dongwha Cultural Foundation, is quoted as saying the new center will be three times the size of the current one in Englewood.

On Friday's L-3, a story reporting that the family of a pilot killed near Teterboro Airport "will receive $7.5 million" is inaccurate since about a third of the settlement amount will go to the plaintiffs' lawyer or lawyers.

At Bibi'z in Westwood, Resturant Reviewer Elisa Ung and her guest were served overcooked mahi-mahi and chicken kebab, but she still gave it a good-to-excellent rating (Friday's BL-22).

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An indictment of Record Columnist Mike Kelly

The aftermath of a minor accident on South River Street in Little Ferry on Monday. I expected to see a photo of the crash used as filler in The Record's Local section on Tuesday, but the editors got excited over a trash fire in Westwood instead.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Columnist Mike Kelly takes the prize for most irresponsible journalist at The Record with his third attempt to smear the name of Richard Shoop, 20, the Teaneck man who chose a crowded mall on Nov. 4 for his very public suicide.

I recoil every time I see Kelly's dated column photo with his shit-eating grin, as I did on Tuesday's front page, which was dominated by his account of the funeral at a Teaneck church (A-1).

This was Kelly's third column about Shoop, who didn't intend to harm anyone but himself and even looked shoppers in the eye and told them "they were not his target," The Record reported on Page 1 last Wednesday.

Apparently inspired by statements from Prosecutor John L. Molinelli that Shoop had extra ammunition on him, as well as in his car, Kelly claimed in Tuesday's column the man was "seemingly intent on mass murder."

Isn't Shoop's story sad enough without Kelly linking him to the mass shootings at Columbine High School and Newtown, Conn., as he did in this and two previous columns?

Time to retire

Could it be that Kelly completely missed other angles -- the incredible show of force by police that set off panic at the Paramus mall and the total lack of meaningful security provided by the Australian owners?

On last Thursday's front page, a story reported the mall reopened amid "heightened security and assurances that New Jersey's largest mall is safe."

Unfortunately, the only evidence the editors could provide was a large, laughable photo of two Paramus cops patrolling inside, without automatic weapons or body armor, one with his hands in his pockets.  

In more than 20 years of column writing, Kelly has demonstrated one thing only: He does a superb job of filling space with his long, rambling, sensationalized accounts. 

Sadly, his lame reporting is as dishonest as that dated column photo. Few readers would miss him, if Editor Marty Gottlieb busted him back to reporter or simple fired his sorry ass.

Why taxes are so high

Today's front page is dominated by the story of James Brady, the formerly homeless man in Hackensack who was denied welfare benefits because he failed to report $850 he found in the street (A-1).

Brady, who appeared at Tuesday night's City Council meeting, said the homeless shouldn't be targeted unless they are doing something wrong -- a pointed reference to city Police Director Mike Mordaga's policy of cracking down on those with criminal records.

Mordaga has blamed the homeless -- attracted by three free meals a day at the county shelter -- for street crime, drug use and other problems.

Brady's undoing by the city bureaucracy has revealed that Agatha Toomey, the head of the Hackensack Human Services Department, is making an astounding $133,000 a year and has the use of a city car (A-6).

Governor Christie is paid $175,000 a year. No wonder my Hackensack property taxes are so high. 

More liabilities

Kelly isn't the only thing that's rotten in Woodland Park, as a letter to the editor from Dianne Douthat of Wayne shows.

She criticizes Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin for using his Nov. 8 column to pin voter apathy on people, but not accept "the role the media played"  (A-8).

"You could fit the amount of fair, balanced and unbiased reporting in this [gubernatorial] election from New Jersey's newspapers and periodicals on the head of one computer keyboard key," Douthat wrote.

Radio and TV news have been "obscenely biased for many years -- now it seems our local newspapers are following suit. No wonder so few people came out to vote," her letter said.

She called on Doblin and other journalists to examine their consciences and accept responsibility for their role in turning voters off.

Don't hold your breath, Dianne.

You may want to read my Nov. 5 post on voter apathy:

In New Jersey, apathetic morons stifle real change

Road litter

Another major liability at The Record is Road Warrior Columnist John Cichowski, whose idea of a major commuting issue is a piece on gas station renovations (L-1).

He focuses on ExxonMobil stations, even though millions are boycotting the oil company responsible for environmental damage in Alaska from the Exxon Valdez spill.

Today's column is the latest based on e-mails from readers who pepper him with questions instead of going to accurate sources of information, hoping they will see their names in print.

In his Sunday column, Cichowski reported that drivers "submitted" to testing for blood-alcohol concentration in fatal accidents, but failed to mention that the drivers were dead.

Read about the other flaws in the column on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Spotlight on the clueless Road Warrior

More sloppy work

Two more corrections ran on Tuesday's A-2, but today's paper has a few problem captions and at least one out-of-focus photo, suggesting that it wan't a good idea seven or eight years ago to stop checking the first copies off the press:

A story and photo of a new streetcar in Kenosha, Wis., has a caption that tells readers power comes from "overhead" (A-5).

At the bottom of L-1 today, a photo of two men is cropped so tightly neither is shown completely. The photo on L-2 has an out-of-focus background.

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Christie is boss and we are his faceless mob

Part of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack before it was patched a couple of months ago. City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono said today that contrary to recent press reports, all 5 blocks of Euclid, between Main Street and Summit Avenue, will be paved with proceeds from a bond. Bids for the work came in lower than expected, he added.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Wilting under the endless coverage of actor James Gandolfini's untimely demise, readers got some good news in The Record today.

A story on A-3 reports his body will be flown back to the United States for services on Thursday.

If he's buried on Thursday, how much longer can Editor Marty Gottlieb keep the story of Gandolfini and mob boss Tony Soprano going?

Mobbed up

Everybody at the Woodland Park daily is getting into the act.

Today, a column by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin claims Governor Christie "has gone one step too far and ordered flags to be flown at half-staff" to mark Gandolfini's death last Wednesday at 51 (A-11).

Is this really worth a column?

Why hasn't Doblin raised a bigger stink over all of the mean-spirited vetoes Christie is known for -- from shooting down a hike in the minimum wage to killing a tax surcharge on millionaires?

And today's short-sighted editorial, also on A-11, opposes dedicating a portion of sales tax revenue to the preservation of open space.

Give us a break

It was a real stretch on Sunday, when the Better Living cover story compared Christie to Tony Soprano, calling the GOP bully "a governor with a style, theatricality and swagger that Tony would have no doubt appreciated."

OK. Let's get something straight. Someone who is obese can't "swagger;" it's all flab. And Christie doesn't have "theatricality" or "style."

He's a conservative, veto-happy Republican who treats the middle and working classes with contempt, and in less than 4 years, he's proven to be the worst governor New Jersey ever had.

Journalists like Doblin and Bill Ervolino love him, but that tells you everything about the sad state of newspapering at The Record, where editors and reporters fall all over themselves trying to stay in Christie's good graces.

Second look

Although I didn't care for the dated subject, Staff Writer Jeff Pillets turned in a beautifully written story on Sunday's front page: "Not the same old Jersey mob."

But that couldn't save the paper from wallowing in mediocrity by publishing more crap from Columnists Mike Kelly and John Cichowski.

In trying to pillory Paterson Mayor Jeffery Jones for traveling to India in search of investors, Kelly offended readers and all Asian Indians:

"Can we all say 'Huh' -- in Hindi?" Kelly wrote on O-1.

Bad writing is one thing. But bad reporting is unforgivable, especially from a columnist who has been at this game for so long.

Kelly blames Jones for the layoff of 125 police officers 2 years ago -- roughly 25 percent of the force -- conveniently forgetting that it was Christie's cuts in state aide to Paterson and other poor cities that forced the layoffs.

Just hang it up

As for Cichowski, his exaggerated Sunday column was full of sloppy reporting on a bill that would allow police to check a driver's cellphone after an accident, according to a concerned reader:

"In his June 23 column, the Road Warrior leads readers astray with false worries about a preliminary bill, laws and potential limitations for cellphone activities and voice-to-text technologies.

"Road Warrior is frequently unable to comprehend most state statutes since he provides information that contradicts, misrepresents, or exaggerates issues related to bills or approved laws. 

"He repeated these types of mistakes with a bill under preliminary consideration to allow police to review a driver's hand-held cellphone call records at the scene of an accident, if they have reasonable grounds to suspect a violation of cellphone law.

"He incorrectly reported that hand-held and hands-free cell phones could be subject to this bill. He reported new driving points and higher fines would be imposed on all cellphone violations when it would only be applicable for texting.

"He failed  to mention current law, which imposes imprisonment up to 10 years or fines up to $150,000, depending on whether it was a fatality or serious injury, due to a crash caused by a cellphone violation.

"That information could persuade drivers to restrict their cellphone use."

To read the full e-mail, go to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Does anyone check the Road Warrior?

Low-rise reporting

Basically repeating an earlier Road Warrior column quoting hysterical readers, a Star-Ledger story published on A-3 of The Record today exaggerates the impact of an apartment building going up near Route 495 to and from the Lincoln Tunnel.

The building will only partially block the Manhattan skyline, but leave plenty of unobstructed views. 

Most of the view is already blocked by rocks, trees and other natural phenomena. 

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