Blood of 12-year-old Paterson girl stains Christie's hands

Dead trees remind visitors to Sandy Hook of the devastation Superstorm Sandy caused at the Jersey shore in late October 2012.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record today continues to play catch-up to the slaying of a 12-year-old Paterson girl, especially the link between police layoffs and escalating gun violence in the Silk City.

Already tired of the story, Editor Martin Gottlieb demoted the follow-up to the front of Local today, and used a dramatic photo of the girl's grieving mother on Page 1, where the initial account appeared on Monday.

Police layoffs

Readers have to dig deep to learn "Paterson's Police Department has not recovered from a layoff of 125 police officers in 2011" (L-2).

But in a masterful job of selective reporting and editing, the story ignores the cause of the layoffs -- Governor Christie's deep cuts in state aid to New Jersey's poorest cities.

The blood of Genesis Rincon, who was shot in the head on Saturday evening while riding on her scooter, is on Christie's hands, whether The Record wants to acknowledge it or not.

The real victims

And, really, police officers aren't the only ones affected by the layoffs. 

It is residents of the impoverished 4th Ward, where Genesis lived and died, and other parts of Paterson who are the real victims of the GOP bully's mean-spirited treatment of the poor, women and anyone else who isn't wealthy and white.

Today's L-1 story on continuing community outrage over the slaying is another example of the police coming out in force after the crime, but doing little to prevent it.

Typos 'R' Us

Typos, misspelled names and other errors continue to plague the paper under six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, who seems to be napping at her computer or out shopping for a new dress most of the time.

The Record's style is to upper case "Police Department" when referring to a specific one, such as in "Paterson's Police Department," not "Paterson's police department" (L-2).

In an L-1 headline today, it should be upper case "Chief Zisa," not "chief Zisa."

The name game

On A-2 today, the editors correct a misspelled surname in an A-1 story on Saturday. Last Saturday's A-2 also corrected a misspelled name.

A-2 on July 3 corrected the misspelling of the first names of a couple featured in the previous Sunday's Real Estate section, as well as the complete omission of a councilman's name in a story on Teaneck's reorganization meeting. 

A-2 on June 30 noted "Tyler Marshuetz of Mendham was "incorrectly identified in a photo Saturday on Page S-1," but doesn't identify him further.

Finally, A-2 on June 26 noted a caption on L-3 a day earlier "misidentified a woman participating  in a ceremony at Haledon School."

Hackensack news

Today, The Record reports Hackensack's insurance company has settled a federal lawsuit filed by former Police Chief Ken Zisa (L-1).

The last paragraph notes Zisa was convicted in 2012 of official misconduct and insurance fraud for improperly removing his former girlfriend from the scene of a car accident and later filing a false $11,000 insurance claim (L-2).

But the story errs in saying Zisa, sentenced to five years in prison, is under house arrest "while his attorney prepares an appeal."

That appeal -- of the conviction and sentence -- likely was filed weeks after the judge imposed the prison term in September 2012.

You can blame an agonizingly slow appeals process, which favors corrupt officials like Zisa, who remains free so long after he was sentenced to prison.

The paper also continues to report the city has spent "at least $8 million on legal defense and settlements" for litigation related to the former chief, but never says how much of that was paid by insurers.

Want the Zisas back?

Today's Zisa story should remind Hackensack residents of the many years they lived under the yoke of a family that practiced nepotism and cronyism in the best New Jersey tradition.

After he left office, Jack Zisa, who was mayor for 16 years, reaped tens of thousands of dollars in fees as the city's insurance consultant.

I don't pretend to know the identity of all the cousins, uncles or other Zisa relatives who had city jobs, but do know there were many, including cousin Joseph C. Zisa Jr., who was the last city attorney and before that a municipal judge.  

I also don't know whether a Zisa relative was the one who didn't bill the Board of Education for a city police officer posted in the high school, but do know the city lost $1 million as a result.

The new City Council hired a chief financial officer to put the city's affairs in order, and he has been praised, even by critics, for the job he did on the city budget and on starting to clean up the fiscal disarray of the past.

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Politics are killing Hackensack, our state and our nation

Anthony Rottino, seated left front, is Hackensack's director of economic development and acting city manager, jobs awarded to him after he helped raise funds for the successful campaign of a reform slate of City Council candidates in last year's non- partisan municipal election.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Politics are an obsession at The Record of Woodland Park.

The editors, columnists and reporters seem incapable of discussing any serious issue without applying the filter of politics, as today's lead Page 1 headline on a lawsuit in Hackensack demonstrates.

Does the banner headline even make sense?

"Lawsuit roils Hackensack politics"

The suit, filed by acting City Manager Anthony Rottino of Franklin Lakes, names other city officials, including Mayor John Labrosse and Police Director Michael Mordaga.

Is that "politics"? 

The current members of the City Council are described as "a political coalition" in the first paragraph of the story, which is written by Abbott Koloff and former Hackensack reporter Hannan Adely.

To get the story on Page 1, the reporters also claim Rottino's suit is a sign the City Council has failed to "put an end to costly legal disputes," without explaining all of those suits were filed against the corrupt former police chief, Ken Zisa, whose family ran Hackensack for decades before his allies were thrown out of office last year.

Calls to resign

At council meetings, gadflies and other critics have repeatedly called for Rottino to resign, claiming the Citizens for Change fund-raiser isn't qualified for the city manager's job.

In his suit, filed Monday in Superior Court in Hackensack, Rottino accuses "top officials of violating state law, condoning 'mob-like and thuggish behavior' by the police union and conducting a smear campaign to 'destroy his reputation'" (A-1).

Rottino also claims some city officials are trying to fire him, in part, "because he opposed raising police salaries and sought to protect the job of a public relations consultant who is being paid $78,000 by the city while working two other public jobs, " referring to Thom Ammirato.

Rottino, 48, is being paid $176,000 a year as economic development director and acting city manager.

Staff Writer Jim Norman of The Record, left, covered tonight's Hackensack City Council meeting, along with Marko Georgiev, a staff photographer.

Blood in water

Rottino's lawsuit has North Jersey Media Group smelling blood in the water.

The official didn't attend tonight's council meeting -- the second meeting in a row he missed -- but four NJMG reporters and a photographer did.

Staff Writers Jim Norman, Mike Kelly and Adely of The Record were there, along with Jennifer Vasquez of the weekly Hackensack Chronicle. 

Staff Writer Christopher Maag, who took over the Hackensack beat from Adely, is on vacation.

During the meeting, council members went into executive session, then emerged and voted to fire Ammirato, their former campaign manager, whom they hired last July as city spokesman.

They also voted to adopt a $94.46 million budget.

Columnist Mike Kelly of The Record, left, at the back of the City Council Chambers with attorney Richard E. Salkin, a longtime ally of the discredited Zisa family. Compare Kelly's mantle of gray hair with his shit-eating-grin column photo.

Corrosive politics

Look at how "politics" have killed any progress on climate change, immigration, a higher minimum wage and other issues in Washington.

What we have been seeing on the national and state levels is a sustained effort by a moneyed elite to strip the middle and working classes of all they have gained in recent decades.

Christie lovers

Since Governor Christie took office in 2010, Columnist Charles Stile, Staff Writer Melissa Hayes and Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Dobin have time and again written about important state issues in purely political terms.

They have massaged Christie's image as a conservative Republican who works hard at achieving compromise with his Democratic opponents -- carefully editing stories, columns and editorials to omit mention of the GOP bully's many vetoes, such as a Stile column on A-1 today.

Us v. them

They portray controversies, such as the Superstorm Sandy Bill of Rights proposal, strictly in terms of a partisan battle, not even bothering to explain why, as Christie insists, the bill violates the law (A-4).

The millionaires tax also is portrayed as a partisan battle, despite lagging tax revenue, high unemployment and Christie's grab for mass-transit funds to fix roads.

The Record's story quotes Republicans as claiming "increasing taxes would cripple the state's economy," but Staff Writer John Reitmeyer betrays readers by failing to note it is already crippled (A-6).

This is a common practice in electronic and newspaper journalism, going for "sound bites," no matter how ridiculous or nonsensical they are, as long as they stir controversy. 

Fat guy strikes out

In contrast to the editorial idolatry of Christie, today's unflattering front-page photo clearly shows a man of his size shouldn't wear shorts and a T-shirt, and shouldn't show himself to be such a klutz with a baseball bat (A-1).

In Better Living, the owner of The Plum and the Pear, a new restaurant in Wyckoff, justifies charging $31 for several ounces of Copper River sockeye salmon from Alaska by noting it is "usually available five or six weeks a year" (BL-1).

The clueless editors publish the quote, even though fresh wild sockeye salmon from other Alaskan rivers, as well as other states, are just as delicious and will be available until early October.

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LOL: Cops make Page 1 for enforcing traffic laws

A long, elaborate wheelchair ramp connects the Avalon luxury apartment complex on Hackensack Avenue in Hackensack with the Home Depot Shopping Center. The rent for a 483-square-foot studio is $2,165 a month, according to the Avalon Communities Web site. The apartments, built between two shopping centers, are perfect for shopaholics.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's Dave Sheingold seems to have a bug up his ass that the annual police crackdown on seat-belt and child-restraint violators is catching a growing number of uninsured, drunk and reckless drivers (A-1).

Is there something wrong with that or with the extra revenue collected by cash-strapped towns, where property taxes seem to climb inexorably amid declining services?

During the two-week 2013 Click It or Ticket Campaign, Hackensack police issued 1,587 summonses -- triple the number given out in other communities -- but only 17.4% for seat-belt violations (A-8).

Does anybody care but the law-breaking drivers who were undone by the aggressive enforcement of traffic laws that began with the appointment of Police Director Mike Mordaga in February 2013.

Quoting morons

The anal Sheingold, the paper's computer-assisted numbers cruncher, even quotes Steve Carrellas, the moron who calls himself the "New Jersey coordinator" of the National Motorists Association, whatever that is.

"It's turning into a stop-and-fleece program. You're stopping people and taking their money away," claims Carrellas, who proves reporters will quote the most idiotic person they can find just to stir up needless controversy (A-8).

Someone should tell Carrellas driving is a privilege, not a right, and if reckless drivers, speeders, drunks, car thieves and other law-breakers are taken off the road, that's great.

We need the money

And if there is even a small chance Hackensack can use the extra money to help it climb out of the deep financial hole dug by Zisa family allies in the past decade, I say hooray.

As  a property taxpayer, I can't wait for the time when hundreds of red-light and speeding cameras are installed to generate real money for towns.

That's especially the case in Hackensack, where officials have been reluctant to ask Hackensack University Medical Center and other tax-exempt entities to contribute financially to the city, which was fleeced by Ken Zisa, the corrupt former police chief and state assemblyman.

Hackensack should follow Jersey City, which is seeking $400 million from the Port Authority in a federal lawsuit that alleges the bistate agency "is not giving enough financial assistance in exchange for dozens of tax-exempt properties" (A-3).

Lazy reporting

Why does reader Dom Calicchio have to point out problems at NJ Transit's Kingsland rail station in Lyndhurst (A-15 letter to the editor)?

Transportation reporter Karen Rouse and Road Warrior John Cichowski should get off their duffs and give commuters firsthand reports on rail and bus service.

Apparently, they've been infected by the lazy bug that long ago bit Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza, who run the local-news assignment desk.

Sykes and Sforza had to fill today's thin Local section with two long wire-service obituaries for an obscure Venezuelan ex-president and a screenwriter nobody knows (L-5).

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Our bankrupt state, towns can't fix potholes

All of the pothole photos on today's post were taken on Tuesday on one block of Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, above and below. Drivers who took the George Washington Bridge exit for the Palisades Interstate Parkway on Tuesday encountered a minefield of potholes between the bridge and Exit 1 in Englewood Cliffs that were so numerous, they could not steer around them.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Our state and our towns appear to be so broke they cannot afford to fix potholes -- nasty reminders of the bitter winter we barely survived.

After a flurry of columns and stories, The Record has been ignoring the increasing number of potholes and the rising chorus of curses from drivers, as well as the lack of repairs.

Up close and personal on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack.

The front page today carries another story on the state's severe financial problems under Governor Christie, the GOP bully who refuses to raise taxes on millionaires and throws away hundreds of millions more on tax breaks for wealthy business owners (A-1).

Christie also has refused to raise the low gasoline tax, which could revive the bankrupt Transportation Trust Fund, which is used to repair potholes on Route 4, Route 17 and other state highways.

Zisa Family Memorial Potholes on Euclid Avenue in Hackensack, above and below. Members of the current City Council argue they can't afford fix streets because of all of the financial problems caused by the former administration, allied with the Zisas, who ruled Hackensack for decades. Those problems range from millions of dollars lost because bills were never sent out to many more millions of dollars spent to defend and settle lawsuits against Ken Zisa, the former police chief who was convicted of official misconduct and insurance fraud.

Today's paper

President Obama says 7.1 million Americans signed up for health coverage, and that "doesn't include enrollments through 14 state exchanges or people who started the process and weren't able to finish because of technical problems," according to today's Page 1 story.

"The Affordable Health Care Act is here to stay," Obama said.

Let's hope The Record's negative coverage isn't here to stay.

The Woodland Park daily and its medical writers virtually ignored any success stories, including reporting on people who saved money by signing up for federal health care.

The federal program is expected to lower health-care costs, as well as depress the profits of the insurance companies who have donated millions of dollars to the GOP's disinformation and repeal campaign.

Exploding cars

Readers who remember exploding Ford Pintos and Crown Victoria Police Interceptors or Toyota vehicles that accelerated out of control aren't surprised by today's front-page report on cost-cutting at General Motors that killed at least 13 people (A-1).

On A-2 today, the editors correct two of the many reporting, grammatical and other screw-ups that appeared in the paper recently.

Bridgegate costs

A story on A-3 reports state officials don't know how much they will be billed for the self-serving whitewash Governor Christie commissioned to clear him of wrongdoing in the George Washington Bridge lane closures.

Last week, news stories and columns put the damage to taxpayers at $1 million or more. What were they based on?

Christie was skewered on the Bridgegate scandal and his weight at a 90th-birthday roast of Brendan Byrne, a former governor (A-3). 

Of course, as with anything involving Christie, the joke is really on middle-class taxpayers, especially those who gave him a second term in November.

Local news?

On the Local front, an accident photo carries a caption that is unusually complete, including the name of a driver killed by a tractor-trailer on the New Jersey Turnpike (L-1).

But Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza continues to rely too heavily on police and court news to flesh out his thin local-news report.

He still hasn't answered a nagging question on the mind of residents:

Why is no one fixing thousands of annoying and dangerous potholes? 

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Editors indulge in more Christie myth-making

A winter scene on the East Hill in Englewood.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, The Record continues to publish orgasmic descriptions of Governor Christie as the greatest politician on earth.

He's also the supposed "front-runner" in the desperate GOP scramble for a presidential contender in 2016.

On Page 1 today and Friday, a news story and column reprise the early September traffic delays caused when Port Authority officials closed two Fort Lee access lanes to the upper level of the George Washington Bridge.

Although drivers using Martha Washington, the lower level, and a fourth Fort Lee access lane experienced no delays, The Record continues to exaggerate the impact.

Columnist Charles Stile claimed on Friday's front page the lane closures "jeopardized the safety of one town."

What compromise?

In a long, poorly edited second paragraph, Stile described Christie in mythical terms as a "compromising, post-partisan leader of the new century who finds common ground with his political foes."

Where was the compromise when Christie vetoed numerous bills -- including a tax surcharge on millionaires -- during his first term or when he refused to approve a Democratic initiative giving financial aid to undocumented college students (A-3)?

That long-winded Stile paragraph and the first two tortured paragraphs of Friday's A-1 story on a security breach at Target are examples of how little editing occurs at The Record under Editor Marty Gottlieb, who came from The New York Times, where readers traditionally choke on overlong stories.

A correction on Friday's A-2 tried to fix two embarrassing errors in Thursday's front-page story on the closing of Farmland Dairies in Wallington.

Don't expect a correction of a production screw-up on today's Editorial Page, where a photo of the September GWB traffic jam in Fort Lee is used with a letter about two-hour upper-level delays on Tuesday (A-11).

Hackensack news

Debra Heck, the former city clerk in Hackensack, filed notice she may sue the city over her dismissal (L-1).

If she does, the suit will be another in a long line of litigation dating to the corrupt rule of Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa -- the former police chief and state assemblyman -- that has put a big dent in the city treasury and inflated property tax bills.

On Friday's L-1, city officials announced a developer plans to build apartments on the upper floors of 210 Main St., an 11-story former bank building that opened in 1927.

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Page 1 story hides elaborate Hackensack correction

The glass exterior of a 47-story residential tower overlooking the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee is nearing completion, above. The building as seen from Main Street, below. Some residents fear more traffic, though in a borough that already has nightmarish traffic, how will they tell?

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

A Page 1 story in The Record today exposes more payouts for unused time in Hackensack, but also hides an elaborate correction of Friday's front-page story on similar payments to the corrupt Ken Zisa, onetime police chief and state assemblyman.

And the dominant story on today's front page -- video frames of the man who committed suicide at Garden State Plaza in Paramus -- again ignores the irresponsible lack of security at the state's biggest shopping center.  

Cashing in

The Hackensack story reports more than 30 employees rushed to retire and cash out unused sick and vacation time as Governor Christie "tried to cap sick-leave pay for retiring public workers" (A-1).

But on the continuation page, Staff Writer Hannan Adely takes back Friday's front-page story, which claimed Zisa was paid twice in 2010 for unused time (A-6).

Now, Adely reports Zisa received $94,513 for unused sick days or $53,671 after taxes. On Friday, they were reported as separate payments.

Today's story contains new errors: 

That Zisa received the payment "just before his arrest on charges of insurance fraud," when Adely previously reported it was after his arrest at the end of April 2010; and that he is appealing his conviction on official misconduct charges, when he is appealing two convictions, one for official misconduct and another for fraud, as well as a 5-year prison sentence.

$2.4 million deal

The lawsuits against Zisa reported in today's story -- and the millions of dollars paid to settle them -- prompt long-suffering residents and taxpayers to wonder why the City Council didn't move to fire him years before his arrest.

On A-6, Adely reports the former girlfriend of then-Deputy Police Chief Frank Zisa Jr., the chief's brother, won a $2.4 million settlement from a lawsuit alleging Ken Zisa retaliated against her because she refused sexual advances by him and Frank Zisa Jr.

More A-1 errors

Also on Page 1 today, video frames of Richard Shoop, 20, an armed Teaneck man who entered Garden State Plaza on Nov. 4 to commit suicide, drive home the pathetic lack of security provided by the mall's Australian owners and Paramus police.

The Record has ignored that story, and today (Nov. 16) describes the events of Nov. 4 as "last week." 

Though that is technically correct, it is confusing and a more precise phrase, such as "12 days ago" would have been better.

The Woodland Park daily quotes police as saying Shoop "did not appear to be intent on killing anyone but himself and avoided confronting" officers, who arrived minutes after he fired random shots into an elevator door, the ceiling and signs.

Still, burned-out Staff Writer Mike Kelly distorted the incident in three columns, comparing Shoop to the gunmen at Columbine High School and in Newtown, Conn.

If police weren't summoned until shots were fired, does that mean no one was monitoring security cameras or that a man in black wearing a helmet and carrying a rifle didn't alarm guards who were?

Today's story and photo caption variously describes the part of the mall where Shoop's body was found as "a back hallway," "an area of catacomb-like hallways" and the "basement."

Where is Houlton?

The confusing time element and fuzzy reporting in today's story again dramatizes the incompetence of Production Editor Liz Houlton, who is paid a six-figure salary to supervise news editors, copy editors, copy desk supervisors and page proofers.

Their job is to act as a last line of defense against factual and grammatical errors in stories that are missed by the local assignment desk, notably Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza, who is running this farce in the unexplained absence of lifer Deirdre Sykes.

They seem incapable of catching even the most obvious errors, as today's Page 1 screw-ups and two more corrections on A-2 demonstrate.

Another story that exposes copy desk incompetence appears on L-5 today, where the headline suggests that only one taxicab operates in Paterson.

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Should Hackensack official return $93,000 to city?

Rush-hour traffic on the upper deck of the George Washington Bridge this morning. The Record continues to report on unannounced "temporary lane closures" in September that affected drivers entering tollbooths from Fort Lee (A-1), but its transportation reporters ignore the daily nightmare of commuting by car or overburdened mass transit.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

I'm sure I'm not the only Hackensack resident who hadn't heard of Agatha Toomey until last week, when the director of the city's Human Services Department made headlines for denying benefits to a formerly homeless man who was awarded $850 he found on the street.

On Wednesday, Record Staff Writer Hannan Adely reported Toomey is being paid $133,000 a year and has use of a city car  -- the kind of largesse residents have come to associate with Zisa family rule.

In a front-page story today, Adely reports Toomey received "a windfall of $93,000 in a payout for unused benefit time" in February 2011.

And, Adely reports, convicted former Police Chief Ken Zisa, who also served in the state Assembly, received a similar payout of $94,513 "just days before his arrest on fraud charges."

City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono said he didn't know why Zisa's name was on the list of employees who retired or were about to retire.

And Mayor John Labrosse claims Zisa's name was not on the list of retirees he was given (A-6). At the time, Labrosse was a member of a City Council dominated by Zisa allies, who were thrown out of office on July 1.

There has been no explanation for why Toomey makes so much money or why she still drives a city car weeks after officials pledged to review such use.

Should she return the $93,000? That question hasn't been addressed by city officials.

More sloppy work

As if The Record hasn't repeatedly smeared Richard Shoop's name, an A-6 caption on Tuesday "misidentified" his mother, Barbara, according to one of the two corrections on A-2 today.

Shoop is the troubled 20-year-old Teaneck pizzeria employee who went to the Garden State Plaza mall in Paramus on Nov. 4 to commit suicide, firing random shots into the ceiling before killing himself in the basement.

Three columns by burned-out Staff Writer Mike Kelly associated Shoop with mass murderers. 

Furious back pedaling

What are readers to make of an editorial urging an end to all  "the talk" about the 2016 presidential election and whether Governor Christie will be the Republican nominee (A-20)?

It's Editor Marty Gottlieb and his gang of political columnists and reporters who have been feeding that media frenzy for more than a year.

Sensational stories

Also on A-1 today, Debra J. Feldman, 48, a Hackensack woman who disappeared in 2009, may have been the victim of a serial killer, the FBI said.

This sensational story is one of the many Law & Order stories in the paper today, especially in Local, which still had to use three filler photos of minor fires to fill its pages (L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Gee-whiz. A truck caught fire in Secaucus, and a car caught fire in Fair Lawn. And in other fire news, a short-circuit "destroyed" the facade of a Ridgewood building.

You can always count on Deputy Assignment Flunky Dan Sforza to be first with such major breaking news.

Pedal error?

More troubling is The Record's inability to report whether the driver of a car that hit a Trader Joe's employee in Westwood was elderly and mistook the accelerator for the brake pedal, a common problem for older drivers (L-1).

The story says the driver was "a woman who appeared to be elderly," and describes her Toyota Camry, one of the most recognizable cars on the road, as "a beige-colored sedan." 

Second look

The Road Warrior column on Monday was filled with errors, according to the concerned reader who maintains the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

All of the Motor Vehicle Commission issues Staff Writer John Cichowski mishandles "are clearly explained on various MVC website links or can be correctly answered by calling MVC customer service."

Cichowski also reported incorrectly the initial "inspection" of a new car is good for 5 years in New Jersey when no such inspection is required.

See the full e-mail to management and the editors:

Road Warrior skips correct MVC answers

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Didn't Christie decision affect cost of Obamacare?

The vast majority of readers commute on NJ Transit buses and trains, not on jitneys, such as the one shown above, so why is The Record's John Cichowski spending so much time reporting on the so-called Spanish buses and so little effort addressing public transit problems that affect nearly all of us? See the Road Warrior column on L-1 today.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

I searched today's Page 1 story in The Record for Governor Christie' role in the cost of health insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act, but couldn't find even a mention of him.

The Woodland Park daily already reported that Christie's refusal to set up health-care exchanges in New Jersey would limit the choices that are expected to reduce costs dramatically in New York and other states.

Today, The Record's Lindy Washburn reports New Jerseyans will have fewer plans to choose from than residents of most other states -- and save less money -- "largely because only three insurance companies chose to participate in the new marketplace."

But there is no mention that Christie's decision to allow the federal government to set up the state's exchanges led to that limited choice.

Christie booster

Is this another example of Editor Marty Gottlieb sanitizing stories during the gubernatorial campaign to put the GOP bully in the best light possible?

That's what a campaign manager or a defense attorney does. It's certainly not what newspapers should do.

Deceptive TV ad

Readers have to turn to A-6 today, and search the story for reporting on a deceptive Christie TV ad that accuses challenger Barbara Buono of voting to raise "taxes and fees on hardworking New Jersey families" and then raise her own salary.

It turns out "hardworking New Jersey families" is a reference to millionaires who aren't paying a tax surcharge thanks to Christie's repeated vetoes.

And the raise in legislative salaries to $49,000 from $35,000 occurred more than a decade ago, was sponsored by a Christie ally and signed into law by a Republican governor, and raised the state executive's salary to its current $175,000.

Media won't help

Sadly, Buono can't rely on The Record and other media to get her message across that Christie is hiding his record of economic failure and attacks on the middle and working classes.

On A-2 today, out of the thousands of errors in Road Warrior columns in recent years, the editors correct the spelling of a reader's name.

'Zisa' is dirty word

The lead story in the Local news section today reports a settlement in "the most extensive" civil lawsuit brought against Hackensack and its infamous police chief, Ken Zisa, alleging "corruption, intimidation and retaliation" in the Police Department (L-1).

Zisa was convicted last year of official misconduct and insurance fraud, and the department is now being run by Police Director Mike Mordaga.

Stomach turning

The Record's mindless promotion of food trucks offering low-quality fare has landed a hot-dog vendor in hot water with the city of Englewood (L-6).

From Staff Writer Elisa Ung's rave Sunday column, readers might think Rosario D'Rivera was selling grass-fed filet mignon, not Sabrett beef hot dogs pumped full of harmful additives.

After the article appeared, Englewood ordered D'Rivera to move her Rosie's Weenie Wagon from a corner in the city's industrial section.

The real loser

"I lost an incredible amount of business, D'Rivera is quoted as saying, claiming she has only $20 in her pocket.

For that, she can thank Ung.

The overweight restaurant reviewer uses The Record's money to stuff her face and promote unhealthy food, and the merchant takes the heat and a big hit to her income. 

Don't you love newspapers?

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Errors, hype and deeply flawed reporting

Trucks, buses and cars crawling down the helix, top, on the way to the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel in Weehawken on Friday morning -- in a scene repeated every weekday. The return trip on Friday afternoon was even slower through packed Manhattan streets.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The Record today and Friday delivered a major error in a story about Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli, an hysterical headline declaring "a commuting disaster" in Fort Lee and flawed reporting on the disastrous Jersey shore fire.

On Friday's A-5, the first paragraph of the Molinelli story reported "the conviction of a mayor from a prominent family on misconduct charges."

But the reference is to the 2012 conviction on misconduct and insurance-fraud charges of former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa -- who never served as mayor.

No correction appears today.

Another 'disaster'

Commuting by car, bus or train from North Jersey to Manhattan has been a disaster for the better part of a decade, but Road Warrior John Cichowski has had his swelled head up his ass for much of that time.

On Friday's L-1, he declared "a commuting disaster" over the closure of two Fort Lee tollbooths on the upper level of the George Washington Bridge.

What's the big deal? The vast majority of drivers -- who wisely use the truck-free lower level -- weren't affected.

Of course, Cichowski managed to please some of the morons who read his column by printing their names and failing to question why they don't use mass transit. 

The real 'disaster' in the Woodland Park newsroom.

Toll discounts?

Today on L-1, the Road Warrior declares an end to the so-called GWB crisis, but blasts rising tolls, squandering another opportunity to tell readers about discounts.

Today's A-1 report faulting the Port Authority for fast-tracking toll hikes also could have used a box listing E-ZPass discounts for drivers of hybrid cars and anyone with two passengers.

From what I've seen, only a minority of hybrid-car owners know they can get a Port Authority Green Pass -- a special, green E-ZPass -- that gives them off-peak toll discounts at the Hudson River crossings, and on the parkway and turnpike.

Green Pass customers are charged only a $4.75 toll at the bridge or tunnels during off-peak hours.  

Any driver with two passengers who has registered for the Port Authority Carpool Discount Plan (1-888-288-6865) pays only $4.25 at the Hudson River crossings at all hours.

Shore inferno

Today and Friday, Page 1 coverage of the fire that destroyed businesses in Seaside Park and Seaside Heights on Thursday seems incomplete when compared to TV and radio news reports.

Both stories report "the fire apparently started in a Kohr's frozen custard stand," but an employee interviewed by Channel 2 News in New York said she saw smoke coming up through the boardwalk.

New Jersey Public Radio (WNYC-FM) noted the severe limitations of local fire departments in fighting the fire, because no agency has a tracked vehicle capable of attacking the inferno from the beach side.

Many readers just assume the fire was set deliberately to collect insurance.

Governor Christie, who is pinning his bid for a second term largely on Sandy recovery, rushed to the scene and declared on Friday's Page 1:

"I feel like I want to throw up."

Isn't that the way he felt every  time he scarfed down another gargantuan meal before he had weight-loss surgery this year?

Happy birthday!

Local obituary writer Jay Levin continues to explore his fascination with centenarians in a front-page story about Sister Mary Victor Waters, a Tenafly nun who turned 109 today (A-1).

She is referred to as "Sister Victor." Gee whiz.

Levin has neglected one aspect of his beat: Explaining why so many black men die in their 50s.


Say what?

Here are more examples of sloppy editing from head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Production Editor Liz Houlton, supervisor of the copy desk.

The Friday Road Warrior column claims the Port Authority "cut the number of tollbooths from three to one on the big span," but the accompanying photo appears to show four or five open toll lanes.

A huge photo on A-6 today shows a helmeted firefighter looking down at a scorched boardwalk in Seaside Heights, but the caption says he is "scouring the remains of the boardwak businesses."

Is that scouring as in cleaning or did the caption writer mean scouring for clues?

An L-1 story declares that two truck trailers -- "each sporting 128 tires" -- crawled from Wyckoff to a PSE&G substation in Waldwick.

Readers can only assume all of those tires were mounted on wheels.

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