Editors encourage abuse of law-abiding drivers

Friday evening's soggy commute on the New Jersey Turnpike south, near Newark Liberty International Airport, dramatizes mounting traffic congestion in North Jersey -- an issue that bores editors of The Record and Staff Writer John Cichowski. When traffic isn't backed up, speeding is epidemic.



By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

In columns on Friday and Wednesday, Staff Writer John Cichowski allowed dangerously aggressive drivers to vent about those who obey the speed limit, but don't stay to the right, a minor annoyance to most others.

The irresponsible Road Warrior quoted a couple of the morons who e-mail him endlessly, hoping to see their names in print, as calling drivers who stay in the left lane "selfish swine" and "brain-dead idiots."

But it is the reporter who is brain dead for blaming fatal accidents on so-called road hogs -- when everyone knows it is the aggressive drivers who trigger the crashes by tailgating and cutting off slower cars.

Speeding, tailgating and other aggressive driving is epidemic on the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, Route 80 and other roads.

These drivers love to thumb their nose at the state police, whose smaller numbers have led to a dramatic decline in enforcement -- a story the lazy Cichowski hasn't told.

Today's paper

The lead story on Page 1 today explains how Michael McMorrow, the deputy police chief in Englewood Cliffs, is legally holding up residents, who have to fork over $103,295 for his unpaid comp time (A-1).

The Local front carries another story about Hackensack, this one on the planned completion of a senior center on First Street (L-1).

The Record seems to be paying more attention to the city where it was founded and where it prospered for more than 110 years since June 24.

That's when North Jersey Media Group announced it is selling about 20 acres along River Street to a developer who plans to build high-end apartments, stores and, possibly, a hotel.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg didn't say how much NJMG will receive for the land or whether he will use part of the money to buy an ever bigger mansion.

Many of the stories have been about the reform City Council slate that was sworn in on July 1.

Mailing it in

In his wildly exaggerated Page 1 column on July 9, Cichowski suggested a GWB toll both be marked "CASH CUSTOMERS BILLED BY MAIL," but forgot to say that if a driver without an E-ZPass doesn't stop for an envelope, a $50 fine would be assessed.

There were numerous other problems, according to a concerned reader, who e-mailed the editors and management about another deeply flawed column. 

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

More bad advice from the Road Warrior

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Editors continue to sanitize Christie's racism

A minor drama unfolded Wednesday afternoon on Cedar Lane in Teaneck, as captured in my car's driver-side mirror.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The Record's editors and reporters did a great job censoring any mention of race in today's two front-page stories about a state Supreme Court ruling on affordable housing.

A long news story,  an "ANALYSIS" and an editorial carefully omit any mention of minorities, who are the chief beneficiaries of low- and moderate-income housing (A-1,  A-11 and A-18).

Mention of Christie's 2010 dismissal of Associate Justice John E. Wallace Jr. appears twice, but readers aren't told he was the only African-American on the high court.

The Record mimics Christie's spin doctors in portraying the ruling as the work of liberal v. conservative members of the court, as well an attack on home rule.

More elitism

Christie's bid to abolish the Council on Affordable Housing is another in a long line of regressive policies that cater to the overwhelmingly white elite who support him.

This is the kind of dishonest journalism The Record has practiced for many years, especially in the work of such columnists as Road Worrier John Cichowski and Mike Kelly, who thankfully is on leave this month.

An A-3 story on NJ Transit's budget doesn't mention whether the agency will be providing more rush-hour seats for rail and bus riders, who frequently have to stand in the aisles -- a non-issue as far as The Record is concerned.

Law & Order

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section is filled with police and court news (L-1, L-2, L-3 and L-6).

Two Hackensack news stories and a photo appear on L-2 and L-3 today.

A photo of an actor in "Tracers," a movie being filmed in Hackensack, carries a puzzling overline: 

"HITTING THE WALL IN HACKENSACK"

The Better Living cover promotes Due, another overpriced restaurant in Ridgewood, without saying whether entrees costing up to $36 are made with naturally raised meat (BL-1).

Wrong again

In his column on Wednesday, Cichowski provided the wrong number for a bill that would penalize drivers who don't keep right, according to an e-mail from a concerned reader:

"For his July 10 column, the Road Warrior misinforms and confuses his readers about a recently passed New Jersey bill, which he identified with the wrong bill number.

"It would increase fines and surcharges for those who hog the left lanes and don't yield to passing vehicles or don't normally stay to the right, except when passing other vehicles.

"He compounds his mistakes by inferring that NJ commuters and cops should adhere to the requirements of the passed bill, which he failed to mention has several deficiencies.

"It is not NJ law since it has not been signed into law by Governor Christie, who may veto this measure, which has been described as a silly or dumb bill.

"He confuses and mislead readers with his lack of knowledge in response to questions about traffic circles and no-cash tolls on the GWB lower level during overnight hours."

Click on the following link to see the full e-mail to the editors and management on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

John Cichowski is making readers pay

  

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Football star Victor Cruz ditches Paterson

The Hackensack City Council meeting scheduled for Tuesday has been moved to July 22 at 7 p.m., according to the city's Web site. But the Committee of the Whole is still meeting this coming Monday night at 7. The meetings are held on the 3rd Floor of City Hall, above. 

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Just like the vast majority of readers, I am not one of those sports fanatics who follow every move by that other Victor.

But here is the lead Page 1 story in The Record today telling one and all that pro football player Victor Cruz is just a regular Joe.

Apparently, Cruz has signed a $43 million deal, but still eats mystery meat at the diner, drops off his own clothes at the cleaner and, get this, shows respect to the immigrant Korean owner.

What a guy.

But, hey, when did Cruz move out of Paterson and into a condo in Lyndhurst? The story raises other questions, but doesn't answer them. 

Indigestible

Editor Marty Gottlieb should know that if you are going to use the hackneyed device of a sports star's friendship with a diner waitress, you should say whether that star is a good tipper, too.

Cruz spoke out against gun violence after the elementary school slaughter in Connecticut late last year.

So, will he use a hundred thousand dollars or so of his $43 million to sponsor a gun buy-back program in Paterson, which is known for drive-by shootings and other gun violence?

The city's do-nothing Police Department and its overpaid chief certainly could use his help.

The rest of today's front page is forgettable. 

Column hog

Lane Laggard John Cichowski is back with another silly Road Warrior column, just a day after his wildly hyped Page 1 "expose" of lower-level GWB toll lanes that have been unstaffed for nearly 10 years (L-1).

Today, he blames 265 fatal crashes from 2007 to 2011 on "left-lane hogs" instead of slamming the real culprits -- the drivers who speed 20 mph or 30 mph over the limit in gas-guzzling SUVs and luxury cars, terrorizing and cutting off slower drivers.

Cichowski is so deperate for copy he bases today's inaccurate column on e-mailed complaints from some of those dangerously impatient drivers, including the improbably named Carlo Disney of Woodcliff Lake.

Healthy tweaks?

In Better Living, Upper Saddle River food blogger Kate Morgan Jackson is back with another unhealthy recipe, this time a pasta-chicken dish made with butter and with poultry raised on harmful animal antibiotics (BL-1).

A couple of tweaks -- extra-virgin olive oil instead of butter and the use of organic chicken -- would make the recipe a winner.

She also recommends cooking the pasta in "heavily salted water" when the legions watching their sodium intake have long ago stopped using any salt to cook pasta. 

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Incompetent reporter embarrasses paper again

When I came out of the gym in Paramus this morning, I saw a woman reading a newspaper in her Honda Pilot with handicap plates, the engine running, above. A couple of minutes later, the lavishly tattooed woman got out of her car and walked into the gym, below. She was at least 50 pounds overweight, but walked normally and I could see nothing else wrong with her. 

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Are any of the drivers who run afoul of the late-night, no-cash-toll rule on the lower level of the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee even from New Jersey?

Indeed, why do any of these morons -- who refuse to get E-ZPass and don't enjoy the toll discounts that come with the electronic payment system -- deserve coverage in The Record, let alone on Page 1 today?

This is not the first time Sedan Swami John Cichowski has written a Road Warrior column about these confused insomniacs since the Port Authority stopped staffing the lower-level booths nearly 10 years ago.

What are they doing on the roads after 11 p.m., casing North Jersey neighborhoods? Bergen County isn't exactly known for its night life.

Broken record

Cichowski desperately needs to write and rewrite the same stale news,  because he has completely undermined the mission of the column to deal with commuting problems and the region's traffic paralysis.

Just look at how he rambles in his first paragraph, which is an embarrassment to the paper and his supervising editors, Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

The veteran reporter throws "adrenaline rush you got from Fourth of July fireworks" and "a midnight ride to the bridge named for the father of our country" into the same paragraph with "high-wire act that rarely fails to raise the blood pressure of drivers who don't use E-ZPass."

There is no other way to say: Cichowski has lost it.

The Port Authority could solve the problem easily by putting the words "MAIL-IN TOLL" over the lane for drivers without E-ZPass, and Cichowski could then retire to an assisted-living facility.

More confusion

Can anyone understand from reading the first few, long paragraphs on Page 1 today just what the state Supreme Court ruled in the case of residents with oceanfront properties and the sand dunes the federal government wants to build?

The headline doesn't help: "Court overturns award in dune case"

What "award"? Where are the copy editors and Production Editor Liz Houlton? Asleep?

Contrast the lead paragraph of the news story with the clearly written first paragraph of an editorial on the ruling (A-8).

Word confusion?

Sykes and Sforza continue to rely on more accident-photo filler as they scramble to find legitimate news for the Local section.

Both photo captions (L-1 and L-2) use "rolled over" or "overturned," but in both cases the vehicles are shown on their side.

The big local news today is a tree falling and slicing into a Westwood house (L-1). Gee-whiz.

Hackensack news

Also on the Local front, Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports the new City Council has hired an insurance brokerage firm headed by Gary Taffet, a former McGreevey aide with a troubled past, including insider-trading allegations (L-1).

Reliance Insurance Group replaces a firm that used broker Jack Zisa, a former mayor and member of the ruling family that brought Hackensack to its knees.

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Letting readers eat journalism cake

Curbs along Euclid Avenue, near Prospect Avenue, in Hackensack are being repaired in anticipation of what longtime residents say is the first complete repaving of the  Fairmount section street since 1979.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

In a single story on the front page of The Record today, Staff Writer Karen Rouse has managed to say more about the English sport of cricket than she has in the past few years about the rush-hour ordeal of using mass transit -- her beat.

Maybe, Editor Marty Gottlieb and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes are trying to make amends for portraying Jamaicans and other minority Paterson residents as little more than drug dealers, prostitutes and greedy public officials.

The feature story -- complete with photos and a large graphic that tries to explain cricket rules (A-1 and A-6) -- undercuts my argument that if you're a minority, the only way to get on Page 1 of The Record is to break the law.

A story about cricket appears in The Record once every 5 years or so. Most readers would be content if that was once every 50 years.

GOP failures

Also on Page 1 today is a political column about two Republicans seeking their party's nomination to run against Newark Mayor Cory Booker for the U.S. Senate.

Both Alieta Eck, a physician from Somerset, and Steve Lonegan, the conservative crackpot from tiny Bogota, oppose the federal health-care overhaul, dooming their candidacies to failure (A-1).

Meanwhile, Booker is unveiling a plan to curb childhood poverty nationally (A-3) -- countering Republicans like Lonegan and Governor Christie who cater to the elite.

The Record's editors continue to promote their love and support for Christie, leaving it to readers to cut through all of the political B.S. and expose what a miserable failure he is as governor.

Telling it like it is

In "YOUR VIEWS" on A-11, Dianne Douthat of Wayne notes "business subsidies have skyrocketed" under Christie, but "New Jersey's unemployment rate is still the sixth-highest in the nation, and we rank 47th in economic growth."

In other words, New Jersey may be "Stronger Than The Storm," but good luck finding a job here.

In another letter to the editor on A-11, Paul White of Ridgewood comments on a column by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin:

"The column continues Doblin's willingness to overlook the governor's poor behavior and his politics favoring the elite," White says.

Crumbling reporter

Readers get a break today from Roads Scholar John Cichowski, whose Sunday column was the 84th containing reporting problems since Sept. 12, 2012, according to a concerned reader:

"In his July 7 column, the Road Warrior endangers vehicle drivers and N.J. residents with his mistaken analysis about efforts to fix road infrastructure based on the Reason Foundation report on performance of U.S. state highway systems.

"Road Warrior has become a dangerous menace to everyone with his legendary incompetence and ability to misinform readers about results and conclusions of valid studies based on his own made-up information and invalid assessments.

"Unfortunately, the overwhelming consensus of road infrastructure and safety experts is that restraint in spending is not innovative and is irresponsible governance, threatens the state economy and our safety, and will greatly exacerbate more congestion, deterioration of our roads and bridges, and damages to our vehicles."

See the full e-mail to unresponsive management and editors on the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Look out for that bumbling reporter

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Gee whiz, you don't see that every day

Hackensack MayorJohn Labrosse is ditching the no-settlement lawsuit policy followed by the old City Council, The Record reports today. Joe Zisa Jr., who wasn't reappointed as city attorney on July 1, had claimed fighting lawsuits against cousin and then-Police Chief Ken Zisa was cheaper than settling. Joe Zisa should have been let go years ago, if for no other reason than his clear conflict of interest.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Wow. When was the last time you saw the crash photo of a huge passenger jet in the newspaper?

Well, thanks to Editor Marty Gottlieb, here it is on the front page of The Record today, with more photos on A-10.

OK. They are a hell of a lot more exciting than the ponderous stories on the rest of A-1, but readers looking for local news are prompted to ask once again: Is that all there is, Marty?

A real gamble

The byline of Staff  Writer John Brennan appears on an overlong, poorly written Page 1 story on Atlantic City's struggling casinos without a single mention of why many people never go to the shore resort:

Much higher hotel-room prices than in Las Vegas. Atlantic City's Revel bombed because of rooms priced at $400 a night.

If you need further evidence of Brennan's struggles  with English, check out the awkward phrase "money-paying customers" in his first paragraph.

Car-centric coverage

Automobile dealers are probably The Record's biggest advertisers, so it's no surprise this towering journalism enterprise rarely reports on their deceptive sales practices.

Instead, today's front page presents a who-cares story on surging automobile sales in Bergen County and New Jersey (A-1).

I scanned the story, but couldn't find an interview with a dealer or customer on Hackensack's Tin Alley, the auto row that was in the news a week ago on the 25th anniversary of the fire that killed 5 of the city's bravest.

Who's debating this?

The third main element on A-1 today presents a privacy debate only journalists are having about the nanny cam video that led to the quick arrest of a suspect known for his brutality.

The Record worships celebrity chefs and loves to promote new restaurants, but rarely thinks about the tremendous heat cooks endure in restaurant kitchens, as today's heat-wave story shows (Local front).

Head in pothole

Pothole Pundit John Cichowski unleashes more data on road repairs and related issues in today's Road Warrior column, though careful readers will likely find the usual errors (L-1).

Cichowski also manages to give Governor Christie a pass on his regressive no-tax policy to fund road and bridge repairs, and mass-transit improvements.

In his July 3 column on children who die of heat stroke in cars, Cichowski completely ignored a major cause -- children playing in unattended vehicles -- according to a concerned reader:

"He was negligent and failed  to mention that 30%, which was more than 160 deaths, were caused by kids playing in unattended cars, or any solutions for that problem.

"He failed to provide the Web site, which provides a lot more useful information from the San Francisco study that he cited.

"Perhaps, he did not want to be embarrassed or held accountable for his mistaken facts and false reasons, which contradict this study.

"Shame on John and The Record management for his dereliction of duty."

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

Road Warrior endangers children


This is better?

An L-3 story on "improvements" at Englewood schools doesn't mention whether the school board will try to ease classroom segregation or even if trustees are concerned about the issue.

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My vacation from fuzzy, amateurish journalism

The line was long and slow moving on Friday at Starbucks Coffee in the New Jersey Turnpike's Thomas Edison Service Area. Speeders, tailgaters, weavers and other aggressive drivers were plentiful on the turnpike and Garden State Parkway, but state police were scarce -- a lack of enforcement The Record continues to ignore.



By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

It's always good to get away from New Jersey and The Record's fuzzy journalism.

I spent several days in Montreal, and didn't read any newspapers, but I did glance at The Globe and Mail, the widely respected national daily published in Toronto.

Returning home on Thursday, I found looking over unread Records a real chore.

I left last Sunday, when The Record's front page was dominated by the 25th anniversary of the Hackensack Ford fire that killed 5 of the city's bravest.

I remember seeing the fire from the newsroom's fourth-floor library on July 1, 1988, when I was a reporter assigned to cover business news.

Major local news

The pathetic Local news section on June 30 led with a real North Jersey scourge: feral cats (L-1).

The Road Warrior column that day continued Staff Writer John Cichowski's minute examination of driving and parking issues with breaking news about repairs to the Route 46 bridge "this fall" (L-1).

The next day, July 1, The Record's front page carried a large photo of a memorial to the 5 firefighters who died in the Hackensack Ford fire.

Falling asleep over A-1

The rest of A-1 is a real snoozer, typical of the balanced approach to boredom under Editor Marty Gottlieb, once a prominent journalist at The New York Times:

The stories were a "new era" at Rutgers University,
a political column on Sen. Jeffrey "Who?" Chiesa, R-N.J.; and a lawsuit filed against Paterson police officers who allegedly beat two handcuffed men.

Dissing Paterson

Under Gottlieb, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes; and Gottlieb's predecessor, Francis Scandale, Paterson has been treated as little more than a center of drugs and prostitution.

The Record has completely ignored the inability of the Silk City's Police Department and its overpaid police chief to protect residents from drive-by shootings and other gun violence -- even before Governor Christie's cut in state aid forced the layoff of 125 cops.

Accident filler

On the July 1 Local front, Sykes ran another filler photo of an overturned car and first responders standing around bullshitting, complete with a photo caption that contained "no information."

The swearing in of a reform City Council in Hackensack ran as an afterthought on a July 2 front page dominated by the memorial service for 19 firefighters in Arizona, and a second arrest in the murder of a Wayne teen (A-1).

Bad headline

The headline on the Hackensack story is a real clunker -- what readers have come to expect from Production Editor Liz Houlton:

Changes

right off 

the top 

"Off the top" is a phrase used in barber shops, but whoever wrote this headline probably was looking for "at the top" to describe replacement of three professionals tied to the Zisa political family.

And I didn't see any interviews with residents who wanted to say good riddance to the four Zisa family allies who wreaked havoc during their 8 years on the council.

Mayor Michael Melfi and the others allowed Ken Zisa to run amuck as police chief instead of firing him many years ago.

On July 3, Road Warrior John Cichowski actually expected readers to believe adults "lose track" of children in the back seat, leading to their death from heat stroke (L-1).

Another food scam

On July 4, Better Living acquainted readers with so-called foodie Sameer Sarmast's Halal Food Tour, set for tomorrow at the armory in Teaneck (BL-1).

A previous report on June 24 omitted the hours, noon to 8 p.m.

But the paper lets down readers, as it has done so many times when discussing kosher meat and poultry, which are more expensive than non-kosher food.

Kosher and halal meat and poultry don't guarantee higher quality; the vast majority of animals are raised with harmful antibiotics and growth hormones, and higher prices aren't justified.

Real fishy

Freelance Julia Sexton continued The Record's promotion of fattening, artery clogging desserts on Friday in her lukewarm review of Ridgewood Fare, another overpriced restaurant (BL-16).

Sexton didn't like some of the food, including the $22 mahi mahi taco her husband ordered, but she goofed when she referred to the fish as "none-too-fresh tuna."

Mahi mahi is also known as dolphin fish; it isn't related to tuna.

More problems

Today's paper is filled with sloppy, amateurish journalism.

Readers might wonder why the lead story on Page 1 doesn't refer to the Jersey shore until they get to the continuation page and learn the gas pipeline would be 8.5 miles closer to Jones Beach in New York than to Long Branch, which is 28 miles away from the planned route (A-6).

As do past stories, the umpteenth report on LG's controversial plan to build a 143-foot-high corporate headquarters fails to emphasize the building would be built on top of the tree-shrouded Palisades, between Sylvan Avenue and the Hudson River (A-1).

The description used now -- "along Sylvan Avenue in Englewood Cliffs above the Palisades" -- is too vague.

No news here

On the Local front, a huge photo of a house fire in Cliffside Park is complete with a caption that tells readers nothing beyond what they can see (L-1).

Finally, in a story on today's Local front, does The Record really expect readers to believe a group of Passaic city natives actually drank water from the polluted Passaic River (L-1)?

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