That's titillating, but how does it affect me?

This sign, seen across the roof of a van, is a touch of civility at a Manhattan entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel. Fortunately or unfortunately, congestion usually slows drivers to a crawl, giving them time to read the sign and yield to other drivers -- in marked contrast to what happens on New Jersey highways.

By Victor E. Sasson

Editor

An extra-marital affair, an angry husband, pay-to-play and a prominent Republican who has grown fat on his New Jersey connections.

You'd think today's Page 1 expose in The Record has everything a reader could want. But you'd be wrong.

The avalanche of words and titillating e-mails never explain why any of this is relevant to my life or the lives of thousands of other readers.

'Me news'?

Will the split between Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan and public relations guru Alan C. Marcus slow or end the reforms Donovan is known for?

Are my property taxes going up? Will this brouhaha lessen or increase the crushing burden of the county's tax-exempt property on Hackensack residents?

As far as I know, county sherriff's officers will continue to help Hackensack police officers fight crime under an initiative started by Police Director Michael Mordaga.

I have a lot of respect for the reporters who worked on the expose, but this is the kind of  story Editors Marty Gottlieb and Deirdre Sykes love to waste time and money chasing to bring a little excitement into their dull, newsroom-centered lives.

Stephen Borg speaks

Turn to A-7 for comment from Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who claims staffers "teach" at Bergen Community College.

Borg is referring to "In The Record," a class given by the college's Institute for Learning in Retirement for seniors citizens.

Road Warrior John Cichowski, Staff Writer Lindy Washburn and other staffers speak to the class about their jobs and their beats, and answer questions.

Calling it teaching, as Borg does, is a stretch. 

The front-page has another political "thriller" from Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson, who again fails to explain why readers should care about anything he reports in his column (A-1).

Downplaying protests

The outrage over the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case is demoted to A-3 to make room for all the tripe about politics.

I have yet to see an explanation from any media why the corrupt state of Florida allows 6-member juries to hear criminal cases.

In most states, including New Jersey, 12 people hear criminal cases and 6-member juries are reserved for civil lawsuits.

Local yokels

Today's Local section has Sykes' stamp on it: 

Two more filler accident photos without a word in the captions about what might have caused them (L-1 and L-3).

Was the SUV driver who ran off a curve of the Garden State Parkway speeding or texting? 

Did the 77-year-old man killed in a one-car crash on Route 46 in Lodi have a heart attack or some other health-related problem?

Readers don't have a clue.

More road noise

The Road Warrior column makes more noise about gaps in noise walls, but as in a previous highly exaggerated column, never explains why anyone would buy a house next to a highway and why readers should care when they do (L-1).

In his column on Friday, Cichowski answered readers' questions with a mixture of "clueless, unsafe, and false information" that conflicts with state statutes, according to a concerned reader.

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

90th column with reporting problems 

The obituary of athlete, accountant and actor Dick Wieczezak of Wallington is good reading, but I'd like to see more of these local deaths on Page 1 in place of endlessly boring politics (L-1).

Not much else

The Sunday paper has 4 more sections, but I couldn't find much in them.

Today's consumer column from Staff Writer Kevin DeMarrais is a silly comparison of flying and driving to Disney World in Orlando, Fla. (B-1).

I really was on the edge of my seat reading about Jackie Zeman, a soap actress I've never heard of, and her problems sleeping anywhere but in her sister's house in Upper Saddle River (BL-1).

I kept wondering if she is related to John Zeaman, a former Record staffer and author of "Dog Walks Man."

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Editors reflect North Jersey's ingrained racism

A multi-car collision in the center lane, above, slowed northbound Garden State Parkway traffic to a crawl on Friday evening. Traffic was unusually light, so speeding, tailgating or aggressive driving might have triggered the crashes. Once past the wreckage, many drivers accelerated to 20 mph or more over the 55 mph speed limit or resumed racing and cutting off each other.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor


The Record today provides North Jersey reaction to  President Obama's personal remarks about racism and violence -- his first extensive statement since a Florida jury cleared George Zimmerman in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager (A-1).

But the Woodland Park daily has always kept readers in the dark about the diversity of its own newsroom.

It wasn't very diverse when I left in May 2008, and I doubt Publisher Stephen A. Borg has bothered to recruit many minority editors or reporters since then.

Newsroom massacre

Who could forget how then-Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale fired the paper's only black and Hispanic columnists, and demoted its only female news columnist, when the paper was still in Hackensack.

They were never replaced. A Hispanic reporter also left when Scandale was editor.

For many years, Miguel Perez, the Hispanic columnist, was derided as "El Excremente" by veteran news copy editor Ed Reiter, who is now retired.

Cuba no!

At one time, The Record had so few reporters who were fluent in Spanish, it was forced into making the bad choice of assigning Perez and another rabidly anti-Castro reporter to cover stories about Cuba and their impact on North Jersey's exile community.

I'm sure The Record's policy of requiring letter writers to provide their names and phone numbers is the only reason we haven't seen some readers expressing their joy over the verdict in the slaying of Trayvon Martin.

This blog received one anonymous comment -- "GREAT VERDICT" -- which I am publishing just now.

I've routinely received anonymous e-mails from a wealthy Saddle River resident, dumping on Paterson, Hackensack and other communities with minority populations.

Suicide coverage

The Record doesn't routinely cover suicides, so it's no surprise the editors are having a hard time explaining the death of former Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy, who shot himself in the head on Wednesday (today's Local front and Friday's Page 1).

Today's story names Fahy's wife and mother, and reports he has 9 siblings, but apparently no reporter has attempted to interview any of them.

In fact, none of the stories has explored whether Fahy was having marital, financial or serious health problems.

Friday's A-1 story about Fahy was especially bad -- from the "Death out of the blue" headline to several bewildering paragraphs contrasting his beautiful home to the littered underpass where his body was found (A-8).

Who edited this story? Was it head Assignment Guru Deirdre Sykes? And what drone on the copy desk handled it?

The lead parapgrah says, "Jay Fahy left his home Wednesday afternoon, carrying a piece of paper and a gun."

The "piece of paper" is never mentioned again, even though the story goes on and on. The underpass where his body was found is called a "bridge" in the A-8 photo caption.

Other news

Also on Page 1 today, a federal jury had the good sense to convict a sexual abuser who blamed the victim. Bawar Aksal of North Bergen was found guilty of molesting a New Jersey woman as she slept in the airplane seat next to him.

The photo caption on A-4 today leaves readers guessing about why commuters are using paper fans in the Secaucus Junction waiting room.

Friday's paper

As usual, the Road Warrior column on Friday was filled with e-mails from clueless readers, most of whom sound delusional (L-1).

A state police ticket blitz on major highways? Silver Alerts that produce traffic backups? They are pure fiction.

Hackensack news

Also on Friday's L-1, Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports for the first time on Hackensack Police Director Mike Mordaga's quality of life initiative.

During the heat wave, a trio of officers are out, ensuring the safety and hydration of the many homeless who gravitate to the county homeless shelter on South River Street, where they can get three free meals a day. 

Mordaga took over in February, accelerating the number of arrests and moving violations; pairing county sheriff's officers and city cops on crime patrols; and calling on Hackensack University Medical Center to staff the homeless shelter.

But The Record's editors have tried to ignore the initiatives.

The reason might be the hundreds of thousands of dollars the editors spent financing two fruitless investigations of Mordaga, who was a decorated Hackensack cop and onetime chief of detectives at the county Prosecutor's Office.

Movie mania 

Better Living's Friday entertainment tabloid continues to devote a huge amount of space to movies the majority of readers won't ever leave the house to see.

The detailed coverage of all of the crap being churned out by Hollywood comes at the expensive of restaurant reviews, which get much less space than before.

In Friday's Eating Out on $50 review, freelancer Jeff Page reports the owner of Riviera Lebanese Cafe believes that "Syrian and Lebanese cuisines are pretty much identical."

Gee, Jeff. Could that be because the two countries were once part of the same French mandate?

Hackensack Chronicle

Friday's Hackensack Chronical reported the ousting of school trustee Kevon Larkins -- without exploring the ulterior motives of the Zisa family allies who rule the Board of Education.

The sub-headline on Page 1 says, "Board seeks new replacement" [italics added].

Second look

On July 9, The Record ran a front-page Road Warrior column that appeared to describe the mayhem caused by the no-cash policy on the GWB's  lower level after 11 p.m.

But in lashing back at a reader on July 17, Staff Writer John Cichowski called the confused drivers a "distinct minority," contradicting his sky-is-falling scenario.

See the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers for a concerned reader's e-mail to the editors, detailing Cichowski's hype and exaggeration, and his  insults to those who challenge him: 

John Cichowski: Never mind


 

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In Englewood, racial injustice is everywhere

When I saw this man standing with a sandwich board on Route 18 and Tices Lane in East Brunswick last Friday, I wondered about just how bad the state economy is under Governor Christie, who is seeking a second term.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Anyone familiar with Englewood's segregated schools or its two-sides-of-the-tracks shopping district must be doing a double take after reading the lead paragraph of today's Page 1 centerpiece:

"Gerald Marion has spent his career fighting fires, not racial injustice," The Record reports under a big photo of Englewood's African-American fire chief.

You can't be black and live in Englewood, and not fight racial injustice. The city was founded in 1899, but Marion is only its second black fire chief.

Marion is calling on Englewood to boycott businesses in Florida as a protest over that state's "stand-your-ground law," which the judge in the George Zimmerman trial included in her jury instructions.

Jury system

But the verdict clearing Zimmerman in the slaying of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, should inspire more than a boycott of Florida businesses or attempts to strike down "stand-your-ground" laws.

Like the O.J. Simpson trial many years ago, the verdict calls into question the viability of the entire jury system.

Judging from some of the stupid comments from the women who found Zimmerman not guilty, maybe a minimum I.Q. should be required for jury service.

Copy desk I.Q.

And judging from the awful headlines over the Marion story and another A-1 story, no minimum I.Q. is necessary to work on The Record's copy and news desks or to hold the six-figure job of production editor.

The main headline -- "Chief calls out city" -- gives readers absolutely no clue the story is related to the Florida trial and not-guilty verdict.

The headline fails miserably, because all the clues are below the fold.

Another bad head

The other big headline on Page 1 -- "Lying for a free lunch?" -- is equally confusing, because the alleged liars did so to get lunch not for themselves, but for their children in school.

They can't think much of their kids, if the free lunches are anything like the tasteless food served at Hackensack High School (A-1 and A-5).

John J. Fahy

After reading about the stellar legal career of John J. Fahy of Rutherford, readers are wondering what The Record's editors and reporters missed to explain why he killed himself with a single shot to the head on Wednesday (A-1 and A-8).

And the fatal shooting wasn't "along" Route 17. It was on a sidewalk next to or near the road.

Utility poles

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes runs another story about the 65-foot PSE&G utility poles that were installed in Ridgewood (L-1).

That's three days in a row.

Of course, readers know that Sykes has a special place in her heart for utility poles, judging from all of the photos she has used, documenting damage to them from out-of-control cars and trucks, in place of legitimate news.

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Columnist gets into pissing match with readers

Packed NJ Transit buses and trains, and increasing traffic congestion, are commuting nightmares The Record's editors and reporters do their best to avoid exposing -- in favor of creating controversies over obscure transportation-related problems that affect few readers. Above, the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.

NJ Transit passengers rushing for a train in Manhattan's Penn Station. Readers who want to complain about service problems must write letters to The Record's editor, as Leslie A. Kruegel of Oakland did (A-10).

Another bad morning at the Lincoln Tunnel.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

(Updated at 7:06 p.m.)

Road Warrior John Cichowski lashes back at an Englewood reader who questioned the intelligence of drivers without E-ZPass whom the columnist claims are confused by GWB toll lanes marked "E-ZPass" and "All Others."

In fact, thousands of readers wondered why Cichowski was making such a fuss about a nearly 10-year-old, no-cash policy after 11 p.m. on the lower level of the George Washington Bridge or why Editor Marty Gottlieb put the July 9 column on Page 1.

Blaming the reader

The Englewood reader is identified in today's Road Warrior column as "D.T." 

"What kind of blithering idiot is confused by the signage? ... I dub these buffoons Generation S for stupid," the reader said (L-5). 

Amen.

He refers to The Record as the "Bergen Evening Record" decades after the masthead was changed and the paper switched to morning publication -- not uncommon among long-time readers, who also call it "The Bergen Record."

Columnist hits back

But Cichowski bristled. He is accustomed to never being challenged by his editors or anyone else, as demonstrated by the hundreds of inaccurate columns he has written ince he took over the beat in September 2003.

The columnist fired back at the reader: 

"Your assessment is much too harsh," says Cichowski.

Then, the reporter belittles him or her as being among readers who misread "the name of their favorite morning newspaper while pecking on their laptops."

Of course, the reader misread nothing. And how does Cichowski know the reader has a laptop?

More arguing

The columnist also argues with another reader, Will Nelson of Wayne, who pointed out Cichowski was wrong in a Sunday column on so-called road hogs when he said passing on the right "is a violation."

He was wrong, as the statute Cichowski cites in his answer shows, but the columnist won't just admit it and the paper didn't bother to run a correction.

Today's Road Warrior column actually provides useful information about "physical and cognitive tests to assess driving fitness," as well as road tests, available to the elderly and disabled (L-1).

But his advice comes years too late. 

A favorite tool of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes is to fill Local with accident photos, including those that show the death and damage caused by seniors who mistake the gas pedal for the brake pedal.

Facebook page

Cichowski is likely the only columnist who has inspired a Facebook page to expose his "bloopers."

See: Read all about the latest Road Warrior screw-up

A concerned reader has e-mailed top managers and editors on numerous occasions, asking for corrections of Cichowski's repeated errors and erroneous advice, but The Record's reaction is to circle the wagons.

His column has become known as "Driving Lite."

Money talks

You can count on The Record's editors to concentrate almost exclusively on how much money a candidate has raised and not on the issues voters want to read about.

Today's front-page account of how much celebrity cash is flowing to Newark Mayor Cory Booker sounds just like all the stories about how much money Governor Christie has raised in his bid for a second term (A-1).

Of course, if The Record reminded readers of how regressive Christie's policies are, how he broke his promise to lower property taxes and how he's mismanaged the state's economy, it wouldn't be much of a race.

What scandal?

Another front-page story today reports that Christie isn't troubled at all about The Record's expose concerning Rutgers President Robert Barchi, who is being paid by two companies now doing millions of dollars with the university (A-1).

Better living?

North Jersey cardiac wards were put on alert after the paper was delivered today, complete with another unhealthy, artery clogging recipe from Kate Morgan Jackson, a clueless food blogger from Upper Saddle River (S'mores with Bacon, BL-1).

Hackensack news

The big Hackensack news today is a water main break on Main Street, near the YMCA (L-3).

I had hoped Hackensack reporter Hannan Adely would have done a follow to her L-1 story on Tuesday about the removal of school trustee Kevon Larkins.

Was Larkins removed by the other school board members because he "moved out of the district" or because he tried to oust administrators who were perceived to be allies of the Zisa family, onetime rulers of Hackensack?

Tuesday's story contains a lot of he said/she said on the question.

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes had other fish to fry -- a follow-up to the huge controversy over 65-foot telephone polls in wealthy Ridgewoood (L-2).

More road noise

The Road Warrior column on Sunday began this way:

"Kathleen Catlett was treated last week to an outdoor concert in Lyndhurst that she didn't attend. The Catletts live in Rutherford way across busy Route 3 from Lyndhurst, yet music and crowd noise easily reached their Lincoln Avenue home."

"It seemed as if my neighbors were having a party," she said. "This never used to happen." 

A concerned reader says, "It still never happened and [it] defies the laws of nature and physics."

In effect, Cichowski fabricated the noise problem out of whole cloth. Here is why, according to the concerned reader:

"Her home is blocked by more than half a dozen houses and a large number of trees that greatly isolate any noise coming across Route 3 from a Lyndhurst concert, which was more than half a mile away.

"Concert noise from Lyndhurst is blocked by an elevated earth berm for trains right next to the Lyndhurst park, plus almost a half a mile houses and trees in Lyndhurst.

"Noise is also further blocked by full length sound barrier walls on the south side of Route 3."

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In wealthy Ridgewood, size doesn't matter

Utility poles on or near Prospect and Euclid avenues in Hackensack snapped like matchsticks during Superstorm Sandy last October, above and below, knocking out power for days. We'd love to have the stronger, 65-foot poles Ridgewood residents find so offensive, according to a Page 1 story in The Record today.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

To the disappointment of all Ridgewood women, village officials and some residents have declared size doesn't matter.

The centerpiece on Page 1 of The Record today reports residents and officials have little more to worry about than the aesthetics of their leafy streets.

They've asked PSE&G to stop installing 65-foot utility poles -- about twice the height of a normal pole -- that are "built to withstand powerful storms," the Woodland Park daily reports.

Japan and women

Two other stories today trace the well-known mistreatment of women by the Japanese (A-1 and L-3).

A front-page story reports a lawsuit alleging gender and race bias at Panasonic Corp. of North America in Secaucus filed by three African-American women who are executives at the electronics giant.

In Local, a story and photo show a Bergen County memorial for the so-called comfort women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II (L-3).

The lead paragraph states that one of the victims, Ok-seon Yi, "placed flowers" at the memorial in Hackensack.

But the caption of the photo says Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan is "showing" the memorial to Yi, when, in fact, Donovan is helping the frail, 86-year-old Korean woman walk up to the plaque with flowers.

That's sloppy, but typical of the paper's clueless copy editors.

Heat-wave coverage

On the front of Local, a landscaper who looks to be in his 60s is shown outside in Tuesday's blistering sun -- without a hat.

The Record continues to ignore people forced to work in un-cooled auto-body shops and restaurant kitchens in favor of morons like landscaper Antonio Cubias, who doesn't have a clue on how to cope with the heat.

Pig in a poke

Staff Writer Bill Ervolino spends  hundreds of words extolling the virtues of Italian meats from Salumeria Biellesse in Hackensack (BL-1).

But he never explains why the coppas, pancettas and the other supposedly artisanal meats can't be made uncured and free of such harmful preservatives as nitrates and nitrites. 

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Florida jury could have done the right thing

On Saturday, this pedicab likely was the most expensive conveyance in Manhattan. The rate of $4 a minute explains why the operator doesn't have a passenger. In his pursuit of the obscure and the ridiculous, Road Warrior John Cichowski is preparing a column on the use of pedicabs to supplement mass transit between Manhattan and North Jersey. 

 By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

It's happened many times before.

A jury ignores the law and acquits or convicts a defendant -- in order to reach a verdict based on their own consciences.

According to some sources, the most famous jury nullification case is the 1735 trial of John Peter Zenger, who was charged with printing seditious libels.

But in the 1980s, a jury acquitted Bernard Goetz -- the so-called Subway Vigilante -- of attempted murder and related charges after he shot four young men on a New York City subway train after one of them approached him and asked for money.

Corrupt Florida

We will probably never know why the six women in Florida didn't do the right thing on Saturday, and convict wannabe cop George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in a clear case of racial profiling.

Nor will we every know why The Record's reaction stories today (A-1 and A-4) and Sunday are silent on jury nullification.

Pathetic editors

The four reporters who wrote today's North Jersey reaction story work for head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza.

Sykes and Sforza have been at it so long -- and riveted to their computers for so many years -- they have lost touch with readers and the outside world. 

Their knowledge of the law and trials probably is non-existent, and at an editor-driven paper like The Record, woefully incomplete stories reflect that ignorance.

Jersey blues

Can you think of a more perfect or healthier snack than Jersey blueberries?

Leave it to Better Living to celebrate those who pervert the fruit, and recommend several artery clogging desserts with blueberries.

Many older readers surely will embrace them in between their annual visit to a cardiologist (BL-1).
 

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Going all out to promote unhealthy food

This old bank building on State Street in Hackensack has been empty for years, and the parking lot next to it isn't being used. Meanwhile, customers going to the post office down the block have to fight over the four metered spaces out front, below.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Love unhealthy food? Fattening cookie dough? Salty, teeth-corroding potato chips? Artery clogging cakes?

Then, you'll be eager to patronize the three "food" company owners shown on the front of The Record's Better Living section today (BL-1).

Esther Davidowitz, the new food editor, actually has the nerve to call Joel Ansh, Marisa Iapicco and the trio of Adam Horvath, Camille Beck and Jared Levine "epicures." 

Davidowitz demotes to BL-2 in Better Living news of the opening of a healthy food place, Dosateria at the Whole Foods Market in Edgewater.

Staff Writer Sachi Fujimori has been writing so enthusiastically about Dosateria in recent weeks you'd think she had discovered a new aphrodisiac.

Bottom feeding

The editors of Better Living and Business are bottom feeders.

The major story on the Business front today is all about the titanic battle among franchises selling hamburgers and cupcakes, among other items (B-1).

Even today's front page is wrapped in the Summer Can Can flier from ShopRite, which is selling obesity fueling 12-packs of sugary Pepsi at half price (when you buy 4).

Hackensack police reported two editors from The Record, Deirdre Sykes and Tim Nostrand, had spent the night in big-and-tall sleeping bags in front of the ShopRite on South River Street in hopes of raiding the store's Pepsi aisle.

Racist verdict?

Readers likely were surprised by the lead story on Page 1, reporting that a civilian had been found not guilty of all charges in the slaying of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager (A-1).

That's because Record readers are so accustomed to seeing police officers cleared in the shootings of blacks -- in Garfield, Leonia and other towns.

Anyone who was stunned into senselessness by media coverage of the trial might wonder why Florida requires only 6 people on a jury hearing a criminal case, compared with 12 here in New Jersey and many other states.

They won't find the answer in today's story from The Associated Press (or Mess) wire service (A-1 and A-6) nor do I think I saw an explanation on CNN, which went "live" for closing arguments in the case.

Mind the gap
 
The entire Road Warrior column today is devoted to a gap in a Route 3 noise wall (L-1), leaving readers wondering when The Record will fill in the gap in coverage of real commuting problems.

Tens of thousands of words have been written about NJ Transit, especially since Superstorm Sandy, but no reporter or editor seems ready to explain why rush-hour seats on trains and buses are so scarce (see today's restroom editorial on O-2).

More errors

In his Road Warrior column on Friday, Cichowski reported incorrectly that passing a slower car on the right is illegal, according to a concerned reader: 

"Road Warrior tries to repeatedly endanger his readers in believing his lie that passing on the right is a violation, even though I have repeatedly indicated to him that New Jersey law (39:4-85) states it is not a violation when drivers pass vehicles on the right if done under safe conditions."

To read the full e-mail to editors and management, click on the following link to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Pass on Road Warrior misinformation 
 
Rent-an-editor

I saw two problems in today's Real Estate cover story on apartment rentals -- one of them so sloppy it could only have been inserted by an editor (R-1).

In only the third paragraph, readers encounter this ridiculous sentence:

"The recent housing bust ... pushed many more people out of single-family homes and into leasing offices ...."
  
Offices? That can't be right.

Working or renting?

On the continuation page, the story says Virginia-based AvalonBay is "working on projects" in Wood Ridge, Hackensack and Bloomingdale.

Avalon at Hackensack, shown on the cover, has been leasing for at least a couple of months.

Where was Production Editor Liz Houlton, who supervises the copy desk?

Out shopping for a new wardrobe at the Salvation Army? 

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