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| Two views of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand calling on President Trump to resign over sexual misconduct. Above, Jimmy Margulies, former editorial cartoonist at The Record of Woodland Park. Below, Adam Zyglis, staff cartoonist at The Buffalo News. |
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| Trump is exposed as a male chauvinist pig. His tweet about Gillibrand was widely interpreted to imply she would trade sexual favors for campaign contributions. |
WASHINGTON POST: TRUMP LEAVES
RUSSIAN THREAT UNCHECKED
-- HACKENSACK, N.J.
By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR
A hashtag I've seen on Twitter -- #gannettruinedmypaper -- came to mind when I read a letter raising 7-day home delivery of The Record of Woodland Park to $180 a year.
That's about $75 more than the $1o4.40 I pay now (the new price is $15 a month, compared to $8.70 a month).
Rubbing salt into my wounds, the letter assumed I haven't noticed how much The Record has changed for the worse since the payroll-slashing Gannett Co. bought its publisher, North Jersey Media Group, in July 2016.
A hashtag I've seen on Twitter -- #gannettruinedmypaper -- came to mind when I read a letter raising 7-day home delivery of The Record of Woodland Park to $180 a year.
That's about $75 more than the $1o4.40 I pay now (the new price is $15 a month, compared to $8.70 a month).
Rubbing salt into my wounds, the letter assumed I haven't noticed how much The Record has changed for the worse since the payroll-slashing Gannett Co. bought its publisher, North Jersey Media Group, in July 2016.
"Dear Victor,
"We know how much you appreciate receiving your subscription to The Record and the enjoyable reading experience it provides you every day.
"We are committed to providing you the daily printed reading experience you have enjoyed over the years, but we need your support.
"As of 1/1/2018, the rate for your subscription to The Record will be $15.00 per month (plus applicable taxes)."
The claim that "We need your support ..." sounds like all of those year-end appeals from charities flooding my mailbox.
Keep in mind that Gannett long ago ended the practice of replacing wet and undelivered papers, and no longer delivers papers held during a vacation.
And early this year, Gannett already raised the price of 7-day home delivery substantially.
This latest price hike is expected to result in numerous cancellations.
See: Readers denounce Gannett's corporate greed
Fewer staff, less news
Gannett laid off more than 350 employees of NJMG; reduced the news hole, especially in the Local section; and moved production out of state, resulting in numerous typos and other errors.
Meanwhile, readers still are burdened with three veteran columnists, Charles Stile, Mike Kelly and John Cichowski, who are nothing more than glorified, overpaid space fillers droning on and on and on like broken records.
For example, Kelly's front-page column today quotes Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., calling on President Trump to resign, citing numerous allegations of sexual misconduct against him before he became president.
Any journalist can quote a resignation call from Booker, a potential Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, but I have to wonder why Kelly isn't using his own bully pulpit as a columnist to ask Trump to step down.
The likely reason is Kelly has been a persistent critic of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and can't see beyond politics.
Local news
In an economy move instituted by former Publisher Stephen A. Borg, The Record's combined Bergen County stories and features with those from Passaic and Morris counties into one local-news section.
After Gannett took over, the space for local news and feature stories was reduced even further.
In Saturday's Local section, Bergen readers saw no less than six Paterson stories, and a seventh from Wanaque.
There even was a long account from Morristown of all places.
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| Cartoonist Adam Zyglis commenting on the GOP tax-cut plan -- a $1.5 trillion giveaway to the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. When will Congress try to cut Medicare and Medicaid to pay for giving tax breaks to the super rich? |
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| Cartoonist Jimmy Margulies showing Russian dictator and Syrian war criminal Vladimir Putin shrugging off the 2018 Olympics ban. Putin says, "We still won the contest that really counts," a reference to the 2016 presidential election that put Trump in the White House. |
'Hacking Democracy'
The Washington Post has published an investigation into Trump and Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election that concluded:
"Nearly a year into his presidency, Trump continues to reject the evidence that Russia waged an assault on a pillar of American democracy and supported his run for the White House.
"The result is without obvious parallel in U.S. history, a situation in which the personal insecurities of the president -- and his refusal to accept what many in his administration regard as objective reality -- have impaired the government's response to a national security threat.
"The repercussions radiate across the government."
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