The Record calls Trump tweets stressful, but week-long series fails to look inward

Costa Rican cartoonist Arcadio Esquivel commenting on Russian Dictator and Syrian War Criminal Vladimir Putin's latest stunt -- claiming his new "invincible" missile can pierce U.S. defenses. President Trump didn't comment directly on the assertion by his BFF.

White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, a former model, is leaving after testifying she told "white lies" for Trump, including "Your hands are so big and strong," "Your tweeting is bringing the country together" and "You are making America great again," says cartoonist John Darkow of the Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune.

 -- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

The Record's weeklong series -- "EVERYBODY IS EXHAUSTED" -- identifies the "non-stop barrage of Presidential tweets" as among the chief causes of "why we're stressed."

"The chaos of life and its collision with technology and tragedy has more of us feeling drained, frazzled and emotionally overrun," Staff Writer Jim Beckerman wrote on Page 1 a week ago.

The series in my local daily newspaper examined the causes, and what we can do about it.

"Politics may actually be stressing you out," The Record reported last Sunday in a Better Living cover story appearing under this headline:

"The Trump effect"

A therapist is quoted as saying some of her patients point directly to President Trump as a major cause of their stress.

Often, his tweets are hateful, and they are always filled with lies, yet the news media seem to take delight in repeating them word for word.

#Gannettruinedmypaper

But the Woodland Park daily left enormous holes in this weeklong report: 

For example, the Gannett Co. takeover in July 2016 has played a big role in stressing out readers -- from the widespread layoffs that deprive them of a full local-news report to the $75-a-year hike in 7-day home delivery of the print edition.

Also missing is how The Record reports almost exclusively on political conflict in Trenton and Washington, ignoring issues and what is good for the people, their state and their nation.

Web going dark

Now, Executive Editor Rick Green has informed readers that starting on Tuesday, "only subscribers" will be able to have full access "to our digital content anytime and anywhere."

"We are limiting access to content on our website [New Jersey.com] and apps for people who do not subscribe," said Green, a Gannett goon who showed no hesitation in axing more than 350 staffers at North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record.

Many readers, who are retired, won't miss smartphone alerts telling them NJ Transit trains are delayed or about the usual 45-minute wait at Hudson River tollbooths.

Nor will they miss NorthJersey.com rewrites of CNN bulletins or Breaking News emails from The New York Times.

Web emphasis

The previous owners put into motion the biggest downsizing in the paper's history in 2008.

About a year later, then-Publisher Stephen A. Borg moved The Record and NJMG headquarters to Woodland Park from Hackensack, where the Borg family had prospered for more than 110 years.

Gannett bought the paper from the Borgs in July 2016, and focused most of its resources on redesigning the lame website.

Meanwhile, Gannett editors gutted the staff of the print edition, and reduced the space devoted to local news from the 90 or so towns in the circulation area, as well as closing about 20 NJMG weeklies.

A redesigned NorthJersey.com shut out the mostly older readers of the print edition, many of whom don't use a computer or smartphone, and wouldn't know an app from an appetizer on an early bird menu.

Doblin leaves

Alfred P. Doblin, who was editorial page editor of The Record, left to take a job with New Jersey Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, says David Wildstein of NewJerseyGlobe.com (yes, that David Wildstein, who was the feds' star witness in the Bridgegate trial).

Meanwhile, NorthJersey.com's Facebook page
has been revised, and readers will no longer be able to post bad "reviews" of the fading daily or complain about not being able to reach anyone to cancel the paper.

See: What the Borgs started at The Record...

See: Readers slam daily as 'junk'

Lindy Washburn

Lindy Washburn, a veteran reporter who survived the layoffs, continues to do meaningful reporting on her medical beat.

Her byline appears today over a Page 1 investigation of deaths at New Jersey surgery centers (includes reporting by Kaiser Health News).

In January, Washburn exposed the nearly 2 times higher risk of death during childbirth of New Jersey moms, compared to those in other parts of the country, and the even higher risk if they are African-American.

Cartoonist Paresh Nath commenting on the many countries that have intervened in the never-ending Syrian civil war, propping up the regime of President Bashar Al Assad, a war criminal who reportedly is using chemical weapons against civilians.

Cartoonist Dave Granlund envisioning the natural evolution of President Trump's call to arm teachers after a former student killed 17 students or staff members at a Florida high school.

Menendez is guilty and Christie is history; Trump sets record for lies in his first year

In these photos from Getty Images, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, left, and his friend, Dr. Salomon Melgen, were tried in federal court in Newark, but the judge declared a mistrial after jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked on the 18 counts against them.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The most famous case of jury nullification likely was the 1995 acquittal of O.J. Simpson despite all of the evidence against him in the brutal double murders of his estranged wife and her friend.

And on Thursday in Newark, 10 out of 12 members of  a federal jury reportedly were determined to vote "not guilty" on the corruption charges against Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., before the judge declared a mistrial.

I feel Menendez is guilty of having an unspoken corrupt arrangement with his friend and co-defendant, Dr. Salomon Melgen, to trade gifts and political contributions for official favors.

That's why the senator tried to pressure Obama administration officials to drop charges against the eye doctor in an $8.9 million Medicare billing dispute.

Pay to play

If you live in New Jersey, you're familiar with "pay to play," especially as it is practiced in small towns and cities that fill jobs or award contracts to engineers, attorneys, consultants and others who contribute to council and school board candidates.

The arrangement between Menendez and Melgen was on a grander scale -- the eye doctor gave nearly $700,000 to entities that could help the senator get re-elected in 2012, as well as free flights on his private jet and a $4,934 stay at a Paris hotel.

During the Newark trial, most of the news outlets I followed, including The Record of Woodland Park, rarely mentioned that in April, Melgen was convicted in federal court in West Palm Beach, Fla., on 67 counts of defrauding Medicare out of as much as $105 million from 2008 to 2013.

The case was labeled one of the largest Medicare rip-offs ever, but Melgen's sentencing was postponed until December.

On his side

The Record has been on Menendez's side since he was indicted in April 2015 on bribery, fraud, making false statements and other charges.

And Friday's paper devoted nearly three full pages to the mistrial, including a so-called analysis on Page 1, a favorable editorial, and a column by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin, who compared the jury deliberations to the Henry Fonda movie "Twelve Angry Men."

"...No one should count Bob Menendez out," the editorial concluded. "He's a fighter."

As if Friday's coverage wasn't enough, Editor Richard Green put a really long Mike Kelly column recapping the Menendez trial on Page 1 today.

Tackle it, and if you haven't been able to sleep lately, the column will knock you out immediately.

Although he was never formally charged, the court of public opinion convicted Governor Christie of masterminding lane closures on the George Washington Bridge in September 2013 to retaliate against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for refusing to endorse Christie's re-election bid. The ensuing Bridgegate scandal derailed his White House campaign.

Christie 3-parter

I wasn't able to get through "The Christie Legacy," a tedious, 3-part retrospective of Governor Christie's two terms by Record political Columnist Charles Stile, once the governor's chief booster.

Shit. I barely read the headlines.

Stile wrote column after column polishing the GOP bully's image as a compromiser, and tried to be the first Trenton reporter to signal Christie's run for president (maybe the veteran reporter was hoping to become White House press secretary).

The sub-headline on the first part, which ran last Wednesday, said:

"OPPORTUNITY SQUANDERED

 FOR A GIFTED POLITICIAN"

The final part on Friday listed his "successes and failures," but I didn't see a word about how Christie single-handedly destroyed mass transit, and cut NJ Transit's state subsidy by $300 million a year or 90%.

And did Stile spend any time on Christie's nearly 600 vetoes or threats of vetoes, which he used to control the Democratic majority in the state Legislature?

He put the kibosh on everything from a millionaire's tax surcharge to the $15-an-hour minimum wage.

The Record has made too little of how Christie's divisive, mean-spirited rule was a foreshadowing of what the nation is experiencing under President Trump and the GOP-controlled Congress.

"Worst governor in New Jersey history" would have been an appropriate headline for Stile's three-parter.

HuffingtonPost.com reports many people are hilariously reimagining President Trump's awkwardly using two hands to drink from a water bottle, including this one of him kissing a framed photo of daughter Ivanka.

Fact Checker

Last week, The Washington Post's Fact Checker reported "our updated tally of President Trump's false/misleading claims [read 'lies']: 1,628 claims in 298 days."

"In the last 35 days, Trump has averaged an astonishing nine claims a day," said the newspaper, which has awarded numerous Pinocchios to the Liar-In-Chief.

"There are now at least 50 claims that he has repeated three or more times. The president's claim that 'Obamacare is failing' continues to top the list ... followed by his habit of taking credit for business decisions he didn't make. 

"Two claims about taxes are on the rise: that the tax plan will be the biggest tax cut in U.S. history and that the United States is one of the highest-taxed nations (both false).

"Ten months in, the president's tally stands at 1,628 false or misleading claims through Nov. 13. That's an average of 5.5 claims a day and puts him on track to reach 1,999 claims by the end of his first year in office, though he obviously would easily exceed 2,000, if maintained the pace of the past month."

I'm still waiting for a reporter from The Washington Post or any other news outlet to get up at a news conference and tell Trump:

"Mr. President, please stop lying to the American people."