On Clinton, food shopping and more, my local newspaper delivers a warped reality

A BRIDGE TOO FAR: This is what the project to replace the Midtown Bridge linking Hackensack and Bogota looked like on Saturday, above and below.

NOVEMBER OPENING: Officials of Bergen County, owner of the bridge, closed the two-lane Hackensack River span on March 16, and said the work would take about 242 days. The new bridge is scheduled to open "on or about" Nov. 13.

Gannett lays off a dozen more

 at The Record, other papers

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

I've updated this report with a comment about Montvale's controversial decision to approve a zoning change for the construction of a Wegmans supermarket, first proposed more than 5 years ago. See "comments" section at the end of the post.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm still shaking my head in disbelief over The Record's double-barreled assault on Hillary Clinton, and her book on the 2016 presidential campaign she lost to serial liar and con man Donald J. Trump. 

The Opinion front of my local daily newspaper was covered on Sunday with two negative pieces on Clinton, one by Carl Golden, who is identified as a "guest writer," and the other by Columnist Mike Kelly.

Golden's piece is no surprise coming from a former journalist who served as the mouthpiece for two of the worst governors New Jersey has ever had -- Republicans Tom Kean and Christie Whitman -- but the Woodland Park daily concealed his background. 

New low for Kelly

Readers already know about Kelly's deep conservatism, and his persistent criticism of then-President Obama in pieces he wrote during the 2016 campaign based on interviews with unemployed factory workers.

But his Sunday column is a new low in misogyny for Kelly, who likens the Democrats to the fictional Corleone crime family.

What a laugh riot. 

Inexplicably, Kelly compares Democrats to family patriarch Michael Corleone, saying they "want out of the Clinton 'family'" just as the gangster wanted out of plotting murders and bribing politicians.

Nonsensical

Hillary Clinton is never going to run for office again, so his premise makes no sense.

"And just as the party is trying to reshape itself, here comes Hillary Clinton with a memoir that practically demands Democrats stop and look backward at the goat rodeo that was her campaign, " Kelly insists (Sunday's Opinion front).

"Goat rodeo"? What the F is that? We know Kelly is no prose master, but how obscure can you get?

Clinton has plenty to complain about -- from Russian meddling in the election to millions of Democrats and Bernie Sanders supporters either not bothering to vote or voting for Trump.

Then, there was her victory in the popular vote, but her loss to Trump in the antiquated Electoral College.

Yes. She was robbed.

Grocery wars?

The Record's two-part series, "GROCERY WARS," on Page 1 today and Sunday is just window dressing for shameless pandering to Wegmans, a supermarket chain that is expected to advertise heavily in the newspaper.

On Sunday, Staff Writer Joan Verdon reported breathlessly that Wegmans, which is opening a store in Montvale next week, has a "cult-like following," but could face tough competition in Bergen County.

Verdon's first three paragraphs are just bad journalism:

First, she reports company Chairman Danny Wegmans "fell in love" with the family farm on the site, and "dreamed" of the DePieros continuing to run the farm and its "down home" store even after the new supermarket opened.

But Verdon knows that hasn't been in the cards for a couple of years, so why does she try to soften readers' hearts with this sentimental claptrap?

Far-off Montvale

If you read to the end of her story, you find out the chairman of Wegmans picked the borough on the New York State border, instead of central Bergen County, because "I was trying to get near my sister," who lives in Suffern, N.Y., and "wanted a store near her."

Give me a break. 

Does Danny Wegmans really expect residents of Hackensack to drive nearly 17 miles on the congested Garden State Parkway and pay tolls to shop at a 108,000-square-foot behemoth he put near his sister's house?

I visited an even bigger Wegmans in Woodbridge in 2011 and 2012, and was shocked at the high prices for fresh, wild-caught fish, and at the mediocre prepared food:

Do we need a Wegmans in Bergen County?


Truth is, we already have two Costco Wholesales, two Whole Foods Markets and plenty of ShopRites and H Marts in Bergen County, and we don't really need Wegmans.

The long-delayed opening of Wegmans might be a shot in the arm for the paper's advertising department, but it's a non-event for tens of thousands of food shoppers.

The Montvale Wegmans was first proposed more than 5 years ago.

More flawed coverage

Sunday's paper also included a special section called "New Jersey Eats" or what the cover said are "51 restaurants you must try."

This is hardly an exhaustive list, missing many of my and, I am sure, your favorites.

Bergen County, the paper's home, is lumped into "North Jersey," and only 7 Bergen restaurants are featured.

But Morris County gets two full pages in the 12-page section.

Dumb column

Staff Writer John Cichowski has been banging out the Road Warrior column for 14 years, and he long ago ran out of anything to say about his commuting beat.

More evidence of his column being on life support was Sunday's pathetic piece on "parking karma." 

He claims a Maryland woman, Beverly Silverberg, can "almost always find a parking space" near where she and her husband are going, whether in Rehobeth Beach, Del., or even Manhattan.

What incredible B.S.

More layoffs

Unfortunately, Cichowski and Kelly survived the latest layoffs at North Jersey Media Group, which publishes The Record, Herald News, (201) magazine and about 20 weekly newspapers.

"Newspaper giant Gannett staged a 'mini bloodbath'" at NJMG last Thursday, Keith J. Kelly reported in the New York Post.

About a dozen people were laid off at The Record, the second-largest daily in New Jersey, and other newspapers.

Among them was John Brennan, a news and onetime sports reporter with 30 years' experience who covered the Meadowlands, including the incomplete Xanadu shopping and entertainment complex.

Two editors, Debra Lynn Vial and Carla Baranauckas; and Heather Zwain, a fashion writer, also were laid off.

Those layoffs are on top of about 350 others in two previous waves since Gannett bought NJMG from the Borg family for $40 million in July 2016.

See: A 'mini bloodbath'

Living near Teterboro Airport means endless noise and a lower quality of life

When the Federal Aviation Administration ordered new landing patterns to keep business jets away from Hackensack University Medical Center, residents of Hackensack saw little change. This jet headed for Teterboro Airport was one of four or five to pass over southwest Hackensack homes and the Fanny Meyer Hillers School in about 30 minutes on April 18, 2016.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Day in, day out, the roar overhead is what is driving residents crazy in Hackensack, Teaneck, Englewood and other towns near Teterboro Airport.

Here in Hackensack's Fairmont section, we're even bedeviled by commercial aircraft heading for Newark Liberty International Airport, and seeing a jumbo jet passing over your house at a low altitude will definitely give you the shivers.

Sure, there have been four major crashes of those sleek business jets in the past 32 years or so -- all with fatalities -- but none has hit a house or one of the high-rises on Prospect Avenue.

The Record of Woodland has never taken aircraft noise seriously, and Monday's crash of a Learjet in the parking lot of Carlstadt's public works building is treated cavalierly.

The big banner headline over a Page 1 photo of five or six cars consumed by fire says:

"'LIKE A SCENE FROM A MOVIE'"

Gee. Two crew members were killed, so how about focusing on them with a headline like this?

"TWO PILOTS DIE IN CRASH"

In November 2014, I photographed noisy aircraft passing over South Hackensack on the way to Teterboro Airport. The plane with the propeller on the nose sounds like an enormous banshee, above

Today's paper

Inexplicably, The Record's so-called commuting columnist compares deaths in road crashes to "drug overdoses and other poisonings" (1A).

Not sure why. Maybe other readers can figure that out as they sit in one of North Jersey's infamous traffic jams.

Today's column by Road Worrier John Cichowski is filled with enough numbers to make your eyes glaze over.

When a Cichowski column appears on Page 1, you know Editor Richard Green is desperate. 

And when he starts a column with, "If you think ... road crashes take way too many lives," you can be sure that hardly no one is thinking that, especially if they've seen all of the maniacs on the road these days.

Zisas back Iranian-American, incumbents in Hackensack's school board election

Last Tuesday morning, these pedestrians were in the crosswalk and had a walk sign, but had to wait to cross Forest Avenue at Spring Valley Avenue in Maywood, because the drivers of several turning vehicles refused to yield to them.

And Record columnist asks if you're  'dying' to know worst crosswalks

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

The Record's coverage of elections has gone from bad to worse, especially if you live in Hackensack.

On Tuesday, polling places will be open from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. for the 2017 school election.

But for the second year in a row, the Woodland Park daily hasn't reported on the issues involved or provided any details of the proposed school budget of $109 million, an increase of $5 million.

The budget has increased in recent years even as public-school enrollment is declining.

Four candidates are competing for three three-year terms on the nine-member Board of Education, but readers haven't been told anything about them.

'Zisaville'

Three of them are backed by Team Hackensack, an organization created by the Zisa family political dynasty, which ruled the city for decades.

The Zisas were responsible for bringing Hackensack to its knees, and holding it up for statewide ridicule as a backwater called "Zisaville."

Residents also can vote "yes" or "no" on the $81.2 million tax levy that supports the proposed budget.

Homeowners and other property owners fork over 44% of their taxes to support the schools.

A "no" vote would allow the City Council to examine the budget, recommend cuts in expenditures or leave it as it is.

Proposed 2017-18 Hackensack school budget

Team Hackensack

A letter from Team Hackensack asks residents to vote for two incumbents, Robin E. Coles and Johanna Calle, and newcomer Leila T. Amirhamzeh, an Iranian-American who is director of development for New Jersey Citizens Action.

NJCA calls itself a grassroots group "fighting for social and economic justice."

The fourth candidate is Patrick C. Allagoa.

Allagoa, listed first on the ballot, is seen as a protest vote against the Zisas' continuing domination of the school board.

School board member Veronica Bolcik McKenna is not seeking re-election.

In a March 7 story listing school board candidates, Record Staff Writer Rodrigo Torrejon reported incorrectly the two incumbents, Coles and Calle, are running against Amirhamzeh and "Chimelozonam Patrick Allagoa."

A sample ballot for Tuesday's school board and budget election in Hackensack.

100 days

The Record is running a USA Today story on President Trump's first 100 days under a headline that ends in a question mark:

"A bumpy 100 days for Trump?

That calls into question what even Trump's supporters would agree have been three-plus months of legislative setbacks.

The story is a lot more unequivocal than the headline:

"The courts have blocked his signature immigration plan. Congress has balked at delivering on his promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The FBI is investigating Russian meddling in the election" (1A).

Saturday marks the 100th day of his term.

The USA Today story warns, "Just wait for the 1,361 [days] to follow."

Road kill

Staff Writer John Cichowksi, The Record's so-called commuting columnist, continues to make light of pedestrian deaths and injuries:

"If you're dying to know which crowded intersections require the most caution, here's a little ... advice to keep you from joining the ranks of nameless pedestrians who typically are killed or injured ... in Bergen and Passaic counties each year" (1A).

Of course, the pedestrians who have been killed are far from "nameless" -- The Record has covered the crashes and their deaths, sometimes in great detail, and has identified them, even if Cichowski has shown little interest in seeking justice for them.

His Page 1 story includes a photo of the second-most injury prone intersection for pedestrians, Essex Street and Prospect Avenue in Hackensack (but pedestrians are shown crossing Prospect, not the more dangerous Essex).

More errors

On the continuation page, Cichowski reports "pedestrian crashes" began plummeting in the same year as the crosswalk law took effect requiring drivers to stop -- not just yield -- to pedestrians in marked crosswalks [2010].

But the only data he cites is from 2015.

On the Local front today, the name of a teen-ager who demonstrated in Paterson against Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad was misspelled in a photo caption.

She is Mariam Alzouabi, 15, not "Alzoubabi" (1L).

The Record: Incompetent reporter peddles a flawed column on NJ Transit bus service

On HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," the political satirist referred to the controversy over President Trump rescinding the nationwide policy on transgender bathrooms. He said Trump believes men shouldn't be in the same room with women peeing unless they are paying for it.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Long-suffering NJ Transit bus commuters are the lowest of the low, judging by how Staff Writer John Cichowski has largely ignored them in the 13-plus years he's been banging out his Road Warrior column.

And his front-page column today has nothing to do with the crowding and delays NJ Transit bus riders have faced for a decade or whether relief will be provided anytime soon.

No. Today, he sides with a family owned bus company that lost a contract to a much bigger transportation company, Coach USA, even though the outcome won't affect the sad lot of bus commuters.

That doesn't seem to deserve Page 1 coverage, especially when readers learn Saddle River Tours will be able to bid again in one year for the 7-year, $49-million pact.

But in the process, the veteran reporter takes pot shots at NJ Transit's bus and rail operations, which "have provoked chronic service complaints" -- none of which he has covered (10A).

And he also slams the state's mass transit agency for "posting losses of more than $300 million annually despite two fare increases in 10 years" (10A).

Cichowski is so incompetent he doesn't tell readers that since 2009, Governor Christie cut state subsides to NJ Transit by more than 90 percent, forcing the most recent fare hike, or that no mass transit agency in the United States turns a profit or is expected to.

New column

Today's front page also debuts Garden State of Mind, a new column by Staff Writer Christopher Maag, who covered Hackensack, NJ Transit and other beats. 

The column is supposed to profile people in North Jersey or as Maag says in a NorthJersey.com video, this "funny and strange and surprisingly beautiful place."

He also says he already has columns "on deck" about a professional ice carver and what he calls the world's last beatnik.

Most notable about this new Record column is that it is the first one by a "fresh voice" in more than a decade.

But the Woodland Park daily still is without a news or feature column by a woman.

Production screw-ups

Production screw-ups were common when The Record was owned by the Borg family.

But they are occurring with greater frequency now that page layout, headline and photo-caption writing, and other tasks have been moved to Neptune, where a total of seven Gannett dailies are put out.

In the debut of Maag's Garden State of Mind column today, 19 words are missing between the last word on the front page and the first word on the continuation page (8A).

Those missing words can be found on NorthJersey.com.

Also today on the Business section cover, a large-type headline includes an awkward word, "amongst," used improperly.

"Made in the U.S.A.
gaining popularity
amongst toy industry"

Last Monday, a Better Living story included a photo of a community garden in Paterson during warmer weather, and no attempt was made in the caption to tie the garden to the story about "food and dining trends."

In addition, the caption's spelling of collard greens as "collared" would suggest the garden grows greens with collars or that they tried to flee and were captured or collared.

This is high-school or college-level journalism, making The Record even a bigger laughing stock than before.