With Trump as with Christie, only a few courageous journalists raise a ruckus

Cartoonist Rick McKee invoking President Nixon and the Watergate scandal after President Trump fired FBI Director Jim Comey, above and below. Comey had asked for more resources to investigate ties between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Trump and his mouthpieces contradicted themselves repeatedly in answering questions from the news media. See more cartoons at Cagle.com.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J. 

Editor's note: I updated this post today with a video of Chris Wallace scolding younger colleagues at Fox News, telling them the firing of FBI Director Jim Comey is "a big story." See also a Trump "enimy's list" from Patrick Lamb of Colorado.  Finally, you'll find a link to a post with complete vote tallies for last Tuesday's municipal election in Hackensack.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Nearly two years ago, Tom Moran of The Star-Ledger warned his readers not to believe a word Governor Christie says.

In an opinion column, Moran, the paper's editorial page editor, said he learned this during the 14 years he covered the GOP thug:

"Don't misunderstand me. They all lie, and I get that. But Christie does it with such audacity and such frequency that he stands out."

Of course, that June 27, 2015 column couldn't have anticipated that Christie's lies would be eclipsed during the 2016 presidential campaign by Donald J. Trump, who was elected by a technicality and inaugurated as the Liar-In-Chief on Jan. 20.

After Trump fired FBI Director James Comey last week, The New York Times' Opinion Pages didn't hesitate to say the president was lying about his reasons.

Obviously, Trump was trying to derail the probe of collusion between the Russians and the New York businessman's presidential campaign.

Trump even lied about Comey telling him "three times" he wasn't a target

Meanwhile, The Record of Woodland Park reported the fallout as if it was just another political story, and didn't bother calling out the president's many lies in an editorial.

Chris Wallace scolds Fox News colleagues

Vote totals for Hackensack City Council election

Kelly on Colbert

On the front of the Opinion section today (1O), Columnist Mike Kelly shifts the focus away from Trump's lies, calling satirist Stephen Colbert of CBS' "The Late Show" both "inhumane and shameful" for saying this about the president:

"In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin's cock holster." 

Kelly doesn't provide any context.

In fact, Colbert was reacting to Trump's interview with John Dickerson of CBS' "Face the Nation."

The president said the program was "fake news" and should be called "Deface the Nation."

He then dismissed Dickerson and walked away when the reporter pressed Trump over his ridiculous claim that President Obama wiretapped him.

CBS family

On May 1, Colbert explained his rant by saying that when you insult one member of the CBS family, you insult them all, and fired off a barrage of insults at the overweight Trump:

"Mr. Trump, I love your presidency. I call it 'disgrace the nation.' You're not the POTUS. You're the BLOTUS.... You're a regular Gorge Washington... But you're turning into a real pricktator. You attract more skinheads than free Rogaine. You have more people marching against you than cancer. You talk like a sign-language gorilla who got hit in the head."

Colbert ended with the crude "cock holster" crack -- a clear reference to the well-known Trump-Putin love affair.

This Trump "enimy's list" was submitted by Patrick Lamb of Colorado.

Other columns
On the front of the Local news section today, Road Warrior John Cichowski appears to be saying he and his wife drive cars so old they are unfamiliar with back-up cameras, Bluetooth and such basic safety features as lane-departure warnings (1L).

That would also mean they don't have side curtain air bags and other protection in a crash. 

He then proceeds to give a huge plug to Volvo, one of the paper's big advertisers, reporting on a station wagon with autonomous driving features.

Sports

Before I tossed today's Sports section into the recycling bin, I glanced at the headline over Bob Klapisch's column:

"What it was like to cover Jeter" 

Really? Who the F cares?

All-white Mother's Day

Don't miss the Better Living section's feature on Mother's Day:

"FIVE WITH FIVE"

"Bergen moms muse on motherhood"

All the "local mothers of five" appear to be white. 

In one of the most diverse counties in the nation, freelancer Tara Hopfenspirger apparently wasn't able to find any black, Hispanic, Asian Indian or other mothers with five kids.

Record Food Editor Esther Davidowitz recommends the H Mart in Little Ferry, despite a parking lot filled with potholes and enormous puddles after a heavy rain, as it was this morning, above and below.

Although one of the largest markets in the Lyndhurst-based Korean chain, the interior of the Little Ferry store also is the shabbiest.

Food coverage

Last Friday and on May 5, The Record's food writers reported on Mitsuwa, the Japanese supermarket in Edgewater, and "eight great ethnic markets" in Bergen and Passaic counties (Better Living tabloid).

Of course, many readers have been shopping at these food stores for years, if not decades.

The upbeat accounts sound more like advertising than information consumers can use.

In the rave about Mitsuwa, Staff Writer Sophia F. Gottfried forgot to mention the Japanese supermarket is likely the most expensive in Bergen County, especially for produce and sushi-quality fish.

And Food Editor Esther Davidowitz fails to warn shoppers about the parking lot at the shabby Little Ferry H Mart that is pockmarked with potholes and often flooded after a heavy rain.

The Record: Columnist misses the point about growing protests of Trump policies

Cartoons by Rick McKee of The Augusta Chronicle, above, and Darly Cagle of Cagle.com explore President Trump's attacks against federal judges and leaks about his campaign's contact with Russia.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

What's the point of drawing parallels between the growing protests against President Trump and the "tumultuous late 1960s," as Columinst Mike Kelly does on Page 1 of The Record today?

Kelly claims that experts "are now looking to the late 1960s and early 1970s for insights and possible lessons" (1A and 7A).

It's much too early for that, seeing as the protests began with the Nov. 8 election of a candidate many saw as unfit to hold the office of president.

They continued during the transition, and escalated 30 days ago, when Trump was inaugurated and began signing executive orders to bar Muslims from entering the United States, roll back environmental protections and take other actions.

His Cabinet appointees also have elicited widespread condemnation, and his national security adviser resigned after he lied about contacts with Russia during the campaign.

Just politics?

The news media might do better reporting that the widespread protests against Trump are unprecedented in the modern era against a sitting president.

The Record and other media have insisted for years all of this is grounded in partisan politics -- just Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives butting heads.

No. Issues matter, too.

As the Environmental Defense Fund says, "Nobody voted for more pollution."

Obama's 'lesson'

If we need to look for "lessons," President Obama provided a big one before he left office: Elections matter.

Tens of millions of Americans didn't vote, and that threw the election to a billionaire businessman who many say is mentally ill, a pathological liar, a racist and more.

At a press conference last Thursday, Trump claimed in comments to an Orthodox Jewish reporter, "I am the least anti-Semitic person that you've ever seen."

To me, that sounds like he acknowledges his anti-Semitism, but claims it's no big deal.

He also asked a black reporter, a woman, to set up a meeting for him with the Congressional Black Caucus. 

Fethullah Gulen

"WHO IS FETHULLAH GULEN?"

The danger of running this banner headline on the front page today is that many readers won't care, even if they attempted to plow through nearly three pages of a related "special investigation" in the Sunday edition. 

One thing notable about the investigation is the byline of Jean Rimbach, who managed to hold onto her job despite being the least productive staff reporter at The Record in the past decade. 

Food trends?

Somehow, Staff Writer Sophia F. Gottfried researched and wrote a long Better Living cover article today on food trends without ever mentioning most of the fare served in restaurants is raised on industrial farms with harmful antibiotics and growth hormones, and fed animal byproducts (bits of dead animals).

Many cattle raised for beef are fed chicken-house waste mixed in with their feed, according to Consumer Reports magazine. 

That fattens the bottom line of restaurant owners, who have lagged behind supermarkets in offering organic or other naturally raised or grown food to their customers.