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'

Trump presidency has reached crossroads, but no hint on front page of The Record

In this cartoon, freelancer Trevor Irvin quotes President Trump saying, "I have No Problem Testi-Lying Under Oath" about his conversations with James Comey before he fired the FBI director.

Cartoonist Randall Enos pits Comey against "Over Comby."

 -- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

Last week's top story is what the national news media are calling President Trump's pushing back against the damning testimony of fired FBI Director James Comey.

But on the front page of The Record of Woodland Park today, there's no mention that Comey's account of his interactions with Trump "could present a prosecutable case of obstruction of justice," as The New York Times puts it.

Record Editor Richard A. Green, the Gannett Co. hatchet man who has dispatched 350 employees so far, had only three main elements to play with on the front of the Sunday edition.

Selling out

So, many readers question the Page 1 play for a multi-million dollar makeover of a mall that is one of the paper's biggest advertisers (1A).

Staff Writer Joan Verdon, who has covered the retailing beat for more than a decade, notes that construction doesn't begin until the mall closes at 9 p.m.

Of course, Verdon can't describe The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack -- with Tiffany, Louis Vuitton and other ultra-high end retailers -- as the ghost town it is during the week.

Instead, she notes, "the floors are polished to a shine, the storefront windows are gleaming, and the mood is quiet and serene" (1A).

Jeff Sessions

But back on Page 4A today, an Associated Press story reports Attorney General Jeff Sessions has agreed to appear before the same Senate intelligence panel that heard Comey on Thursday -- as tens of millions of Americans watched on TV.

Sessions was forced to recuse himself in March from the Justice Department probe of Russian meddling in the election after lying about his contacts with Russian officials during the campaign.

Comey raised additional questions at Thursday's Capitol Hill hearing, "saying that the FBI expected Sessions to recuse himself weeks before he actually did," the AP reports, adding Comey declined to elaborate in open session. 

Hole in one

Below that story, USA Today reports Ed Russo, Bedminster's Planning Board chairman, "lectured Trump about the thickets of regulations designed to make it almost impossible to build a golf course" on the 500-acre estate once owned by automaker John DeLorean (4A).

"I'm worth 6 billion dollars and no little town ... is going to tell me what to do," Russo remembers Trump roaring back at the meeting nearly 20 years ago.

The president is playing golf at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster this weekend -- the equivalent of fiddling while Washington, D.C., burns.

Opinion columns

Today's Record does carry two opinion columns about Comey (Opinion section).

Columnist Mike Kelly says Comey wasn't "Captain Courageous" in his conversations with Trump.

Comey testified the president directed him to drop the probe of National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's contact with Russian officials, and sought assurances he wasn't personally under investigation.

"He was Willy Loman -- the ordinary guy who just tried to plod ahead in the face of problems," Kelly says of Comey (1O).

I'm sure readers overwhelmed Google with "who is Captain Courageous and Willy Loman?"

However, editorial writer Bruce Lowry said in his column, "Comey came across as decent, intelligent, and most of all, credible" (2O).

"Indeed, the more I watched, the more I listened, the more I wished it was Comey occupying the White House, and Trump the one on the outside looking in."

Expanded obituaries

Fully half of Page 3A today is devoted to Adam West, who played Batman on TV in the 1960s.

In addition to running his obituary from USA Today, the editors asked Staff Writer Rodrigo Torrejon, normally assigned to cover Hackensack, to contact fans and comic book lovers for reaction to West's death at 88.

The deaths of prominent North Jersey residents were once accorded this kind of attention, but only a couple of those expanded obituaries have appeared since Staff Writer Jay Levin was laid off in March.

He wrote those expanded local obituaries for more than a decade.  In the months before he was laid off, Levin also began writing tributes to residents who have remained active into their 90s.

Local news?

The front of the Local news section today is dominated by a story on "wonder dogs" and "all things canine" at the Meadowlands Expo Center in Secaucus (1L).

Although there are nearly 90 towns in the circulation area, only eight are mentioned in other stories.

Five of those stories are from Bergen County, which has 70 towns and the vast majority of the paper's readers.  

A small city's high property taxes get you ice-covered streets and segregated schools

Driving to Englewood just before noon on Wednesday was a bone-jarring experience on Forest Avenue, Lafayette Place, Tenafly Road and Demarest Avenue, all of which were covered with packed and broken snow and ice -- evidence that Department of Public Works crews and supervisors took the day off.

-- HACKENSACK, N.J.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

As a resident of Hackensack, I'm used to paying high property taxes and getting little in return when a big snowstorm hits.

Two days after Tuesday's storm dropped about 12 inches of snow on Hackensack, my driveway remains blocked by in icy mound that formed after city plows pushed snow into my driveway when clearing my street.

That means I haven't been able to use my car, which is too low to get over the barrier. I was able to back my wife's Toyota, which has more ground clearance, over the mound, but just barely.

Still, when my wife drove me to Englewood just before noon on Wednesday, we found packed snow and ice still covering many streets -- forcing her to drive 20 mph or less.

On the way home after 4 p.m., even North Dean Street near Palisade Avenue in downtown Englewood was covered with ice.

Did Englewood Department of Public Works crews and their supervisors sleep in or take the day off?

Taxes and schools

Englewood homeowners pay some of the highest property taxes in Bergen County, but few whites send their children to public schools.

The elementary and middle schools are filled almost exclusively with black and Hispanic students, while desegregation efforts have been focused on Dwight Morrow High School.

Now, you can add incompetent DPW supervisors who leave streets icy -- endangering residents and visitors alike -- to the Englewood experience. 

Now, that's service

Today, I decided to call Hackensack's DPW and ask if a truck could be sent to clear my driveway, which was blocked a total of three times on Tuesday.

The woman was polite, but said crews were busy clearing snow all over Hackensack, and that it was unlikely one could get here. 

She took my address, and less than 30 minutes later two men in a Parks Department truck with a plow cleared my driveway.

A Hackensack Park Department truck and two workers cleared my driveway just before 2 this afternoon, above and below.

On the snow- and ice-covered incline at Demarest Avenue and Engle Street in Englewood, we got stuck behind three other vehicles as the driver of a Honda at the light spun his front wheels.

After 4 p.m. on Wednesday, North Dean Street, one of Englwood's premier shopping streets, was still covered with snow and ice.

At Main Street and Euclid Avenue in Hackensack on Wednesday, a woman walked in the street instead of using the sidewalk, because city crews didn't clear the corner and crosswalk, a scene repeated all over the city.

Euclid and Prospect avenues in Hackensack on Wednesday.

The Record

The Record wasn't delivered today -- that's three days in a row.

I called to get credit; Gannett raised the price of home delivery, but doesn't replace papers that it fails to deliver.

Today's digital edition lavishes Page 1 coverage on a face lift to The Shops at Riverside, the 40-year-old luxury mall in Hackensack.

The breathless account is by Staff Writer Joan Verdon, a veteran retailing reporter who probably is one of the 141 North Jersey Media Group employees who will be laid off by March 25.

News about one of the paper's biggest advertisers takes precedence over the mayhem caused by President Trump, who was sworn in less than two months ago.

And it looks like early deadlines prevented The Record from reporting federal judges in two states have blocked enforcement of Trump's latest travel ban targeting Muslims.

Columnists claim New Jersey opposition to Trump policies is politically motivated

At a listening session to honor Black History Month on Feb. 1, President Donald Trump praised slave-turned-abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who died in 1895, as "an example of somebody who's done an amazing job that is being recognized more and more." This photo is from Getty Images.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The only thing new in today's political column from Charles Stile is an updated thumbnail photo showing him wearing glasses and resting his chin on his hand.

The Record's Trenton-based reporter has been boring readers to tears by churning out the same everything-is-politically motivated column since Governor Christie took office in early 2010.

Now, Stile is claiming Democrats in the state Senate are only protesting President Trump's arbitrary immigration and refugee bans in a bid to defeat "Republican senators who are facing tough campaigns in this fall's legislative elections" (3A).

That sounds awfully familiar, almost an echo of a column on Monday's front page:

The Record's so-called Washington correspondent wrote, "Two weeks into Donald Trump's administration, a spurt in protests and other activism could be a boost for [Democratic] incumbents who otherwise might have faced tough re-election fights" (Monday's front page).

And, lo and behold, NJ/DC Columnist Herb Jackson's thumbnail also shows him wearing glasses and resting his chin on his hand.

By relentlessly focusing on partisan politics, Stile and Jackson have helped keep any meaningful reporting on issues out of the paper.

That leads to tremendous voter apathy, which helped throw elections to Christie in 2013 and Trump on Nov. 8.

Donald J. Trump and his older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, a federal appeals court judge in Philadelphia. Barry worked for many years as an assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey before being appointed to the federal bench in Newark by Ronald Reagan.

Odd headline

A federal appeals court hearing  on whether Trump's travel ban on Muslims and refugees can be reinstated appears under a confusing headline:

"Trump
order
hearing
today"

Meanwhile, today's editorial blasts Trump for trying to delegitimize the federal judge who suspended his executive order banning immigration and travel.

He referred to U.S. District Judge James Robart as a "so-called judge" (8A).

The editorial notes:

"As U.S. president, his continued assault on judges who hold opinions opposite of his, as well as claims that any negative poll is 'fake,' should be denounced by all, regardless of party affiliation [italics added].

"Continuing that assault could precipitate a constitutional crisis that only weakens the greatness of America."

The editorial doesn't mention that Trump's older sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, is herself a longtime federal judge.

Painful reminder

I'm not sure what veteran reporter Joan Verdon was thinking when she wrote a story on the Acme supermarket chain aiming to convert 100 full-time positions to part-time jobs (7L).

Verdon herself may be one of the 141 employees who were given 60-day layoff notices late last month by Gannett's North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record.

Acme "also is offering voluntary severance packages as a way of reducing the number of jobs affected," Verdon says.

In September 2015, Acme saved hundreds of grocery jobs in North Jersey when it bought 10 stores from bankrupt A&P.