If it weren’t for the The Home News Tribune itself, the Editors would be hard pressed to find another profession in life.
It is bad enough they do not endorse a candidate, but then they interject their comments as if they are the clairvoyant seers into the soul of a person.
Instead of just recommending their endorsements of the candidates of their choice, editors Paolino and Hartman feel they must also rip apart and shred the ones that didn’t make their list. While the editors have no solutions of their own, they feel they have the answers after a few beers on the golf course. I would dare say they probably would not be able to endure a grueling campaign while holding down a full time job or they would have done it by now. They never ran for office, volunteered, or offered their services for anything than their unneeded personal remarks, but yet they can criticize another person who is willing to sacrifice the many hours of time and energy in running for office. At least those candidates are willing to make a change, investing much of their time campaigning to make that difference. I don’t believe some of these so called editors even have a clue how the process works, nor do they care other than to show the world their writing prowess. They are quick to critcize, but yet they themselves have never made any substantial contributions of their own to try and do something, other than watching the clock during the editorial meeting and getting off their butt at the end of the interview so they can run to grab their tuna sandwich stuffed in their desk drawer.
They have the audacity to comment without having covered a debate, or candidate forum, because they have no reporters available to cover an event. They hold back any information for a candidate that will help his campaign until after the election, with the excuse there was no space available.
They can sit and judge as if their opinion means anything, to most it doesn’t. They will crown their choices with glowing reviews and elaborate to the 9th degree all of their infinite accomplishments, while ignoring the accomplishments of the one who failed to make the grade in their eyes. When they do print anything, they disseminate any information on the unfortunate victim to the point it looks as if they did nothing. They overlook the fact that most candidates run several times with the hopes of winning for name recognition due to limited funds. They would otherwise never get any media attention. Yet their heroes garner front page coverage if they even sneeze.
Candidates are said to have not held any previous office, but yet many of the ones glorified never did either before they were elected, but the editors fail to mention that. Candidates who hold dual offices, collect dual pensions, and reach into the pork barrel trough are endorsed because it fits the agenda of the editors or perhaps support their personal views. They will write opinions to the contrary, and then endorse the very ones that are part of the problems they had written about.
Perhaps if they did some research and be a little more objective, instead of throwing in their snippy remarks in a 1 hour interview, their paper would hold more credibility, instead of being looked at as a joke by many in Central Jersey.
I was asked of my thoughts on illegal immigration at the editorial board of the Courier News last year when running for Congress. One editor actually jumped up out of his seat, cut me off, pointed his finger at me and said “What, are you prejudiced!” without allowing me to finish. I told him “those are your words, not mine.” Talk about being not biased. . . at that point you know where the media stands on their views and who they are going to endorse. You don’t need a boulder to fall on your head. This year I said to the board of one and a reporter,"would you buy a house of car without seeing it first?" Thats what the voters are expected to do on election day. It would be nice if the voters knew where Trenton stood on the turnpike sale and a new school funding formula before we vote, not wait to find out in January what we voted for. I said it would be nice to know before we went to the polls. I didn't get the endorsement but almost verbatim the next day (click here) Opinion page, Wow! The editors came up with a piece of wisdom all on their own. I also said if we don't solve the problems that got us to the point of why we are selling the turnpike, what have we accomplished? What's next in five years when the money from the turnpike sale is gone... the Parkway? No mention of that.
When asked at The Home News about affordable housing for seniors, my opponents offered no solutions other than we need more housing. I had said if we made it affordable for seniors to stay in their homes, they wouldn’t be forced to sell and move. There wouldn’t be a need to create more affordable senior housing. Just by that alone, it would leave more affordable housing available for the disabled and lower wage owners without having to build more.
We have had a 50% increase in government since McGreevy held office, but the Home News will endorse a candidate who believes the state needs to raise the tolls, raise the gas tax, raise the sales tax yet again, and generate more revenue taxes to pay for a bloated government. It is amazing that in 2006, 80,000 people have left New Jersey leaving us about $10 billion light in the checkbook. Yet, they will endorse candidates who have caused the problem of higher taxes, voted against funding for education making tuition higher for students. But those endorsed candidates never mentioned how to save money for the taxpayers of New Jersey. Their answer (solution) was that we need to look for ways to generate more revenue (taxes). Wow, that will make 80,000 people motivated enough to move back into the state.
Many newspapers are on the way out. Many do not have enough reporters to cover events, heaven forbid if it is on a weekend.
The Sentinel couldn’t even get their stories in the right edition regarding the Senate candidates. When a Senate candidate who hails from East Brunswick has his story is run in the Metuchen edition, it leaves a little to be desired. The Sentinel had tons of room for stories on local candidates, even areas where there were no races being contested. They didn’t even interview the assembly candidates, or even bother to call them for that matter. Sorry I misspoke; I was called because the Sentinel needed the phone number for the Senate Candidate.
You have a paper calling candidates and basically saying "hey do me a favor call your opponent, work out a date and get back to me." You have candidates who were never called to attend the Editorial Boards, and then they are not only accused of not showing up, they are also dissected and thrown to the wolves in the columns of the "opinionators".
Perhaps Editors if they are to be valued as credible, need to be unbiased in their personal views and let the public decide who should run for office. That is if any subscribers that are left, provided they don’t all move out New Jersey before the next edition hits the press.
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