Hidden agendas?

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You'll find a long editorial in The Record of Woodland Park today praising a stubborn advocate of open public records. "Secrecy is no friend to good government," the editorial on Page A-15 trumpets.

Couldn't the same be said for good journalism? When are the Borgs and their North Jersey Media Group going to come clean with readers and advertisers about their abandonment of Hackensack -- phyiscally and editorially - and how much money Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg's son, Stephen, has sucked out of the parent company of The Record and Herald News?

Suddenly deprived of $3.65 million used to purchase the younger Borg's Tenafly estate, was the company forced to cut its news staff  and its retirees' medical benefits?

Below the editorial is a column by Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin, who style seems rooted in high school. Does he have a hidden agenda, too?

On Page 1 today, you'll find another in a series of stories on donors who benefit from the politicians they support. Wouldn't public financing end the apparent conflicts and open public office to people who aren't wealthy? Why doesn't The Record editorialize about that or would it deprive the paper of a hot-button issue to write about endlessly?

The main story on A-1 today is about the harm of wood smoke, but I'm wondering if it overstates the case just to stir up suburban readers. It also ignores a more immediate threat: that grilling food at high heat -- over wood, coal or gas -- has been linked to cancer.

Local is the usually pathetic collection of stories. I guess Hackensack (map), Teaneck and Englewood, among other important Bergen County towns, closed up for the weekend and have no development, education or other news worthy of appearing in the former Hackensack daily.