Are the editors defending Chief Zisa?

Superior Court Judge Joseph Conte in Hackensack is weighing a request from the Ken Zisa trial jurors to substitute White Manna hamburgers for their usual lunch of Persian kabobs.

The Record continues to publish story after story on the defense strategy of suspended Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa, whose family has ruled the city for decades.

Editors lead the paper today with an "ANALYSIS" -- untroubled that Zisa's defense attorney apparently has conceded he is guilty as charged.

Although Publisher Stephen A. Borg abandoned the city decades ago -- moving the daily paper and North Jersey Media Group to Woodland Park and Rockaway -- Editors Marty Gottlieb and Deirdre Sykes seem to be sticking by Zisa's side.

The facts aren't disputed: 

Zisa is charged with coercing his subordinates to file false police reports at least twice -- in 2004, when his girlfriend's teenage sons were involved in a planned ambush, and in 2008, when she was driving dunk and wrecked the chief's SUV.

Insurance fraud

Zisa also is charged with filing a fraudulent insurance claim for $11,000, claiming girlfriend Kathleen Tiernan swerved to avoid hitting an animal.

Tiernan is on trial with Zisa, but now she is called his former, live-in girlfriend. Of course, Zisa (at least in 2004 and 2008) acted as if his brain is in his penis.

Those Secret Service agents in Colombia also acted as if their brains are in their penises (A-1 and A-4 today).

Will the predominately female jury at the Zisa trial identify with his defense lawyer, Patricia Prezioso, who is coming to the chief's rescue, just as he came to Tiernan's rescue?

I spent an hour in the courtroom on Thursday -- before I was driven out by sheer boredom. 

Poker faces

But the jurors were poker-faced as they listened to the cross-examination of Police Officer Laura Campos, so there is no way to know what they think of the defense case.  

With Stephanie Akin, the so-called Hackensack reporter, covering the Zisa trial full time, Sykes had to assign two other reporters to Hackensack news today (Local front, L-2).

On L-1, a story on the rezoning of 39 city blocks in and around the struggling downtown makes no attempt to identify who owns all of that property and who will profit from a new urban center.

Friday's paper

The Record has never been friendly to mass transit, and continues to ignore the thousands of NJ Transit bus riders who have to stand in the aisles on their morning commute to the city (A-3)

Governor Christie's eyes closed during an April 9 Bruce Springsteen concert. But the GOP bully claims he wasn't just sleeping off another big meal (A-4).

Road Warrior John Cichowski still hasn't admitted his own addiction -- to rewriting surveys and studies in a desperate bid to avoid leaving the office and reporting on commuting problems (L-1).

Boring kabobs

In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung tells readers nothing about the quality of the beef, lamb and poultry served at the forgettable Ravagh Persian Grill in Edgewater (Pages 16 and 17).

She is either endorsing the owners' focus on profits over serving quality food to customers or cares more about sampling the restaurant's desserts.

With so many Turkish, Syrian and Lebanese restaurants around, kabobs are among the least exciting dining choices in North Jersey.