Burying the lede on Hackensack

The once-powerful Zisa family commiserated at White Manna after Ken Zisa was found guilty. The hamburger joint on River Street named a special after Zisa: The B.S. Burger. The connection is clear: Pink slime in the burgers, more slime in City Hall.

The Record today again insists that Ken Zisa is "still chief" of police in Hackensack, according to a headline on Page 1.

Inside, deep on A-8, the story mentions "Zisa's continued position at the head of the Police Department ...."

But Editor Marty Gottlieb and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes are just burying the lede (newspaper jargon for a story's lead or first paragraph, which is supposed to capsulize what happened).

And what happened at an unusual Monday night meeting of the City Council was the appointment of Capt. Tomas Padilla as interim police chief -- two years after Zisa was suspended without pay and Padilla took over the department (A-8).

Out of the picture

Zisa, 58, has been a non-entity for two, long years as his case moved slowly through the criminal courts, and he was found guilty by a jury nearly a week ago.

Still, the editors, Columnist Mike Kelly and other reporters maintain the fiction that Zisa is head of the Police Deparment -- contradicting the facts -- because controversy sells papers.

They continue to manufacture controversy where none exists, and ignore the real crime in Hackensack.

Family conflicts

Zisa will forfeit his so-called position -- and his pensions -- on the day he is sentenced. But his cousin, Joseph Zisa, remains city attorney. That's the real problem for residents.

It would be natural for The Record to ask the city attorney to explain the legal process of cutting ties to Ken Zisa, but, of course, the city's lawyer is involved in a clear conflict.

Turd-filled Ravi-oli 

Many readers were disappointed by the 30-day jail term for homophobe Dharun Ravi, who maintained his superior airs through his sentencing and refused to apologize for hounding Tyler Clementi to his death (A-1).

Let's hope that after he serves his time and performs 300 hours of community service, Ravi gets deported to his native India, where privileged people like him keep millions underfoot, living in abject poverty.

A famous travel writer coined the phrase "Turd World" to describe the country after he saw an Indian man squat down and defecate on a train platform.

Avatar news

On the front of Local, the Port Authority's plan to install customer-service avatars at the three metropolitan area airports may give Gottlieb an idea on how to improve municipal coverage.

He can replace head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her cast of lazy, incompetent minions with a single assignment avatar in the Woodland Park newsroom.

Just imagine. The avatar won't overeat or fart or fill the newsroom with insane laughter, which I used to hear no matter how bad the news was that day.

Today's Local news section is so short on stories about Hackensack and other towns, every page carries police, court or accident news as filler.