Hackensack is behind rank-and-file cops

The Record's old building on River Street is a daily reminder of how Publisher Stephen A. Borg screwed Hackensack when he moved printing of two daily newspapers and then the entire staff to other communities in North Jersey.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's coverage of the rot at the top of the Hackensack Police Department doesn't stop.

Stories about former Police Chief Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa and his brother, former Deputy Police Chief Frank Zisa Jr., dominate Page 1 and the Local-news front today -- the third straight day of breathless legal reports from Zisaville.

But the Woodland Park daily has been presenting a warped view of a Police Department that gets high marks from the vast majority of city residents and businesses.

Not once since this coverage began in 2009 has head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes commissioned a story on morale in the department or how residents feel about rank-and-file officers.

In fact, the coverage coincides with The Record and North Jersey Media Group completely abandoning Hackensack, scattering their staffs to Passaic County and other Bergen towns.

Zisa brothers

Today's front page story is about a $2.48 million settlement of a suit by Alessandra Viola, Frank Zisa Jr.'s ex-girlfriend, who alleged Frank and Ken Zisa hit on her after she broke it off with Frank (A-1).

Sykes' Local front is dominated by yet another rehashing of Ken Zisa's defense during his trial, which ended in May with guilty verdicts on five of eight counts, including official misconduct and insurance fraud.

A large L-1 photo shows Ken Zisa and defense attorney Patricia Prezioso smiling, though in view of how she blew the case, it's unclear why she is so happy.

Maybe the defense attorney with the annoyingly high voice is just happy to get her name in the paper again.

Silencing Kelly

Also in the L-1 Zisa package is a Mike Kelly column on Prezioso's "last-ditch plea" to the judge to get the verdicts thrown out before the Aug. 30 sentencing.

Kelly rails against Ken Zisa's "world of silence," prompting readers to wonder when the columnist is finally going to shut his own mouth and retire.

Local yokels

Inside Local today, as in the past, readers find stories about a park cleanup, affordable housing, unified police dispatching, development -- all about towns other than Hackensack.

Gee, how is it that Hackensack, the county seat and most populous community in Bergen County, has so little news to report outside of the Zisa family and related issues? 

Akin and Akin

Does anybody besides me wonder whether that moron, Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, is related to Staff Writer Stephanie Akin, the Hackensack reporter? Both of their names are on Page 1 today.

Another moron gets Page 1 play today, publicity monger Shmuley Boteach, the Republican rabbi who is challenging Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. in the heavily Democratic 9th District.

I'm still waiting for a story -- any story -- about the campaign of Teaneck Deputy Mayor Adam Gussen, a Democrat who is running against Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, in the 5th District. 

More bad writing

The caption under the train-wreck photo on A-1 gives the impression two teenagers died in cars crushed by rail cars that fell off an elevated bridge.

But the story on A-7 couldn't be more clear. The 19-year-old women were sitting on the bridge as the train passed a few feet behind them.

On A-8, an editorial concludes, "Hackensack cannot sweep its past under the rug, particularly when its lying at the top of the stairs."

Huh? Who is responsible for that tortured image?