Thursday, August 1, 2013

Blurring the line between business and journalism

The parking lot at The Record's old headquarters at 150 River St. in Hackensack is being used to park cars for jurors, attorneys and visitors to the nearby Bergen County Courthouse. Is the lease between North Jersey Media Group and the state judiciary?


By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Look how much I've been missing.

I was searching for information about "Exposure," identified on Page L-3 of The Record today as a unit of North Jersey Media Group, and came across  Bergen.com, one of the company's Web site.

"Stay up to date on the latest and greatest events, parties, personalities, shopping events and photo ops happening all around Bergen County," urges the Web site, which carries advertising.

Indigestion

Today's lead item:

"North Jersey eXposure holds 1st annual Food Truck Mash-Up in Ridgefield Park."

The item claims more than 12,000 attended, but says nothing about how many were caught in miles-long traffic jams on Wednesday afternoon, couldn't find parking and went home disappointed.

The photo caption on L-3 says Exposure "produced" the event, in which case it did an inept job. 

By 4:30 Wednesday afternoon -- a half-hour after the starting time -- parking lots in Overpeck Park near the food trucks were full.

There were no signs and no one directing traffic, and county police officers stood dumbly next to barriers, preventing drivers from turning into the lots.

Unappetizing

The sponsor of the conclave of food trucks and related entertainment was Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck.

The Record hasn't reported what Holy Name paid Exposure, but that explains why the Woodland Park daily promoted the event so tirelessly:

Each piece was a payoff to the hospital for picking Exposure as the producer.

Posts about the food trucks appeared on the Second Helpings blog, and stories in Better Living promoted the event.

On Monday, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz's story on the Food Truck Mash-Up dominated the Better Living cover, but there was no specific mention that Exposure was the producer.

Borg family

The Borgs are experts at blurring the line between business and journalism.

Since marketing whiz Stephen A. Borg took over as publisher, The Record has run flattering stories on:

  • Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg's best friend, Jon F. Hanson, an adviser to Christie on the Meadowlands.
  • A partner in the Pashman Stein law firm in Hackensack that is frequently retained by NJMG.
  •  And even the woman who sold Hanson and the elder Borg a multimillion dollar business jet. 

Of course, their relationship to the Borgs was never mentioned.
 
Today's paper

Editor Marty Gottlieb blows another front page today on a political column by Charles Stile, one of the staffers who appears to be angling for a job with the Christie administration.

Carl Golden is a former staffer who went on to work as a press aide for two Republican governors, but that hasn't stopped The Record from running his Opinion columns on Christie, the GOP bully.

Stile answers lots of questions about Kentucky that no reader is asking (A-1).

A story on A-3 reports Christie now has endorsements from 43 of the state's 1.8 million registered Democrats.

a red carpet event, a celebrity sighting, a shopping experience or a family festival, we’re there to cover it. That’s why bergen.com has
- See more at: http://www.bergen.com/about/about_bergen.html#sthash.d3aucWrr.dpuf
Stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest events, parties, personalities, shopping events and photo ops happening all around Bergen County, NJ.
If there’s a red carpet event, a celebrity sighting, a shopping experience or a family festival, we’re there to cover it. That’s why bergen.com has
- See more at: http://www.bergen.com/about/about_bergen.html#sthash.d3aucWrr.dpufV
Stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest events, parties, personalities, shopping events and photo ops happening all around Bergen County, NJ.
If there’s a red carpet event, a celebrity sighting, a shopping experience or a family festival, we’re there to cover it. That’s why bergen.com has
- See more at: http://www.bergen.com/about/about_bergen.html#sthash.d3aucWrr.dpuf


Stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest events, parties, personalities, shopping events and photo ops happening all around Bergen County, NJ.
If there’s a red carpet event, a celebrity sighting, a shopping experience or a family festival, we’re there to cover it. That’s why bergen.com has
- See more at: http://www.bergen.com/about/about_bergen.html#sthash.d3aucWrr.dpuf
Stay up-to-date on the latest and greatest events, parties, personalities, shopping events and photo ops happening all around Bergen County, NJ.
If there’s a red carpet event, a celebrity sighting, a shopping experience or a family festival, we’re there to cover it. That’s why bergen.com has
- See more at: http://www.bergen.com/about/about_bergen.html#sthash.d3aucWrr.dpuf

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