Seniors see sunlight, crime as local news and more

Gen. Enoch Poor, a Revolutionary War hero, died in Hackensack on Sept. 8, 1780, and was buried two days later at the First Reformed Church on Court Street, above, with full military honors and with Gen. George Washington, Lafayette and other senior military leaders in attendance. Today, his spirit lives on a couple of blocks away in General Poor's Tavern on Main Street, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record today publishes a rare photo of Senior Bergenitis, a species that inhabits every corner of Bergen County, but is rarely shown in public.

A Page 1 photo captures sun-splashed "dancers enjoying the song 'Shout' at the Bergen County Senior Citizen Picnic" on Tuesday in a Paramus park (A-1 and L-3).

The Woodland Park daily often portrays seniors as little more than inhabitants of nursing homes and critical-care facilities, and generally turns a blind eye to age discrimination in the workplace and in the media.

You have read far more about autism than Alzheimer's disease in The Record.

The paper's chief restaurant reviewer has eaten tons of butter and sugar, and its freelancers have published numerous artery clogging recipes of no interest to many seniors.

It's hard to understand how The Record generally ignores seniors when this is the group with all the money.

People over 55 buy the most cars, and travel lavishly. Yet, coverage is aimed at the young, who don't even read the paper.

Local crime news

Peter J. Sampson, the hard-working Bergen County Courthouse reporter, has three bylines on the Local front today, part of an onslaught of Law & Order news throughout the section.

With 70 towns in Bergen County alone, you'd think the lazy local assignment editors could come up with more municipal news, such as the impact on residents and businesses of all the tax-exempt property in Hackensack.

Evidently, Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza are bored with their jobs. 

The same could be said for Liz Houlton, the six-figure production editor who allows numerous errors, bad captions and clunky headlines to get into the paper.

Publisher Stephen A. Borg could cut those three, and save a ton of money.

Judges hear appeal in age-bias case

Image by joseph a via Flick

Courthouses on West Market Street in Newark.

Three appeals court judges heard oral arguments today in a bid by Victor E. Sasson to overturn an unfavorable jury verdict in his age-discrimination case against North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record.

Joshua L. Weiner, the Morristown lawyer who represents Sasson, and Samuel J. Samaro of the Pashman Stein law firm in Hackensack were given about 15 minutes each to supplement written briefs submitted to the court, along with a transcript of the five-day trial.

The judges asked the attorneys a number of questions, and took the appeal under advisement, giving no indication of when they will issue a decision.

When Sasson got up to leave the Newark courtroom, he saw Jennifer A. Borg, NJMG vice president and general counsel, but she didn't greet him. NJMG is paying an estimated $400 an hour for Samaro, who also defended the company at trial.

Sasson sued The Record after features Editor Barbara Jaeger chose Bill Pitcher, who was half his age and far less qualified, to replace Patricia Mack as food editor in 2006. 

He alleged age-discrimination under the state Law Against Discrimination. He also alleged retaliation, because he was fired in May 2008, several months after the suit was filed.

The Superior Court jury disagreed. Sasson represented himself at the trial in April 2010. He is arguing the judge, Joseph S. Conte in Hackensack, twice committed reversible error:

Conte permitted the use of posts from the Eye on The Record blog during cross-examination to impeach the plaintiff's credibility, and he allowed into evidence performance reviews dating to 1985 that weren't relevant to events of 2006-08.

Sasson believes Conte should have instructed the jurors to use the blog entries only for the purpose of judging the plaintiff's credibility -- and to disregard his views the paper kept on older, white male columnists, while silencing older black, Hispanic and female columnists. 


Here are excerpts from the Jan. 22, 2010, post in Eye on The Record:

"Reading The Record of Woodland Park today made me realize just how wrong all the numbers are. Not only do at least two stories contain confusing numbers, but it's clear the paper favors older white men as columnists over blacks, Hispanics and women.


"How many older male columnists does The Record need? Today, columns by Kevin DeMarrais, Harvy Lipman, Mike Kelley, John Cichowski and Peter Grad appear in the former Hackensack daily, which got rid of its only black and only Hispanic columnists, and one of its early female columnists. A Personal Finance column by veteran reporter Kathy Lynn appears today on the first Business page, making her the paper's third female columnist. Congratulations, Kathy. But when you count unfunny humor columnist Bill Ervolino, there are twice as many older males as females."

In another post, on Nov. 17, 2009, Sasson wrote:

"This paper also contains columns by Road Warrior John Cichowski and Mike Kelly, both of whom are so far over the hill, you can no longer see the hill. And to think the paper kept these turkeys, but silenced its only black columnist, its only Latino columnist and the only columnist writing about the heroics of  police officers, firefighters and EMTs."

During his oral argument, Samaro brought up a 2008 e-mail Sasson had sent Publisher Stephen A. Borg, replying to Borg's e-mail notifying the staff of awards The Record had won. 

Samaro noted that Sasson told the publisher the paper wouldn't be winning any awards for how it treated older workers. During the trial, NJMG cited that e-mail and others as the reason Sasson received a final warning letter.

Today, before the Appellate Division, Samaro's tone tried to convey, What a nerve this guy had e-mailing the publisher. That's why he was fired.

But Judge Victor Ashrafi, head of the three-judge panel, said, "You can't make that argument." 

The judge noted victims have a right to complain about discrimination without retaliation.

Tales from the old Hackensack newsroom

Image by Bill on Capitol Hill via Flickr

A newspaper copy desk rim and slot long before computers.

When I worked as a news copy editor in The Record's Hackensack newsroom, my chair and computer were near the door to the men's room.  

That seemed appropriate, because too many of the stories we handled were so poorly done, they were the equivalent of shit -- this from the perspective of having been a prize-winning reporter at The Record and two other daily papers. 

I spent many years near the men's room door, processing hundreds of stories by reporters good and bad. I worked with so many assistant assignment editors, I have forgotten all their names, but many of them had one thing in common -- they themselves were mediocre reporters who became mediocre editors and who often knew nothing about the towns their reporters were covering.

Some of the men in the newsroom had appalling bathroom habits. I did my major business at home, but others would disappear into the bathroom with a newspaper, and the noises I could hear were distracting, to say the least. The men's room also needed a system to freshen the air after each toilet flush, but never got it.

But if some of the reporters and editors who used the men's room were slobs, a couple of my colleagues weren't ashamed to do their thing in public, and gross out their desk mates in the process. 

One, across the desk from me, had chronic flatulence, and all the other copy editors could smell his gaseous output, but no supervisor ever spoke to him about the problem. For a number of years, he was supervised by his ex-wife. To make matters worse, this copy editor was given supervisory duties, even though he was among the least productive on the desk.  He is still employed as a copy editor.

The copy editor who sat behind me often picked his nose and fell asleep -- sometimes with his finger still in his nose. The supervisor, or slot, occasionally had to wake him to complete a file and write a headline so we could make deadline.

The news copy editors worked at night, and there was a clear divide between the day and night staffs. The local news assignment desk, headed for many years by Editor Deirdre Sykes, did its best to thwart the copy desk. 

One way was to hold onto a story until a few minutes before deadline to prevent the the copy desk from doing much more than spell-check the text. Sykes specialized in this, along with her peels of laughter that prompted homicidal thoughts in nearby layout editors.

Reporters and their fragile egos were defended no matter how incomplete or how inaccurate or how poorly written their stories were. The assignment desk hated the copy desk, because copy editors were a daily reminder of all the errors the reporters and their supervising editors made, all the garbled writing, all the long and winding lead paragraphs.

It was not uncommon for a reporter covering Englewood or another town to misspell the names of officials, get street names wrong and leave out major information. I lived in Englewood for many years and knew the city better than any reporter or editor in the newsroom.

In the nearly two decades I lived in that city, The Record never reported on the noise from an open-air police firing range, which was used hundreds of days a year and woke residents as early as 8 a.m. with gunshots and shotgun blasts. 

When Staff Writer Deena Yellin was assigned to do a round-up on such police ranges a few years ago, the published story omitted any mention of the one in Englewood, despite having been edited by Assistant Assignment Editor Christina Joseph, who once covered Englewood herself, as did Sykes when she was a reporter for a weekly. 

Editor Francis Scandale was brought in from the Denver Post in 2000 or 2001, and it soon became clear he wanted the copy editors to write great headlines that would sell newspapers, and not to do much more. He even told them to stop calling reporters after they went home about such problems as misspelled names and inaccuracies.

The copy desk was regarded as a scrap heap for older employees. In all my years there, no copy editor was ever promoted to the job of assistant assignment editor.

The paper was so dysfunctional, it had trouble printing and delivering the paper on time, and kept on making the deadline earlier and earlier to accommodate press malfunctions and inclement weather, which would slow the rag-tag fleet of vehicles used by independent deliverers.

Not only was the paper unable to print late sports scores or the results of municipal night meetings, but copy editors often had one to two hours before the end of their shift at 12:45 a.m. with nothing to edit (yet they were denied a dinner break earlier in their shift because of the tight deadlines).  

They, and their supervisors, would use the time at the end of the night to play computer solitaire, write personal e-mails, and plan vacations.      

 

I began free-lancing for the paper's Food section in 1999, and in later years, I would write major pieces or Dining Out on $50 restaurant reviews at the end of my shift, and ask a colleague to look them over before sending them to the food editor. I stopped writing food stories in mid-2006.

I was fired in May 2008 during a downsizing that claimed many veteran employees. After the copy desks of The Record and Herald News were combined, the decline of copy editing continued. Now, inaccurate and dull headlines appear regularly, as do typos and garbled writing, even in lead paragraphs, and stories are published with crucial information missing.

One example occurred just last week, when a 12-year-old boy was killed by an NJ Transit train along an unfenced stretch of track in Hackensack. None of the coverage mentioned he was walking home because Hackensack doesn't provide school busing to students.

What else can you expect when the former Hackensack daily is being run by a flawed journalist,  Scandale, and a bunch of lazy assignment editors who refuse to give copy editors -- with their experience and superior knowledge of North Jersey -- the power they have at many other newspapers. 

Exhausted reporter back in the fray

Image by joseph a via Flickr

After two days off for rest and relaxation, Staff Writer Monsy Alvarado is back on the Hackensack beat, leading The Record of Woodland Park today with bad news for Prospect Avenue high-risers whose parking garage collapsed July 16. They won't be going home until at least Nov. 15.


"Homeless for 4 months," the big, black headline declares -- but the news copy desk is inaccurate on two scores. The tenants are living in hotels or with relatives, so they are far from "homeless." And Nov. 15 is three and a half months away, not four, so maybe the copy desk means four months from the initial collapse. Confusing.

The A-1 patch is about a legal pissing match over who has rights to an "app," and, unfortunately, the story isn't about appetizers. Staff Writer Kibret Markos, who is assigned to the Bergen County Courthouse, is careful to leave to the last paragraph on the jump page that a lawsuit and counter suit are filed in New York, not New Jersey.

In view of all the older workers displaced during the recession -- including a couple of dozen at The Record, thanks to such discriminating managers as Stephen and Jennifer Borg, Frank Scandale, Barbara Jaeger, Liz Houlton and Deirdre Sykes -- I question why Markos and the other courthouse reporters are not covering the many age-discrimination lawsuits that have been filed.

For her A-1 story today, Alvarado covered a meeting  of more than 100 displaced Prospect Avenue tenants organized by a lawyer who represents a half-dozen of them in hopes of hitting a litigation jackpot. That's the easy, superficial way to cover the story -- everybody is in the same place and you don't have to run around chasing people down. 


No representatives of the out-of-town building owners were at the meeting, so there is no comment from the company. Very thorough story. We don't even know if Prospect Avenue remains closed.

There is no other Hackensack news or anything from Teaneck and Englewood in the rest of the paper today.  What a great job "Mother Hen" Sykes is doing as head assignment editor.

Contact with jurors draws warning

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Last weekend, I checked the telephone book and found listings for six of the eight jurors who heard my age-discrimination lawsuit in Superior Court and returned a verdict in favor of the defendants, including North Jersey Media Group.


I left messages on answering machines, but reached only one of them. He hung up on me. A second juror's husband said she was upset by my message, and didn't want to talk. A woman who sounded like the mother of a third juror said she didn't know when he would be returning.

I was more interested in their interpretation of the evidence I had presented than in their deliberations.

When I covered state and federal courts in New Jersey as a reporter, I recall contacting jurors after trials or interviewing them on courthouse steps. But now, one of the jurors in my case was "upset" and wrote a letter to the judge. The judge then informed me in a letter faxed and mailed to my home that a court rule barred me -- a party to a lawsuit -- from contacting jurors without his permission. He asked me to come to court.
 
During a break in another jury trial today, Judge Joseph S. Conte ordered me to refrain from any further contact with jurors or face contempt of court charges. I said I was totally unaware of the rule. He said that reporters in New Jersey also are barred from contacting jurors.

NJMG's hired gun ($300 to $400 an hour) -- attorney Samuel J. Samaro, head of the employment practice at Pashman Stein in Hackensack -- also was in court. He continued his complaints about the "Eye on The Record" blog, which he used against me during the trial.

Samaro informed the judge that I had been blogging about the trial, and "blamed" him and the jurors for the unfavorable outcome April 9. He said I continued to use the blog "to punish" people I didn't like.  He also objected to my listing jurors' hometowns and occupations I gleaned in open court.

I replied that I was reporting what happened at a public trial, and didn't blame anyone for what happened. However, I did say in this blog I disagree with rulings that allowed Samaro to present evidence I felt was unduly prejudicial -- as he mounted a slash-and-burn defense that put me -- the pro se plaintiff -- on trial.


Samaro gives the impression he has never read a newspaper, and knows nothing of satire and critical journalism. He seems genuinely offended by my blog, and my criticism of The Record's editors and owners. He also portrays himself as a klutz when it comes to maintaining an automobile, and told me he hates to eat healthy. He certainly looks it.

Advisory on comments

Image by Ari Hahn via Flickr

I welcome your comments, as I have said before, but I will no longer publish any personal attacks or other mean-spirited sniping. If you want to bury yourself with your own words, you are welcome to do so. Just leave me out of it.

I have deleted or edited some of the comments published previously, and I'll feel free to reject any comment in the future -- especially the schoolmarmish ones that scold me for my manners and so forth.

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of anything anyone says in a comment.

Also, I am not interested in your interpretation of the Superior Court jury's verdict in the trial of my age-discrimination suit, the evidence or anything else. There is a strong New Jersey law against age discrimination, and I had a right to file suit and try the case to the best of my ability. 

I don't regret anything I did, and I am weighing an appeal of some of the judge's rulings that I objected to -- with the goal of winning a new trial.

The irrepressible Jennifer Borg

Place de La Sorbonne in Paris.

Image via Wikipedia

As the chief legal officer of North Jersey Media Group, defendant and witness, Jennifer A. Borg attended every day of the jury trial of my age-discrimination lawsuit. 


Her restrained "good morning" to me contrasted with her uninhibited conversation with NJMG's in-house lawyer, Dina L. Sforza, and its hired gun, Samuel J. Samaro of Pashman Stein in Hackensack.


Borg, 44, talked about children, her nephews and lots of other subjects. Eventually, she started talking to me about her Upper West Side lifestyle, the upscale food stores she patronizes, her husband's visa problems and more.


She asked me if I had a problem getting a visa for my wife after I met her in Jamaica, then recounted the long, expensive legal process of her husband's immigration to the U.S., and recommended the lawyer she used. 


When I asked where her husband is from, she said "Africa" -- twice. Later, she said he's from South Africa (probably not from Soweto). 


During this conversation, it never occurred to her to ask why The Record has never launched a project on the dysfunctional legal immigration system, which is responsible for a lot of illegal immigration. 


I recall telling Projects Editor Tim Nostrand in late 2003 that it took 16 months to get my stepson here from Jamaica and that the federal office in Newark had lost hundreds of files, forcing relatives and immigrants to start over again, and suggested we do series on legal immigration. He advised me to write an op-ed piece.


I knew Jennifer Borg had led a life of privilege before she took the witness stand (you can hear it in her accent). But when I asked her to tell the jury "briefly" about the schools she attended, she rattled off a half-dozen degree and non-degree programs, including law school and "the Sorbonne in Paris." Hearing that, I looked at the jurors, but none reacted visibly. 


At her second deposition, conducted by my attorney, she was unrestrained in condemning my behavior and work performance at The Record, talking on and on in a scolding tone. 


But even though she had sworn to tell the truth, she distorted many things and gave the wrong year for my probationary period -- she said 1985; it was 1995. It was clear she was trying to smear me.


In front of the jury, she was far more restrained. She said she was mistaken about 1985.


Her younger brother, Stephen A. Borg, 41, had testified first. 


After they finished, I felt the jury understood how neither Borg was "minding the store" -- the newsroom. 


I hoped the jurors felt as I did that the Borgs were merely two spoiled siblings working for their multimillionaire father who paid no attention to who was hired and who was promoted, and whether the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing editors -- notably Frank Scandale, Deirdre Sykes and Barbara Jaeger -- were complying with company policy condemning age-discrimination and sexual harassment. 


The younger Borg, NJMG's president and publisher, testified that he never approached me or spoke to Human Resources after he learned I had filed a lawsuit. The employee manual says the president is obligated to investigate any such charges. 


He also testified he did nothing when he received my April 4, 2008, e-mail alleging mistreatment of older workers -- except send it to his big sister for inclusion in a final, written warning given to me April 9, 2008.


Stephen Borg, who wore a suit and tie for his courtroom appearance, also told the jury the only thing experience gets you at The Record is more vacation -- almost exactly what his father said to me many years before.


Company patriarch Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg appeared in the courtroom last Friday, the morning of the verdict. Jennifer Borg wouldn't allow him to answer when I asked what he thought of the photo The Record published the day before, showing a woman making an obscene gesture.


"I don't know when you're Victor Sasson and when you're a blogger," she said. 


Both Jennifer and "Mac" Borg rushed out of the courtroom after the jurors were polled on their  verdict, which rejected my age-discrimination and retaliation claims. 


I didn't get a chance to tell them I am down, but not out.