Borgs have returned to Hackensack as the Fourth Edition

The former headquarters of The Record at 150 River Street in Hackensack are expected to be torn down after the Borg family sell 19.7 acres to an apartment developer. The city has already designated the land for redevelopment. The old staff entrance is shown above.

The bus shelter, left, was supposed to be used by employees after smoking was banned inside the building.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

After selling North Jersey Media Group to Gannett for a reported $40 million in July, the Borg family have formed a new company and returned to Hackensack, where their flagship paper, The Record, was headquartered until 2009.

The new company, Fourth Edition, retained the pension and retirement funds, and starting this month, pension checks were issued under its name.

Little else is known about the company, including its address in Hackensack.

The Borgs still own 19.7 acres along River Street in Hackensack that are expected to fetch $20 million to $30 million when sold to an apartment developer.

The property is held by Macromedia Inc., according to city tax records.

The privately held Macromedia was set up in 1921.

Front pages

From the looks of Page 1 today and Friday, Editor Deirdre Sykes and her minions started their Labor Day weekend on Thursday.

This coming Tuesday, Sykes will be replaced by one of Gannett's super editors after only seven months in the job, and will assume what the company calls "a new leadership position in the newsroom."

Healthy eating

Readers who watch their weight and cholesterol might question why the entire Better Living cover today promotes the grilling of artery clogging food, including pork ribs, Chinese long beans with butter and chicken with sour cream (BL-1).

Meanwhile, the only healthy recipe -- for grilled catfish -- appears on BL-3.

Friday's paper

Below the fold on Friday, two stories explore attempts to right historic wrongs.

Three Korean men rode their bikes across the country to Palisades Park to "honor" women who were sexually enslaved by the Japanese army before and during World War II.

Next to that story on Friday's A-1, The Associated Press reported Georgetown University will give preference in admissions to descendants of slaves the Jesuit-run institution sold.

Keystone Kops

Thanks to all of those shopping centers, Paramus homeowners pay some of the lowest property taxes in Bergen County.

But in terms of police protection, residents are getting shafted, according to a shocking story on Friday's Local front.

Staff Writer Melanie Anzidei reports that police apparently have thrown up their hands over "a spike in residential burglaries."

On Thursday, Deputy Chief Robert M. Guidetti issued yet another "alert" to residents and gave them advice on how to protect their homes, such as locking doors and windows "when away or while sleeping."

Seventeen residential burglaries were reported since January, but 13 of them occurred between May and August.

Wacko Trump labeled a racist by everyone but news media

Hackensack officials have agreed to store artifacts and other items from the New Jersey Naval Museum until the USS Ling is relocated. Now, the museum's artifacts are displayed on North Jersey Media Group property at the old River Street headquarters of The Record, where the World War II sub is tied up.

The gangway to the submarine, and other artifacts. The museum is closed and tours of the sub are suspended. The Ling is stuck in the mud of the Hackensack River.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump's tirades against Mexicans and Muslims made it clear the billionaire was just another white racist.

Yet, the news media likes to say Trump represents millions of "angry white men."

Of course, we know his supporters are racists who blame their problems on hard-working immigrants instead of the greedy corporations who have sent millions of their jobs overseas. 

Why have the news media -- including The Record of Woodland Park -- generally avoided calling him a racist even as Hispanic cooks in Manhattan's best restaurants are spitting in his food? 

'Novice' or racist?

On Wednesday's front page, the first paragraph of an Associated Press story identified Trump as a "political novice," and that was echoed Thursday night on the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley. 

A Record editorial on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee ran down in great detail his insults to Mexicans, and his pledges to deport 11 million illegal immigrants and ban all Muslims from entering the country ("GOP at the abyss" on Thursday's A-12).

Editor or hack?

But Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin never calls Trump what everyone else knows he is -- a racist and white supremacist.

Even in his opinion column on A-13 today, Doblin refuses to label Trump a racist for his Cinco de Mayo posts on Twitter and Facebook.

A news story today reports the Latino Victory Fund released a statement that said:

"Donald Trump is doubling down on his racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Latino and anti-Mexican rhetoric."

But hacks at The Associated Press made sure to undercut the validity of that statement by describing the Latino fund as "a left-leaning political group" (A-4).

Donald Trump with big sister Maryanne Trump Barry, a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. She was nominated as a federal district judge in Newark by President Reagen in 1983, and appointed to the appeals court in 1999 by President Clinton.

Media made Trump

Much of Trump's support is rooted in the slavish media reporting every one of his hateful words in a presidential campaign we grew tired of months ago.

The editors of The Record only seem interested in stirring up controversy, not exploring issues and reporting on what would be good for New Jersey and the nation.

In covering Governor Christie since he took office in early 2010, editors and columnists have focused relentlessly on politics -- instead of issues and policies.

So, it's no surprise The Record remains the only major New Jersey daily that hasn't called on Christie to resign after he dropped out of the race and threw his support to Trump.

Today's paper

On the last workday of one of the dreariest weeks in memory, Editor Deirdre Sykes finally produces a Page 1 weather story (A-1).

And why is "vaping" dominating the front page instead of an environmental story on New York City imposing a 5-cent charge for using a disposable plastic grocery bag -- a fee that New Jersey certainly could use (A-3)?

Senior citizens

On the Local front today, Staff Writer Colleen Diskin has a rare report on senior citizens who aren't institutionalized (L-1).

Sykes and other newsroom staffers have been treating seniors like shit for decades -- stories on autism have been far more numerous than those on Alzheimer's disease.

Road Warrior John Cichowski continues to ignore the challenges facing older drivers like himself -- even as "pedal confusion" leads them to plow into pedestrians and storefronts, often with fatal consequences.

And the food editors promote mystery meat and artery clogging desserts as if they expect their older readers to live forever.

Hackensack news?

Staff Writer John Seasly covered Tuesday night's meeting of the Hackensack City Council, but wrote only one story -- yet another report on who is leading the Police Department.

Seasly didn't mention the council approved a resolution to store artifacts from the New Jersey Naval Museum until the USS Ling is relocated from North Jersey Media Group property at the old headquarters of The Record in Hackensack.

The Record hasn't reported whether the newspaper's owners, the Borg family, will pay for the relocation of the World War II submarine, which is stuck in the mud of the Hackensack River.

The Borgs, NJMG and The Record abandoned Hackensack in 2009 after prospering there for more than 110 years -- dealing a death blow to many Main Street merchants.

Now, with the blessing of the City Council, the Borgs plan to sell their 19.7 acres aong River Street to an apartment developer, and laugh all the way to the bank.

Lead in fountains

Saddle Brook is the latest district to turn off school drinking fountains where "unacceptably high levels of lead" were found (L-6).

Hackensack residents haven't seen a similar story reporting on lead levels in drinking fountains used by their children in what is the biggest school district in Bergen County. 

Mystery BBQ

Staff Writer Elisa Ung raves about a glazed doughnut stuffed with barbecued beef, bacon and cheese, but doesn't tell readers whether the meat is the cheap, low-quality stuff of unknown origin usually found in Korean restaurants.

Her 3-star Informal Dining review of Kimchi Smoke BBQ Shack in Bergenfield is long on mindless promotion and short on the information readers need to stay healthy (BL-16). 

Production editor misses bad headline, reporting errors

Utility work, such as this project at Passaic and Main streets in Hackensack on Nov. 24, has kept residents guessing which streets will be closed next. Meanwhile, after the work is finished, most of the streets are crudely patched, ensuring a rough ride for drivers.

Editor's note: This post has been revised to reflect yet another major error on Page 1, this one in a sports brief. As a reader in Hackensack notes, Rutgers University's football team lost to Maryland, not Nebraska. See comments section at end of post.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record's front page today explores how special interests have made a mockery of efforts to control guns and provide more mass transit in North Jersey.

But all of the jawboning from lawmakers and experts assembled by Staff Writer Christopher Maag and Columnist Mike Kelly will do little to advance those goals (A-1).

Meanwhile, below the fold, so-called commuting Columnist John Cichowski continues to ignore the lack of rush-hour seats on trains and buses, and Governor Christie's state-aid cuts, which forced NJ Transit to raise fares and cut service (A-1).

Those three stories or columns are simply way too long for time-pressed readers, and seem intended to fill space more than anything else.

Errors mount

Glaring errors in Maag's lead story today (A-1), and a bad headline on Saturday's front page have readers wondering how six-figure Production Editor Liz Houlton, and the supervisors of the copy desk keep their jobs.

In Maag's first two paragraphs today, meetings in May 1928 and November 2015 are said to be "86 years" apart, but if anyone bothered to do the arithmetic, they are actually 87.5 years apart.

Also on the front page, a photo caption is wrong in saying the tracks in Englewood shown in the photo are "unused." 

On the continuation page (A-12), Maag is incorrect is calling one line the New York Susquehanna & Erie railroad.

As readers can see from the graphic on the same page, it's the New York Susquehannah & Western.

And at one point, Maag says NJ Transit trains run "as far east" as Lake Hopatcong when he should have written "as far west."

The many errors in Maag's story also were apparent to reader Michael Keen, who commented on North Jersey.com:

"So many errors in this article. Tracks in Englewood are not unused, just not used for passenger service. The 1928 plan "envisioned trains running from Englewood to Jersey City?" Like they had already been doing for decades? The New York, Susquehanna and Erie? Not Western? Today, NJ Transit runs trains "as far east as Lake Hopatcong?" That's how far west they run. The "section" of the NYS&W between Paterson and Hackensack has no electricity? Neither does any other section of that line."

Bad headline

On Saturday's front page, The Record's annual story on Black Friday shopping appeared under a puzzling headline:

Spreading the wealth

The word "wealth" doesn't appear anywhere in the story, and readers must have been puzzled over just whose "wealth" was being spread and to whom.

North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, certainly hasn't been spreading any "wealth," judging from a freeze on newsroom raises that has been effect for several years.

Political appointee

On the Local front today, a story on Joanne M. Cimiluca doesn't explore how Bergen County's acting director of economic development was able to move with ease between a government job and private industry (Montvale-based Mercedes-Benz), and back (L-1).

Can taxpayers really afford to pay this political appointee $121,182 a year, with little or no evidence in the story that she succeeded in advancing economic development when she first held the job from November 2006 to July 2010?

That is especially galling in Hackensack, where hundreds of millions of dollars in untaxed Bergen County property unfairly shifts the burden onto homeowners.

Hackensack Council race wasn't over when fat guy sang

After mail-in ballots were counted, businessman Jason W. Some, right, lost the Hackensack City Council seat that he appeared to have won on Tuesday. (Photo credit: Hackensack Scoop)

At the Sept. 1 meeting, Some was seated at right, next to Councilman David Sims. Some was appointed to the seat in April after Councilwoman Rose Greenman resigned.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Teacher's assistant Deborah Keeling-Geddis turns out to be the winner in Tuesday's special Hackensack City Council election, upsetting incumbent Jason W. Some.

Keeling-Geddis received 92 votes on mail-in ballots, bringing her total to 803 and winning her a single unexpired term on the governing body, the Bergen County Clerk's Office said this morning.

Some, an appointee who ran with the backing of Mayor John Labrosse and other council members, had a total of 774 votes when mail-in ballots were counted.

School board President Jason S. Nunnermacker received a total of 746 votes -- the second time he lost a bid for the council, which he has been assailing since reformers prevailed in the May 2013 election.

Richard L. Cerbo, son of a former mayor, trailed with a total of 261 votes, including mail-in ballots.

When unofficial results from voting machines were released on Tuesday a little before 10 p.m., Some was the top vote-getter with 724 votes, edging out Keeling-Geddis with 711 votes.

Today's paper

On Page 1 today, The Record lists all of the problems the state Legislature's bigger Democratic majority faces after Tuesday's election, but soft pedals Governor Christie's role in creating them.

After covering the GOP bully since early 2010 and reporting on his 400-plus vetoes, the editors still feel compelled to politicize the problems, putting words of criticism into the mouth of a Democratic leader, Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto of Secaucus:

Election results just show "the constituents in the state of New Jersey that the Democrats are who they trust and who they want to lead the middle class that's been crushed under this administration" (A-1).

Breaking mall news

At North Jersey Media Group, publisher of The Record, money talks, especially revenue from the paper's biggest advertisers.

Today, in return for all that moola, the Borg family gives The Shops at Riverside in Hackensack front-page billing for plans to open a luxury zone for "25 high-end fashion brands."

The multi-million dollar makeover apparently is intended to lure the wealthy away from the luxury wing at Garden State Plaza in nearby Paramus.

Those upscale shops often resemble a ghost town, with store employees standing around gossiping or staring vacantly out of display windows.

Local news?

Today's Local is a heady mix of election and police news, with two pages of death notices followed by two pages of unofficial town-by-town results in local and school board races.

On L-9, a photo caption incorrectly describes Tesla's Model S four-door hatchback as "all electronic." That should be "all electric."

Page 1 goes tabloid on robbery of builder tied to Borgs

Hackensack will lose Costco Wholesale on South River Street after a bigger warehouse store opens next month in the Teterboro Landing Shopping Center. This is how the Teterboro Costco looked last Friday.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Would you look at the hysterical woman in the photo centerpiece on Page 1 of The Record today.

That's not all, as readers find out if they turn to the full story and more photos of the suspects and their lawyers (L-1 and L-6).

The woman and two men, including the father of her son, are being held in the 2013 home invasion and robbery of Fred Daibes in his luxury Edgewater penthouse.

"Tuesday was the plea cutoff date for the four defendants in the case," which is alleged to have been an inside job, Staff Writer Peter J. Sampson reports.

Why is this procedural court hearing on A-1 today?

That may have something to do with Daibes, a developer who once proposed to build apartments on 19.7 acres North Jersey Media Group owns in Hackensack, site of The Record's old headquarters.

Of course, the story is silent on Daibes' relationship to the Borg family, which controls NJMG.

Woman hit by car

Another front-page story today seems to gloss over the actions of the driver who struck Jo-Ann Hans, 60, a Bergenfield crossing guard who was helping worshipers around 8 a.m. on the second day of the Jewish new year (A-1).

"On Tuesday night, she was unconscious and on life support in a hospital bed," The Record reports.

But the identity of driver and the charges against him don't appear until deep on the continuation page (A-8).

That's also where readers find complaints about speeders, the reason a crossing guard was needed in the first place on New Bridge Road and Westminster Avenue.

"Pedestrians mean nothing," Shimmy Stein is quoted as saying.

Stein, chairman of Bergenfield's zoning board, was referring to drivers, but his observation also can be applied to local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza.

Editors bury obituary of labor leader who served Clinton

A TIGHT SQUEEZE: Hackensack Fire Department's Engine 5 taking the sun this week outside a Main Street firehouse that would be at home in New Mexico.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Borg family's North Jersey Media Group isn't a big fan of unions, which never succeeded in organizing pressmen, truckers or any other employees at The Record, its flagship.

This anti-labor sentiment is evident in news and business stories dealing with union contracts and negotiations, and today, readers suspect it has something to do with the placement of an obituary.

We have to wade through all manner of crap on Page 1 and the Local front before seeing the story -- deep in the Local section -- on longtime labor leader Ray Bramucci, 80, a Pompton Plains resident who served President Clinton, former Gov. Jim Florio and onetime U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley (L-6).

Non-fatal crashes

In fact, there is so little legitimate news in the paper today the desperate editors are running three gee-whiz crash photos of a small plane in a field and cars into storefronts (A-1, L-1 and L-3).

On the front page, Editor Martin Gottlieb runs two sports or sports-related columns and a news stories, including a stale report on a "spring" crime spree.

Also on A-1, Gottlieb is running another major story on a woman who won't accept a hospital's declaration that her son, Michael "Mikey" LaVecchia, is brain dead.

However, this time, the editors don't repeat the preposterous claim that this case has triggered a "debate" on when life has ended, as they did in a Page 1 story on Aug. 20.

'Nation of bigots'

In a letter to the editor today, Johnnie Najarian of River Edge makes a veiled reference to Governor Christie's controversial proposal to use FedEx package technology to track immigrants who overstay their visas (A-16).

"We even have a statue in New York Harbor that reaches out to the world and says, 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free'?

"We are free, aren't we? Or have become a nation of bigots, wall builders and trackers?"

To answer her question, the despicable Christie, Donald Trump and other prominent Republican presidential hopefuls are the "bigots, wall builders and trackers."

Local news?

Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza continue to fill their thin local-news section with court, police, accident and other Law & Order stories (L-1, L-2, L-3, L-5 and L-6).

The duo also are running a long story on a special City Council election in Clifton (L-6), even though they have yet to publish a single word about the candidates in a special Nov. 3 election for a seat on the Hackensack City Council.

See L-8 today for a rare reference to "acting Governor Guadagno."

Just when we thought governance was at a standstill while Christie spends more than half the year out of state in his doomed bid for the White House.

Organic dining

Here's an eye-opener from restaurant critic Elisa Ung in her appraisals today of two casual spots, Mood 'wiches in Fort Lee and Food Evolution in Montvale:

"Organic vegetables, grass-fed beef, antibiotic-free chicken and eggs: sounds like the ingredients of a fine-dining restaurant (BL-14)."

If that's the case, why doesn't Ung review more fine-dining restaurants that serve organic beef and other food, putting patrons' health above profits, as the Fort Lee and Montvale spots do?

And why does she consistently give top ratings to steakhouses and other fine-dining restaurants that charge high prices for additive-filled beef and other low-quality ingredients?

Finally, the dessert-obsessed reviewer's 2-star ratings  of Mood 'wiches and Food Evolution are puzzling.

Isn't healthy, nutritious food "worth the drive from anywhere in North Jersey" and the top 3-star rating?

Editor says publisher's pal tipped paper on Bridgegate jam

Drivers of three municipal waste tractor-trailers taking a break in front of a cemetery on Hudson Street in Hackensack on Sunday afternoon.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On an episode of Carpe Diem, Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record praised staffers -- several by name -- and said that despite "our share of cutbacks," "the quality of the product comes first."

Gottlieb appeared on the weekly half-hour magazine show produced by Montclair State University some time before indictments were issued in the George Washington Bridge political-retribution scandal on May 1.

The editor praised "traffic reporter" John Cichowski, but noted a friend tipped Publisher Stephen A. Borg about a massive traffic jam at the Fort Lee end of the bridge on the first day of the lane closures in September 2013.

Borg "passed it on to me and I passed it on to Johnnie," Gottlieb said, referring to the Road Warrior columnist.

Borg family

Gottlieb noted the Borg family, owners of North Jersey Media Group, "still live in Bergen County."

Chairman Malcolm A. "Mac" Borg visits the Woodland Park newsroom occasionally, and everyone wants to hear what he has to say, the editor said.

He praised Jennifer A. Borg, vice president/general counsel of North Jersey Media Group, for being active in asking courts to disclose documents officials are trying to keep secret.

The newsroom, he said, is filled with "awfully talented people," including Port Authority reporter Shawn Boburg, political Columnist Charles Stile, Sunday Cartoonist Jimmy Margulies and Alfred Doblin, editor of the Editorial Page.

Gottlieb didn't mention Columnist Mike Kelly.

To see the interview with Gottlieb -- whom the moderator called "one of the most influential journalists in the region" -- click on the following link:

Carpe Diem: Editor Martin Gottlieb of The Record

Today's paper

Five years after his first column on Governor Christie's political image, could Stile possibly have anything new to say (A-1)?

One has to question Gottlieb's judgment on what readers find interesting. Politics is the all-time most boring subject for the front page -- or any page -- of a general-interest newspaper.

The focus should be on what a crappy job the GOP bully is doing as governor of the Garden State, not on his chances for the presidential nomination in 2016.

'Traffic reporter'

For his Sunday column, Cichowski, the paper's traffic reporter, is writing about bicyclists and how much room drivers should give them (L-1).

For the third day in a row, Memorial Day notices appear on L-3, telling readers local Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza must have taken a three-day weekend.

Junk-food trucks

Restaurant critic and Sunday Columnist Elisa Ung is tireless in reporting on the unhealthiest food available in North Jersey.

Today, she leads the Better Living section with a breathless column on a food-truck festival produced by Exposure, a division of NJMG, the publishing company that employs her and pays for all of those artery clogging desserts she crams down her throat (BL-1).

It's hard to understand her enthusiasm for food-truck hot dogs filled with antibiotics, preservatives and other harmful additives.


Other sections

Business, Opinion and Real Estate contain little of interest today.

Travel carries an Associated Press cover story praising the charms of Dominica and Barbados, two small Caribbean islands.

Meanwhile, Jamaican-American readers in Bergen County are wondering when the AP or any other American news medium is going to report on their native island's rampant gun violence.

Every Jamaican living in the United States knows someone on the island who has been robbed or killed by "gunmen" armed with weapons shipped there from America. 

More bad news: Christie says he's the new Reagan

On West Passaic Street in Maywood, two trees appear to have been trimmed by passing NJ Transit buses and trucks.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Do you remember President Ronald Reagan's "trickle-down" economics?

Reagan's two terms in office (1981-89) seemed like an eternity to many Americans, who believe he was the worst president we ever had until George W. Bush took office.

As a reporter for The Record, I was assigned to do a story on Reagan's budget cuts, and my Page 1 story detailed how he had slashed social programs for minority children, among others.

Now, Governor Christie has "compared himself to Ronald Reagan," The Record reports in a Page 1 column today on the GOP bully's TV appearances on Sunday.

Reporting every fart

It looks like The Record has committed itself to chronicling Christie's every word, every fart and every mean-spirited act, and to spinning them for what they mean for his presidential aspirations in  2016.

That election is three long years away, and if Christie actually gets the nomination, he faces certain defeat at the hands of Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Reader weighs in

Reader David B. Simpson of Tenafly is already sick of all the space The Record is devoting to its "endless speculation about Governor Christie's presidential ambitions and the prospects of his success" (Your Views, A-13).

Instead, Simpson says, The Record's "journalistic function" is to provide "a genuine factual  inquiry into the performance of Christie in office as to whether he really is accomplishing what he claims."

Take a hike

Hey, Simpson, don't you know Editor Marty Gottlieb and his gang of Christie-loving columnists and reporters don't give a shit what you think? 

And you have a nerve telling Gottlieb and the Borg family how to perform their "journalistic function."

Simpson voted for Christie, but bemoans the governor's "one-shot gimmicks to close budget gaps, and his willingness to subsidize public projects with extensive public money, such as in the case of the failing casinos of Atlantic City and the monstrous Xanadu project in the Meadowlands [American Nightmare]."

"You owe it to the people of New Jersey, and the nation, to provide an unvarnished portrait  of Christie's tenure in office, identifying both successes and failures," Simpson's letter says.

Don't hold your breath.

Hackensack mystery

For Veterans Day, the front page also carries a story about 1st Lt. Raymond Sachtleben, a World War II pilot from Hackensack whose B-24 bomber crashed in an English village in 1944.

The cause of his death was shrouded in mystery until villagers, a researcher in New Jersey and Hackensack High School students worked together on a memorial and a Web site (A-1 and A-8).

Clueless readers, including a boater, continue to consult Road Warrior John Cichowski on MVC rules and regulations, apparently unaware he has lost it completely (L-1).

Restaurant focus

Better Living's cover story reports on children who followed their parents into the restaurant industry (BL-1).

Issues faced by restaurant goers -- including service, tipping, rising prices and the quality of the food served by restaurants -- continue to be largely ignored.

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

Stephen Borg is fingered as 'the real problem'

Publisher Stephen A. Borg in an undated image from a Web site called "Who Needs Newspapers?"

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Here is an eye-opening comment from an anonymous source about Publisher Stephen A. Borg, who just fired Editor Francis "Frank" Scandale:

"[Frank] Scandale may have been spineless and a poor leader. But you should know that the real problem at The Record is [Publisher] Stephen Borg, who personally dictates what beats the paper will cover, which stories will be written and how they will be written. 

 "Every important story is personally word edited by Borg. Any story that affects his wealthy friends is killed. 

"Even as we speak, Bergen County Executive Kathe Donovan is asking local officials to approve potentially risky PILOT bonds to finance the Xanadu shopping mall.  

"The plan is being pushed by her former campaign strategist, a lobbyist named Alan C. Marcus. At the same time Marcus is advising Donovan about this huge and costly project he is also working as a paid consultant for Triple Five, the developer who is now behind the Xanadu mall and stands to benefit if Donovan approves the financing scheme. 

"A conflict of interest? In Stephen Borg's world, Marcus' involvement on both ends of this deal is not even worth a story. I am told by sources at The Record that Marcus talks on an almost daily basis with the Borg family and had this story killed. 

"Marcus was also instrumental in pushing county reporter Mike Gartland off the county beat because Gartland tried to write stories exploring Donovan's policies, including the fact that Marcus' role in controlling access to the new executive. 

"Gartland, an extraordinary reporter, has now quit and is headed for the NY Post. The Record may have many problems, but none is more frightening than a publisher whose willful ignorance and bullyism has frozen the staff and instilled terror in editors whose daily decisions are overriden."